Trump says Fauci and Birx put ‘millions of lives at risk’ in rambling statement

Ex-president brags that he ignored advice of top health experts during pandemic

Donald Trump suggested he had “saved the entire world” but that Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx put “millions of lives at risk” in a rambling new statement.

The ex-president went on a tirade against his former top Covid advisers the day after CNN aired preview comments made about the pandemic by the health experts.

In his latest outburst Mr Trump claimed that he ignored both officials while in the White House and that he was responsible for getting vaccines developed quickly and approved for use.

“Based on their interviews, I felt it was time to speak up about Dr Fauci and Dr Birx, two self-promoters trying to reinvent history to cover for their bad instincts and faulty recommendations, which I fortunately almost always overturned,” said MrTrump.

“They had bad policy decisions that would have left our country open to China and others, closed to reopening our economy, and years away from an approved vaccine — putting millions of lives at risk.”

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And he added: “We developed American vaccines by an American president in record time, nine months, which is saving the entire world.”

Mr Trump also mocked Dr Fauci for his unimpressive first pitch at a Washington Nationals baseball game last year and branded him the “king of flip-flops” for changing his guidance as more about the virus was discovered by scientists.

The former president also had withering criticism for Dr Birx, who has spoken of regrets in how she handled her position as head of the White House coronavirus task force.

“Dr Birx is a proven liar with very little credibility left,” said Mr Trump.

“The states who followed her lead, like California, had worse outcomes on Covid, and ruined the lives of countless children because they couldn’t go to school, ruined many businesses, and an untold number of Americans who were killed by the lockdowns themselves,” he added.

“Dr Birx was a terrible medical advisor, which is why I seldom followed her advice.”

Mr Trump’s angry outburst followed clips of Dr Fauci and Dr Birx being released on Sunday ahead of the channel’s Covid special on Friday.

In it she claims that hundreds of thousands of deaths in the US “could have been mitigated or decreased substantially” with more decisive action from the Trump administration.