Dr. Anthony Fauci contemplated becoming an adversary to President Donald Trump within days of the first confirmed coronavirus case reaching the United States, according to diary entries released by Senator Rand Paul ahead of Fauci’s scheduled congressional testimony.
The diary entries, published Saturday by the Kentucky Republican, offer a glimpse into Fauci’s thinking during the opening days of what would become a years-long pandemic. They show the former White House medical adviser considering how his public statements might be perceived by the president as early as January 22, 2020.
The timeline is striking: the first U.S. case of the novel coronavirus was reported on January 20, 2020, involving a man who had recently traveled from Wuhan, China, to Snohomish County, Washington. Just one day later, Fauci was already documenting the case and his media appearances discussing the emerging threat.
Early Media Appearances and a Question About Trump
By January 22, Fauci had conducted nine interviews with various media outlets about the spreading virus. In his diary entry for that day, he noted that the United States was implementing containment measures by routing travelers from Wuhan through five airports for screening: Chicago O’Hare, Atlanta, John F. Kennedy, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.
At that point, Fauci recorded that there were 400 reported cases worldwide and nine deaths. His entry also documented a moment during a Fox Business interview with David Asman that appeared to weigh on his mind.
According to the diary, a panel member asked Fauci to comment on a clip of Trump saying everything was under control, noting that Chinese President Xi Jinping had assured him of that fact. Fauci wrote that he responded by saying authorities were taking the situation “very seriously” and that Americans should not be frightened but should understand the seriousness of the response.
“Let us see if this pits me against the POTUS,” Fauci wrote in his diary that day.
Trump’s Response Defied Expectations
If Fauci anticipated a confrontation with the president over his early media comments, his later diary entries suggest that concern proved unfounded, at least initially. In an entry dated February 6, 2020, two weeks after his Fox Business appearance, Fauci described a notably warm interaction with Trump.
“When we walked in the POTUS was not yet in the room,” Fauci wrote. “When he walked in with Melania, the first thing he did was say, ‘Anthony, come here and say hello to Melania.'”
Fauci continued, noting that Trump then told the First Lady, in front of senior White House officials including Kellyanne Conway, Mick Mulvaney, and National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien, “that I was the smartest person in the world.” Fauci added that the praise came “to my embarrassment in front of everyone.”
Context of the Release
Senator Paul released the diary entries ahead of Fauci’s planned testimony before Congress on Wednesday. The Kentucky senator has been a frequent critic of Fauci’s handling of the pandemic and his public statements about COVID-19 policy.
The diaries provide a window into how quickly public health officials were grappling with the emerging pandemic and how aware they were of the political dimensions of their public communication. In those early days of January 2020, few could have predicted how the virus would reshape American life or how contentious the relationship between public health advisers and political leadership would become.
The entries show Fauci was acutely conscious of how his statements might be interpreted by the White House, even as he worked to communicate what he viewed as the appropriate level of concern to the American public through extensive media appearances.
Source: www.dailywire.com — https://www.dailywire.com/news/fauci-already-imagined-himself-as-trumps-adversary-in-january-2020