Deep in a profile and interview with Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Politico reports that GOP lawmakers would like Donald Trump to step back from commenting on the growing threat of the COVID-19 virus and let the experts do their jobs.
In his interview with Politico, the doctor who is fast becoming the face of the Trump administration's war on the virus, which includes keeping the public informed on the latest developments, admitted that he has to walk a fine line when it comes sharing information and keeping the president -- who has a vested interest in making people believe his administration has a handle on the situation -- happy.
“You should never destroy your own credibility. And you don't want to go to war with a president,” Fauci stated. “But you got to walk the fine balance of making sure you continue to tell the truth.”
“I don't think that we are going to get out of this completely unscathed,” he added. “I think that this is going to be one of those things we look back on and say boy, that was bad.”
Noting, "As the Trump administration scrambles to contain the fast-spreading infection and consolidate control under Vice President Mike Pence, Fauci's visibility has been subject to the vagaries of a president who wants to declare the outbreak under control," the report adds that Republicans want to hear more from health experts and less from Trump.
"Fauci has openly tempered expectations for a quick coronavirus vaccine — and an end to the epidemic — on the press conference stage with Trump, even as the president promised everything was under control and a vaccine would be ready soon," Politico reports. "Now even some Republicans are concerned that the president is underselling what some health officials have said is an inevitable worsening U.S. outbreak. And Fauci is who they want to hear from."
On Republican who went on the record was Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma, who pointedly told reporters, "If I'm buying real estate in New York, I'll listen to the president of the United States. If I'm asking about infectious diseases, I'm going to listen to Tony Fauci.”
Fauci also admitted that the increasingly partisan nature of Washington D.C. makes his job a lot harder.
“It's really, really tough because you have to be honest with the American public and you don't want to scare the hell out of them,” he explained. “And then other times, in attempts to calm people down, [leaders] have had people be complacent about it. This is particularly problematic in a ‘gotcha' town like Washington.”
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