During a portion of an interview with the Fox News Channel that took place on Monday and was aired on Tuesday’s broadcast of “Special Report,” 2024 Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump said he didn’t fire Dr. Anthony Fauci because he couldn’t, “but I wouldn’t let that usually get in my way,” but he didn’t spend a lot of time with Fauci anyway. Trump also stated that 2024 rival, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) “loved Fauci.”
Trump said [relevant remarks begin around 10:15] that DeSantis “had lines of people trying to get the vaccine. He set up whole things.” And “Ron DeSantis loved Fauci.”
Host Bret Baier responded, “Sure. But you didn’t fire him, you listened to him, you kept him on.”
Trump responded, “You’re not actually allowed to fire him, but I wouldn’t let that usually get in my way, it’s one of those things. But I never spent a lot of time with Fauci. Who did is Biden. Fauci became very powerful under Biden. … Remember, Fauci was the one that said, don’t close it to China. I closed it to China. Fauci, believe it or not, was totally anti-mask and then he became a radical masker. But on the vaccines, so, the mandates are horrible, and I was always against the mandates. But really, on the vaccines, I let the governors make their decisions. But you have a lot of people that love the vaccines, I mean, you do. They happen to be more Democrat than they are Republican. You have a lot of people, there are people that say I saved 100 million lives. I don’t even talk about it.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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