CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta shared insight Monday morning into how Dr. Anthony Fauci — the visible face of the White House’s coronavirus task force — has been feeling since the White House tried to discredit him.
Asked by “New Day” anchor John Berman about reports Fauci will be at the White House later on Monday, Gupta responded, “I think he wants to stick around. I think he’s feeling a little beaten up by all this — I think there’s no question about it — but he has seen a lot of support.”
Gupta, who speaks regularly to Fauci, continued, “Again, we are learning as we go along here. Nobody knew everything from the very start, including Dr. Fauci, but that’s very different than saying the guy was intentionally wrong or somehow misleading in some way, which seemed to be the suggestion.”
The White House released a statement Sunday undercutting Fauci’s credibility. On Monday morning, President Trump retweeted a series of tweets critical not only of Fauci and “the Democrats,” but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the media, too.
The increased attacks came after Fauci, the nation’s top infectious diseases expert, said Friday the reason he hasn’t been on TV much lately might be because of his “reputation” for “speaking the truth at all times.”
“I have a reputation, as you probably have figured out, of speaking the truth at all times and not sugar-coating things,” he said in an interview with the Financial Times. “And that may be one of the reasons why I haven’t been on television very much lately.”
“[Fauci is] feeling a little beaten up by all of this,” @drsanjaygupta says on the White House seemingly trying to discredit Dr. Fauci. “Nobody knew everything from the very start, including Dr. Fauci, but that’s… different than saying, ‘hey, the guy was intentionally wrong’” pic.twitter.com/qhMUkgehKJ
— CNN This Morning with Kasie Hunt (@CNNThisMorning) July 13, 2020