Former President Donald Trump reacted to new interviews from federal health officials Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Deborah Birx on Monday, criticizing them both for their failures during the coronavirus pandemic.
The former president said in a statement Monday both Fauci and Birx were “two self-promoters trying to reinvent history to cover for their bad instincts and faulty recommendations.”
Trump described Fauci as the “king of flip-flops” accusing him of repeatedly changing his recommendations to make himself look better.
He noted Fauci changed his recommendation on masks during the pandemic and opposed him on his travel ban on China. Trump also ridiculed Fauci’s terrible opening pitch at the Washington Nationals opener in 2020, calling it a “roller.”
He said Fauci unfairly tried to take credit for the rapid development of the vaccine, accusing him of being “incapable” of putting pressure on the Food and Drug Administration to get it approved.
“I was the one to get it done, and even the fake news media knows and reports this,” Trump said.
Trump also criticized Fauci’s leadership at the National Institutions of Health after the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease awarded a $3.4 million grant to EcoHealth Alliance which hired the virology lab in Wuhan to study bat coronaviruses.
“Fauci spent U.S. money on the Wuhan lab in China — and we now know how that worked out,” Trump wrote.
Dr. Birx said in the CNN interview that far more lives could have been saved if only coronavirus lockdowns had been enacted weeks earlier.
But Trump said it was Fauci and Birx who acted too slowly.
“Dr. Fauci and Dr. Birx moved far too slowly, and if it were up to them we’d currently be locked in our basements as our country suffered through a financial depression,” Trump said.
Birx also revealed in the CNN interview she had a “direct” and “uncomfortable conversation” with Trump after she gave an interview on CNN about the virus.
Trump denied her account.
“There was no ‘very difficult’ phone call, other than Dr. Birx’s policies that would have led us directly into a COVID-caused depression,” Trump wrote. “She was a very negative voice who didn’t have the right answers.”
He also noted Fauci frequently criticized Birx behind his back.
“Dr. Birx is a proven liar with very little credibility left,” he wrote. “Many of her recommendations were viewed as ‘pseudo-science,’ and Dr. Fauci would always talk negatively about her and, in fact, would ask not to be in the same room with her.”
Trump recalled that Birx was caught traveling with her extended family to a vacation property in Delaware, despite urging Americans not to gather with their extended family during the holidays in 2020.
“She then, embarrassingly for her, resigned,” Trump recalled.
The former president also acknowledged that he kept Fauci and Birx on, but appeared to regret the decision.
“Time has proven me correct,” he wrote. “I only kept Dr. Fauci and Dr. Birx on because they worked for the U.S. government for so long — they are like a bad habit!”
Read the full statement from Trump below:
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.