The White House said trade adviser Peter Navarro did not go through the usual clearance process with his opinion piece that attacked Dr. Anthony Fauci.
“The Peter Navarro op-ed didn’t go through normal White House clearance processes and is the opinion of Peter alone,” Alyssa Farah, the White House director of strategic communications, tweeted Wednesday morning. “@realDonaldTrump values the expertise of the medical professionals advising his Administration.”
The Peter Navarro op-ed didn’t go through normal White House clearance processes and is the opinion of Peter alone. @realDonaldTrump values the expertise of the medical professionals advising his Administration.
— Alyssa Farah (@Alyssafarah) July 15, 2020
Navarro wrote in his op-ed, which was published in USA Today on Tuesday, that Fauci has been wrong on every topic they have ever discussed. Fauci is a member of the White House coronavirus task force and one of the country’s leading experts on infectious diseases.
“When you ask me whether I listen to Dr. Fauci’s advice, my answer is: only with skepticism and caution,” Navarro wrote.
In relation to the coronavirus pandemic, Navarro claimed Fauci was “flip-flopping” on the effectiveness of masks and discouraged the push to bar flights from China, “which might well have saved hundreds of thousands of American lives.”
He also accused Fauci of downplaying the threat of the virus at the outset of the outbreak.
The White House has sought to criticize Fauci over his messaging on the coronavirus pandemic amid reports that President Trump is spooked by the infectious disease expert’s high approval ratings.
Over the weekend, the president’s aides released to the media a list of comments made by Fauci early in the coronavirus pandemic in an effort to discredit him as Trump has now prioritized reopening the economy.
The president retweeted a message from former game show host and Trump supporter Chuck Woolery, who said Democrats, doctors, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are all lying about the virus in an effort to hurt Trump’s chances of being reelected.
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany assured reporters later in the day that the two have a “very good working relationship.”
More than 3 million people in the United States have been infected by the coronavirus, and nearly 140,000 people have died. In recent weeks, some states have seen spikes in cases, especially in the Southern region, prompting local and state officials to halt and even roll back their plans to reopen.
Fauci urged the public in an interview on Tuesday to trust “respected medical authorities” during the pandemic.
