“People are tired of COVID. Yup, there’s going to be spikes, there’s going to be no spikes, there’s going to be vaccines. With or without vaccines, people are tired of COVID,” Trump said on the private call that was open to a few reporters, according to Forbes.
“I have the biggest rallies I have ever had and we have COVID. People are saying whatever, just leave us alone. They’re tired of it.” Then Trump, referring to Fauci added: “He’s been here for 500 years. People are tired of hearing Fauci and all these idiots.”
Trump said he would fire Fauci except for the negative press, telling his campaign staffers that it’s a “bomb” every time Fauci appears on TV, but firing him would be a “bigger bomb.”
“If there’s a reporter on, you can have it just the way I said it, I couldn’t care less,” Trump said, per CNN. Thurmp then declared the country was ready to move on from the health disaster, even as cases are again spiking and medical experts warn the worst may be yet to come.
Trump zeroed in on how Fauci and other public health experts changed their position on mask usage early in the pandemic after more concrete evidence emerged showing face coverings could help in stopping the spread of the coronavirus. Trump again brought up the claim that Fauci had disagreed with his decision to ban travel from China, despite Fauci publicly agreeing with him, reports The Hill.
Trump made the call from his namesake hotel in Las Vegas Monday morning, where he spent two nights amid a western campaign swing – speaking on a conference call to about 2,000 campaign staffers and a number of reporters.
Trump fumes as Fauci gets rewarded
While Trump was laying into Dr. Fauci on the telephone, at about the same time, Dr. Fauci was being awarded the National Academy of Medicine’s first-ever Presidential Citation for Exemplary Leadership during a virtual ceremony. Fauci said that he was “speechless” while receiving the recognition.
Dr. Fauci while accepting award from National Academy of Medicine:
“We have a lot of challenges ahead of us, and I can't help thinking that we're really going through a time that's disturbingly anti-science in certain segments of our society. That’s very troublesome to me.” pic.twitter.com/uImLE3J8jF
— NBC News (@NBCNews) October 19, 2020
On receiving the award, Dr. Fauci said: “I can’t help thinking that we’re going through a time that’s disturbingly anti-science in certain segments of our society.”
Many lawmakers, on both sides of the aisle, came to Fauci’s defense after Trump’s disparaging remarks were made public today. The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) backed Fauci in a Monday afternoon statement as “one of our country’s most distinguished public servants.”
And Trump has succeeded in stirring up a hornet’s nest today, and it could be due to his tweet about Fauci getting more TV time than he deserves, according to Trump, anyway.
