2:18 p.m. ET, October 11, 2020
Fauci says he was taken out of context in new Trump campaign ad touting coronavirus response
From CNN's Kaitlan Collins
Dr. Anthony Fauci testifies at a hearing on September 23 in Washington, DC.
Alex Edelman/Pool/Getty Images
Dr. Anthony Fauci did not consent to being featured in a new advertisement from the Trump campaign touting President Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
Instead, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert told CNN his words were taken out of context.
“In my nearly five decades of public service, I have never publicly endorsed any political candidate. The comments attributed to me without my permission in the GOP campaign ad were taken out of context from a broad statement I made months ago about the efforts of federal public health officials," Fauci said in a statement provided to CNN.
The Trump campaign released the new ad this week after Trump was discharged from Walter Reed medical center after being diagnosed with coronavirus. The 30-second ad, which is airing in Michigan, tout’s Trump’s personal experience with the virus and uses a quote from Fauci in attempt to make it seem like he is praising the President's response to the pandemic.
“President Trump is recovering from the coronavirus, and so is America,” the ad’s narrator says. "Together we rose to meet the challenge, protecting our seniors, getting them life saving drugs in record time, sparing no expense.”
The ad then cuts to an interview with Fauci where he says, “I can't imagine that anybody could be doing more.”
Some context: Though no date is provided in the ad, Fauci’s quote is from an interview with Fox News in March where Fauci praised the White House coronavirus task force’s round-the-clock effort to respond to the pandemic, which he says included numerous White House meetings and late night phone calls.
“We’ve never had a threat like this. The coordinated response has been…There are a number of adjectives to describe it — impressive, I think is one of them. We’re talking about all hands on deck. I, as one of many people on a team, I’m not the only person," Fauci said at the time. "Since the beginning, that we even recognized what this was, I have been devoting almost full time on this. I’m down at the White House virtually every day with the task force. It’s every single day. So, I can’t imagine that under any circumstances that anybody could be doing more.”
The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.