Attacks on Fauci reflect Trump's problem of what to do about high-profile adviser with a penchant for straight talk
WASHINGTON – A series of White House attacks on Dr. Anthony Fauci underscore President Donald Trump's dilemma over how to handle a high-profile adviser within his administration who has a penchant for straight talk and whose popularity exceeds the president's own.
Supporters of the president have aired their frustrations over Fauci's prominence in the administration's coronavirus response in recent weeks, but medical experts fear a clash of messages could dilute public health warnings. The White House added to the confusion about its broadsides on Fauci by disavowing an op-ed by trade adviser Peter Navarro on Wednesday.
Navarro wrote an opposing view to a USA TODAY editorial that called Fauci a “national treasure” and said efforts to muzzle him would be hazardous. USA TODAY typically publishes an opposing view to its editorials from an outside voice.
“We went directly to Navarro, who we know has been critical of Fauci,” said Bill Sternberg, editorial page editor at USA TODAY. “We have no information on whether he attempted to clear this with the White House.”
The White House on Wednesday sought to distance itself from Navarro’s comments.
Navarro’s piece, published Tuesday evening, includes some comments about Fauci the trade adviser had made earlier in the week – comments the White House did not repudiate at the time.
White House director of strategic communications Alyssa Farah wrote in a Wednesday tweet that Navarro's op-ed was not approved by the White House and was "the opinion of Peter alone."
Asked by a reporter in the Oval Office Wednesday about Navarro's op-ed, Trump said, "That's Peter Navarro, but I have a very good relationship with Dr. Fauci." Asked again about the op-ed when leaving the White House, Trump said, "We're all on the same team. Including Dr. Fauci."
Trump said Navarro made "a statement representing himself."
"He shouldn't be doing that," he added.
Fauci commented on the controversy in a series of interviews published with The Atlantic later Wednesday.
“I can’t explain Peter Navarro," Fauci said of the criticism. "He’s in a world by himself.”
Fauci called the attacks on him from within the White House "bizarre" and said it "hurts the president to do that."
"When the staff lets out something like that and the entire scientific and press community push back on it, it ultimately hurts the president," he said.
Fauci said he told White House chief of staff Mark Meadows it was a "big mistake," but Meadows did not offer an apology.
Complicating the situation for Trump and allies who have been attacking Fauci is the high degree of trust Fauci has with a broad swath of Americans.
A poll from Morning Consult and Politico released Wednesday showed American voters giving Fauci high marks for his handling of the coronavirus response, with 62% of voters saying Fauci's work was "excellent" or "good." By contrast, only 36% of voters said Trump was doing an "excellent" or "good" job in handling the pandemic.
In Washington, many Republican lawmakers have pushed back on attacks on Fauci.
Speaking to reporters in Kentucky on Wednesday, Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he had "total" confidence in the 79-year-old infectious disease expert.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., on Tuesday said that any focus on Fauci is a distraction from the country's recovery from the coronavirus.
"Getting in a contest with Dr. Fauci about whether he was right or wrong doesn't move the ball forward," he said.
"We don't have a Dr. Fauci problem," Graham said. "We need to be focusing on doing things that get us to where we need to go. So I have all the respect in the world for Dr. Fauci. I think any effort to undermine him is not going to be productive quite frankly."
Navarro's comments in the opposing view piece echoed previous criticisms leveled by Trump against the longtime career civil servant. In an interview last Thursday with Fox News' Sean Hannity, Trump said Fauci had "made a lot of mistakes" but called him a "nice man."
The president appeared to step back from the criticism in a Monday roundtable with people who have been helped by law enforcement, saying he had a "very good relationship with Dr. Fauci."
"I find him to be a very nice person. I don't always agree with him," Trump said.
But as the White House sought to distance itself from Navarro's op-ed, other top Trump allies and staff have ramped up their public attacks on Fauci.
One of Trump's top allies in the House, Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., denounced Fauci and coronavirus task force leader Dr. Deborah Birx in a Monday tweet, accusing him of having "decimated the American economy and society" with their policy decisions.
Biggs, who leads the conservative Freedom Caucus, has written close to a dozen op-eds criticizing Fauci and Birx's response to the pandemic, and his anti-Fauci posts have been retweeted by some other House Republicans as well.
Stephen Moore, a conservative economist and a member of the president's task force to reopen the economy, told USA TODAY he and his team at the Committee to Unleash Prosperity are compiling a policy memo to highlight Fauci's record as a longtime government health official, claiming he's been wrong on predicting the course of pandemics.
"He's become a big problem for Trump because he keeps contradicting what the White House is saying," Moore said. "Obviously he's had his run and now the White House is trying to distance themselves from him. And that's become a PR nightmare."
A recent newsletter for the Committee to Unleash Prosperity previewed Moore's memo, which is expected to argue that media coverage of Fauci has rarely offered any context beyond glowing profiles of the doctor and his clashes with Trump, which is why "it's incumbent upon the White House to point out how frequently fears voiced by Fauci proved unfounded."
Moore said while he doesn't have a problem with coronavirus guidelines such as social distancing or wearing masks, Fauci has been a "very negative influence for the country and for the White House" in his remarks on curbing plans to reopen the economy.
White House officials have said Fauci is one of several health experts who advise the administration and that the president is balancing public health advice against the economic toll coronavirus has taken on the country.
"It's very unusual that someone like Fauci would be able to last as long as he has given how often he has contradicted what Trump is saying, and sometimes even does it at while they're at a press conference," Moore said. "It's time for him to go away."
The Trump administration is facing problems with its "clash of messages" on coronavirus guidance, said Dr. Richard Besser, who was acting CDC head during the H1N1 pandemic and is now the president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Amid this mixed messaging and political infighting, his advice to Fauci was "stick to the science."
Asked what health officials should do if their opinions are ignored, Besser said it "should not change what you said."
Science was not the only factor in decision-making, Besser said, but "it's critically important that you don't compromise or distort what the science says as you're making policy decisions."
"There needs to be a discussion between those experts and those who are elected to make policy decisions, but you should never have your guidance undercut by those who are in political office," he said.
Inside the White House, aides appear at odds over how to manage the Fauci problem.
White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany bristled at questions about tensions between Fauci and the president. When asked about a statement released by the White House last weekend asserting that "several White House officials are concerned about the number of times Dr. Fauci has been wrong on things," McEnany told reporters it was a response to specific questions by the Washington Post.
But the point-by-point list of criticisms of Fauci was circulated to several news organizations in addition to the Washington Post and mirrored several of the criticisms leveled by Navarro.
As McEnany insisted relations were fine between her boss and his top health expert, Dan Scavino, the White House director of social media, came under fire for posting a cartoon on Facebook portraying Fauci as a faucet, flushing the U.S. economy down the drain.
"Sorry, Dr. Faucet!" he posted. "At least you know if I’m going to disagree with a colleague, such as yourself, it’s done publicly – and not cowardly, behind journalists with leaks."
Asked in a Tuesday interview with Dr. Abdul El-Sayed on "Crooked Media" if he would ever leave the administration out of frustration, Fauci said, "Walking away from it is not the solution. I think it would make things worse."
Adm. Brett Giroir, who oversees coronavirus testing, told NBC's "TODAY" show on Tuesday the members of the coronavirus task force have a "great, collegial relationship" and pushed back on accusations that government health officials are "lying" about the pandemic.
"We may occasionally make mistakes based on the information we have, but none of us lie," Giroir said, contradicting a Twitter post by former game show host Chuck Woolery shared by Trump accusing government officials and doctors of "lying" about the coronavirus crisis.
Giroir said guidance may be updated as experts learn more about the virus, including whether to wear a mask, but that the task force is "honest."
"We are completely transparent with the American people," he said.
Woolery later walked back his comments and noted his son tested positive for the coronavirus.
In a Sunday interview on NBC's "Meet the Press," Giroir said, “I respect Dr. Fauci a lot, but Dr. Fauci is not 100 percent right, and he also doesn’t necessarily, and he admits that, have the whole national interest in mind."
“He looks at it from a very narrow public health point of view," he said.
But health experts are puzzled about attempts to undermine one of the nation's top doctors as the nation suffers through a rapid rise of COVID-19 cases.
Dr. Howard Koh, former assistant Health and Human Services secretary under the Obama administration, argued Fauci's presence is need now more than ever.
"Time and again the country has always turned to Tony to give the top-level scientific insight and guidance going forward," he said of Fauci, who has been a national voice on global health crises ranging from the HIV/AIDS epidemic to Ebola.
"In a time like this, with the worst pandemic we've had in a century, we need Dr. Fauci front and center every day."
For critics who say Fauci has changed his thinking on coronavirus guidance, Koh said it's the role of a public health expert to make the best recommendations possible "understanding that things could always change and evolve."
"Every step of the way he has been open and honest about what is known and what is not known," he added. "And I have phenomenal respect for the fact that then he's willing to change when the data and the knowledge changes, that's what a good scientist does."
The Association of American Medical Colleges said Monday it is "extremely concerned and alarmed by efforts to discredit" Fauci.
"Taking quotes from Dr. Fauci out of context to discredit his scientific knowledge and judgment will do tremendous harm to our nation’s efforts to get the virus under control, restore our economy, and return us to a more normal way of life," the organization said in a statement.
Ron Klain, the former Ebola czar under the Obama administration and a campaign adviser to former Vice President Joe Biden, said attacks on Fauci are part of a broader White House strategy: "Deny the danger, doubt the science, disparage the truth-tellers."
"That doesn’t put Tony Fauci at risk, but it has put all the rest of us in peril – and it is why the U.S. response is failing so badly, even as other countries succeed in getting COVID under control," he said.
While Trump has a history of removing officials who have fallen out of favor with the president, supporters of Fauci note that he's survived six presidencies – both Republican and Democratic.
Klain, who said he spoke to Fauci nearly every day during the Ebola response, said it's unlikely Fauci is concerned with White House criticism.
"Dr. Fauci has devoted his life to fighting deadly illnesses; having faced down those threats, I doubt the absurd and juvenile attacks from the White House concern him," said Klain.
Even if Fauci loses his platform, Besser said he hopes "he sticks around."
"He's a brilliant scientist, and he has had an uncanny ability to not just survive but thrive in administrations of both parties," he said.
Contributing: Maureen Groppe, John Fritze and David Jackson
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Dr. Anthony Fauci: Attacks on adviser reflect Donald Trump's dilemma