While the main character of the Internet on Monday was either a woman with an extremely Boston accent or an indecent exposure incident over Zoom, the main character in Donald Trump’s world was definitely Anthony Fauci. Trump woke up angry at Fauci on Monday after a 60 Minutes interview appearance on Sunday night, and so he spent his day of campaigning attacking a man who has preached vigilance and safety during a pandemic that has killed more than 210,000 Americans this year.
Trump mentioned Fauci, an immunologist who has served as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984, a number of times on Monday and introduced a new ad attacking Joe Biden as someone who would, well, listen to one of the top medical officials in America if he were elected president. Which Biden seems OK with, quite frankly.
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) October 19, 2020
It started with a phone call in which reporters heard him criticize Fauci and his understanding of the COVID-19 pandemic.
On call with campaign staff, President Trump says people are tired of hearing about coronavirus. "People are saying whatever. Just leave us alone. They’re tired of it. People are tired of hearing Fauci and all these idiots…Fauci is a nice guy. He’s been here for 500 years."
— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) October 19, 2020
Trump: "Fauci is a disaster. If I listened to him, we’d have 500,000 deaths," before later saying it would be 700,000 or 800,000. "If there’s a reporter on, you can have it just the way I said it, I couldn’t care less." (CNN was given access to the call by a source.)
— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) October 19, 2020
Later, there were a series of tweets on Monday where Trump used a bizarrely dated reference to Bob Hope to criticize how often Fauci is on TV.
Dr.Tony Fauci says we don’t allow him to do television, and yet I saw him last night on @60Minutes, and he seems to get more airtime than anybody since the late, great, Bob Hope. All I ask of Tony is that he make better decisions. He said “no masks & let China in”. Also, Bad arm!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 19, 2020
…P.S. Tony should stop wearing the Washington Nationals’ Mask for two reasons. Number one, it is not up to the high standards that he should be exposing. Number two, it keeps reminding me that Tony threw out perhaps the worst first pitch in the history of Baseball!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 19, 2020
“Fauci says we don’t allow him to do television, and yet I saw him last night on @60Minutes,” Trump tweeted. “He seems to get more airtime than anybody since the late, great, Bob Hope.”
Trump, who is doing three rallies a day like a high school football player trying to catch up after a late August family vacation, mentioned Fauci and his less-than-ideal first pitch before a Washington Nationals game earlier in the summer several times on Monday. He also mocked him with his own version of the throw in Arizona.
Trump mockingly mimics Dr. Fauci's first pitch pic.twitter.com/gnNtfBvlf8
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 19, 2020
It’s important to note that Trump — who was booed the last time he showed up to a baseball stadium with fans in it — did not throw out a first pitch this year. He threatened to do so at a Yankees/Red Sox game after word came out that Fauci would throw one out this year. After his pitch, well, didn’t go so well, Trump abruptly canceled and it was later learned that Trump announced his pitch before anyone at the Yankees organization confirmed it.
With two weeks left before the election, it seems that Trump has decided his closing argument to voters is that Fauci hasn’t done his job as well as he should. That election, however, will be a clear indicator of how Americans think Trump has done his job, not Fauci.