Former President Donald Trump said Wednesday that Dr. Anthony Fauci was not a “big player” in his administration and reiterated his position that he wasn’t “allowed” to fire the medical adviser.
“First of all, you’re not allowed,” Trump told Hugh Hewitt’s radio show when asked by the conservative host why he didn’t fire Fauci, the controversial head of Trump’s COVID-19 response team, which Hewitt called the “biggest knock” on Trump’s presidency.
“No, no, no, Dr. Fauci was there. First of all, he’s civil service, and you’re not allowed to fire him. But forget that because I don’t necessarily go by everything … but Dr. Fauci would tell me things, and I wouldn’t do them in many cases. But also, he wasn’t a big player in my administration. Dr. Fauci became a big player in the administration of Biden. He’s a very big player in Biden’s administration.”
Trump has consistently criticized Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, his closest opponent in the 2024 GOP presidential primary, for his response to the coronavirus pandemic and did so again in the interview with Hewitt by previewing what he would say to DeSantis if questioned during a debate about not firing Fauci.
“It’s so easy to respond,” Trump said. “He said he wouldn’t let anybody come in. He shut down his beaches. He shut down the entire state. He tries … he has a selective memory. He shut down. [Gov.] Henry McMaster didn’t shut down South Carolina. [Gov.] Kristi Noem didn’t shut down South Dakota.”
Trump continued, “He shut down Florida. It was tight as a drum. He had vax lines. He was vaxxing everything. Now, he talks about the vaccinations this and that.”
Trump added that DeSantis was “not in the category” of conservative governors who did a “good job” handling the coronavirus.
“By the way, just so you know, it sounds very negative, third-most in deaths from COVID? Unfortunately, Florida.” Trump said. “Florida was third-worst in deaths … that’s a horrible, that’s a horrible statistic. But that’s a statistic that sort of counts. Ron was the third-worst in terms of actual death from COVID. Ron is No. 3.”
The DeSantis campaign has argued that Florida was fully open in early May 2020 after implementing COVID restrictions in early April and has pointed to DeSantis banning mask and vaccine mandates along with gain-of-function mandates in the state.
Here’s a map of every state that has passed all of the following:
— Ban on state and local lockdowns
— Ban on state and local mask mandates
— Ban on state and local vaccine mandates
— Ban on gain-of-function research pic.twitter.com/K9RNJDCweP— DeSantis War Room 🐊 (@DeSantisWarRoom) September 5, 2023
After Florida reopened, Fauci continued to push mask and lockdown measures throughout Trump’s administration, including up until January 2021 as Trump was about to leave office when the White House COVID-19 Response Team encouraged Florida to push lockdown measures, a request to which DeSantis did not adhere.
Roughly a week later, Trump’s White House presented Fauci and others with “Presidential Commendations” for their work with Operation Warp Speed.
“Ron DeSantis is the only candidate in the race who stood up to DC bureaucrats and rejected their sham lockdowns and mandates,” Carly Atchison, national spokesperson for the DeSantis campaign, told Fox News Digital in response to Trump’s comments.
“Voters know only a President DeSantis would ensure America is never locked down again. Every other candidate has either already failed that test or is making a promise they can’t be trusted to keep.”
In a statement to Fox News Digital, Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said, “Lockdown Ron should look in the mirror and answer for closing down Florida businesses that didn’t practice social distancing while fighting to keep abortion clinics open.”
“He also refused to fire Florida’s Fauci,” Cheung added, a reference to former Palm Beach County Health Director Alina Alonso, while also directing Fox News Digital to a June post on the campaign website with the headline “Ron DeSantis’ Lying Record on COVID.”
Until Trump publicly denounces the vaccine I don’t care what his EXCUSES are.
I stopped believing anything out of that little lying rat prick Fauci’s mouth long ago.
Latest thing that enrages me is all of a sudden Ivermectin is approved for use.
When my Daughter got Covid, it couldn’t be found anywhere and no Dr. would touch it.
She suffered over 11 months with a trach in her throat and ventilator before she passed.
Our government is an inefficient snakepit and needs to be unplugged for a minute and plugged back in if it will cause it to realize that they work for US! They are there to represent US!
All the assholes do is throw money to the wind, lie and feed us bullshit while they sling mud at each other.
God help us.
Trump began Operation Warp Speed with passing the legislation of “Right to Try” which was stellar. He thought that doctors and patients, if a known possible treatment was found had the “Right to Try” something and not wait until it went through repeat clinical trials and then FDA approval for THAT DISEASE. So if a medication is used for GI distress, MS, Epilepsy, anti-Malaria, etc and a Physician has found that using it works on a large subset of patients; it may not be FDA-approved for COVID or CORONAVIRUS but what Trump wanted to do; in theory, was skip over the Big Pham company having to go through the 2-3 year process of having it tested and approved for use with COVID = for that = HUGE THank You to President Trump. However, the vile people in our population took advantage of what should have been a very straight forward process to finding something to STOP the coronavirus and instead it created BEASTS that could not be controlled: the FDA and CDC. ~ ~ My Neighbor in Hernando Cty was cited for eating at an outdoor hotdog stand – on his tailgate with a co-worker because the Deputy actually measured the width of the tailgate and found that the 2 workers were sitting less than 6′ apart. Hernando County also had a PASTOR of a Church arrested and hauled down to Pinellas County where he and his parishioners gathered the previous Sunday for mass. Ron DeSantis does have selective memory as Florida was nowhere near all of the restrictions of other States but there were PLENTY of RESTRICTIONS in Florida. What Ron did was – pass the decision making responsibilities to each County (can’t blame DeSantis then right?). My Husband lives in Hernando County but drive 49 miles each day to Palm Harbor – going thru 3-4 different Counties and everyone had their own rules & guidelines. It was a bear to deal with….feeling as if you were going between Communism, Socialism, Capitalism all within the same State. Some Counties were open and free, small businesses were doing Take Out; whereas some Counties were in lockdown mode and the shoppers lined up outside the Home Depot a foot apart (Home Depot nicely handed out bottles of cold water) – So we are all in this LONG line outside, and as people left the Store, then a person was permitted in. Once inside the Store, then they had the painted feet and arrows for directions up & down the aisle. But we were all just standing within INCHES of each other outside for 1 hr+. DeSantis was NO Saint during COVID. He also recommended a certain brand of Hand Sanitizer – shameful since it had less than 1/2 of the Isopropyl Alcohol and what he promoted wouldn’t kill any germ. He needs to admit his mistakes and he made HUNDREDS of them. Did everyone forget how many cruise ships were languishing at Sea, running out of food, with their sick bay completely full but no one, no Country would provide help to them or let them dock to off-load the passengers? Yeah, finally DeSantis did and found GLORY when he became a “Hero” for doing so and then all of a sudden, he began to do One-Offs to gain HERO status every once in a while. The State of Florida was NOT completely open – I live here, as does my 88 yo Father & husband and we were LOCKED down and reqd to wear masks up until 2023 (a few med offices STILL require them). Hospitals required them Fall/Winter 2022). My Husband had heart surgery December 2022, and they had to take your temperature, present your Driver’s License, wear a mask for ALL Visitors at Tampa General Hospital 3 yrs out from the start of COVID; so Ron was sworn into his 2nd term a month later but yet Hospitals where demanding Visitors comply with COVID Regulations a month after his re-election Nov 2022 and 1 month before his Inauguration Oath again…….. clearly Ron DeSantis campaign LIES…. He empowered each County so we had 67 different set of rules while Ron played games with Disney and other BIG things that would garner him NATIONAL Spotlight & Attention ~ free publicity prior to his Campaign….