White House slams Dr Fauci as one of ‘The Swamp’ after he criticizes Trump’s Covid-19 response

Dr Fauci said Joe Biden’s campaign is taking the coronavirus 'seriously from a public health perspective’

The White House has slammed Dr Anthony Fauci’s assessment that the US is poorly prepared for a Covid-19 winter.  

A spokesperson said Dr Fauci’s remarks in a recent interview were “unacceptable” and claimed the doctor made his “political leanings known by praising the president’s opponent – exactly what the American people have come to expect from The Swamp”.

This is the latest escalation in growing tensions between Donald Trump and the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Dr Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious diseases expert, said that the US was in a terrible position to face the upcoming months.

Speaking to The Washington Post on Friday, Dr Fauci said: “We’re in for a whole lot of hurt. It’s not a good situation.”

He added: “All the stars are aligned in the wrong place as you go into the fall and winter season, with people congregating at home indoors. You could not possibly be positioned more poorly.”

The doctor urged the country to adopt “abrupt change” in its handling of the coronavirus pandemic and in its public health practices and individual behaviours as winter nears.

Weighing in on the US election, Dr Fauci noted that the 2020 Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and his campaign message “is taking [covid] seriously from a public health perspective.”

He added that incumbent Mr Trump “is looking at it from a different perspective”– namely “the economy and reopening the country.”

Responding to the director’s interview, White House spokesman Judd Deere said: “It was unacceptable and breaking with all norms for Dr Fauci, a senior member of the President’s Coronavirus Taskforce and someone who has praised president Trump’s actions throughout this pandemic, to choose three days before an election to play politics.”

Mr Deere continued: “As a member of the Task Force, Dr Fauci has a duty to express concerns or push for a change in strategy, but he’s not done that, instead choosing to criticise the president in the media and make his political leanings known by praising the president’s opponent – exactly what the American people have come to expect from The Swamp.”

Fauci “has no confidence in the American people to make the best choice for themselves armed with CDC best practices,” the spokesperson concluded.

During a recent phone call with staff, Mr Trump reportedly called Fauci a “disaster” and public health experts “idiots.”

Meanwhile, infections continue to surge around the US with case counts reaching record highs in the last week. More than 100,000 cases were reported in a single day on Friday while hospitalisations are at the highest level since mid-August.

The daily death toll has surpassed 1,000 bringing the total number of deaths so far from the pandemic upwards of 232,000.

The US has logged 43,000 deaths from Covid-19 since Mr Trump first insisted on 31 August while on the campaign trail that the nation was “rounding the final turn” in tackling coronavirus.

The president continues to ridicule the media for their coverage of the pandemic, including deriding Fox News correspondent, Laura Ingraham, at a Trump rally last week for wearing a mask.