Fauci Fumes About Trump Campaign Ad: My ‘Comments Were Taken Out of Context’

The Trump grift continues with little regard for the stain and stench it may leave in its path. On Sunday, Dr. Anthony Fauci was forced to go public and denounce an ad from the Trump campaign that took the nation’s leading infectious disease expert’s words out of context.

Fauci told CNN the ad is deceptive. It shows a clip of the doctor appearing to endorse the president’s handling of the pandemic, but Fauci says the complimentary words he used were directed at “the efforts of federal public health officials” and not Trump himself.

“In my nearly five decades of public service, I have never publicly endorsed any political candidate. The comments attributed to me without my permission in the GOP campaign ad were taken out of context from a broad statement I made months ago about the efforts of federal public health officials,” Fauci said in a statement to CNN.

The farcical campaign ad includes boastful narration about Trump’s work on the virus saying he “rose to meet the challenge, protecting our seniors, getting them life-saving drugs in record time, sparing no expense.” Then the ad pivots to a video clip of Fauci from an interview with Fox News in March in which he says, “I can’t imagine that anybody could be doing more.”

CNN spoke to Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh who downplayed the doctor’s pushback, saying, “These are Dr. Fauci’s own words. The video is from a nationally broadcast television interview in which Dr. Fauci was praising the work of the Trump Administration. The words spoken are accurate, and directly from Dr. Fauci’s mouth.”

Meanwhile, although Trump is OK with using Fauci’s words out of context to further his cause, the president would not allow Fauci to speak for himself on ABC News’ This Week on Sunday.

According to host Jonathan Karl, the White House blocked Fauci from appearing on the network this morning. Karl told his audience that he was refused “any of the medical experts on the president’s own coronavirus task force to appear on this show.”

.@jonkarl: “(Dr. Fauci) was more than willing to join us, but the White House wouldn’t allow you to hear from the nation’s leading expert on coronavirus. In fact, they wouldn’t allow any of the medical experts on the president’s own coronavirus task force to appear on this show.” pic.twitter.com/qi9diTBQeb

— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) October 11, 2020

White House Communications Director Alyssa Farah quote tweeted Karl claiming his request for someone on the task force other than Fauci was not true. Karl shot back and told Farah that she was not being truthful and brought receipts in the form of an email supporting his version of events.

The truth matters. The requests for Dr. Fauci and the other members of the task force were made directly to you — multiple times. In this email, for example: https://t.co/fL6U1u1JNB pic.twitter.com/PQRr1DgG4t

— Jonathan Karl (@jonkarl) October 11, 2020