Coronavirus: Donald Trump campaign has twisted my words, says Anthony Fauci

An ad by the Trump campaign has been edited to make a top scientist seem to endorse the President’s handling of COVID-19.

Anthony Fauci has at times aroused Donald’s Trump’s ire. Picture: AFP

Top US government scientist Anthony Fauci says an ad aired by Donald Trump’s re-election campaign was edited to make him seem to endorse the President’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

“In my nearly five decades of public service, I have never publicly endorsed any political candidate,” Dr Fauci, the longtime director of the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases, said in a statement sent to Agence France-Presse on Sunday (Monday AEDT).

The 30-second campaign ad cites Mr Trump’s personal experience with the virus — “President Trump is recovering from the coronavirus, and so is America,” it says — before including a brief clip in which Dr Fauci appears to praise the President’s response to the pandemic.

“I can’t imagine that anybody could be doing more,” Dr Fauci is shown as saying, creating the clear impression he is referring to Mr Trump.

But a complete clip of Dr Fauci’s comments, made during an interview in March with Fox News, shows the doctor saying: “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.”

In his statement on Sunday, Dr Fauci said, “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.”

Mr Trump defended the clip, and his handling of pandemic, and rebutted the doctor’s criticism.

“They are indeed Dr Fauci’s own words. We have done a ‘phenomenal’ job, according to certain governors,” he tweeted.

As a leading member of the White House task force on the coronavirus, the 79-year-old doctor has frequently had to walk a fine line in attempting to clarify — or correct — Mr Trump’s assertions about the disease or the treatments and vaccines being developed against COVID-19.

Dr Fauci has at times aroused Trump’s ire, as when the President in April retweeted a message containing the hashtag #FireFauci — before publicly insisting the doctor was doing a great job.

On Friday, The New York Times reported the Trump administration blocked an order drafted by the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention to force passengers on all American public transport to wear masks.

Vice-President Mike Pence argued that it was the prerogative of state governments, the newspaper reported, and barred discussion of it in meetings of his coronavirus taskforce. Public health officials agree masks are effective in slowing the spread of the virus, but many Americans claim they violate constitutional rights and freedoms. More than 7.6 million Americans have contracted coronavirus, and 212,000 have died.

AFP