Get ready for the pandemic purge, America.
Speaking at a campaign rally in Opa-Locka, Florida, President Donald Trump suggested that he would fire Dr. Anthony Fauci as soon as Election Day is in the rearview mirror, bowing to the demands of his right-wing base for an end to public health precautions to fight the spread of coronavirus.
“Let me wait till a little bit after the election,” Trump told #MAGA faithful at a late-night rally on Sunday in Miami.
Trump made the promise after his supporters started chanting “Fire Fauci” to express their opposition to public health measures like wearing masks and social distancing.
Democrat Joe Biden fired back Monday morning, calling Trump’s statement a damning indictment of the president’s mishandling of the pandemic.
“We need a president who actually listens to experts like Dr. Fauci,” Biden said in a tweet on Monday.
Trump spoke out just hours after Fauci fired a new shot across his bow with a dramatic warning that COVID-19 is spreading dangerously across the country.
In an interview with The Washington Post, Fauci cautioned that the U.S. will have to deal with “a whole lot of hurt” in the weeks ahead and “could not possibly be positioned more poorly” to stem rising cases as more people gather indoors during the colder fall and winter months.
Those are fighting words for Trump and his #MAGA faithful, who have chafed for months at what they perceive as efforts to keep the economy stuck in park and cripple his chances of winning the White House for a second term.
Trump’s aggressive approach to Fauci carries some risks this close to Election Day,
A Kaiser Family Foundation poll in September showed 68% of Americans have a great deal or a fair amount of trust in Fauci to provide reliable information on the coronavirus. That compares with 52% of Americans who trusted Biden to do that and just 40% for Trump.
With News Wire Services
