Donald Trump says he ‘inherited’ Dr.Fauci and ‘disagrees with a lot’ of what he has said

Donald Trump said Monday he ‘disagrees with a lot of what Dr. Anthony Fauci has said’ in his coronavirus response. 

In an wide ranging interview with Fox News host Laura Ingraham, the president said he ‘inherited’ the nation’s top infectious disease expert. 

The United States under Trump’s leadership has recorded more than six million coronavirus cases and has a death toll of 183,585, making it the hardest hit country in the world. 

Probed on if he would ‘do it all again with Fauci front and center every day’, Trump replied: ‘I disagree with a lot of what he said. He said keep [travel] open for China. That was a big mistake. And he admits it.

‘I just, I get along with him, but every once in a while he’ll come up with one that I say, ‘Where did that come from?’ I inherited him. He was here. He was part of this huge piece of [the] machine.

‘You inherit a lot of people, and you have some you love, some you don’t. I like him. I don’t agree with him that often but I like him.’

Fauci, who heads the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has, at times, found himself at odds with Trump’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. 

He has faced increased criticism from some Republicans and others as he has sounded alarms about COVID-19 and publicly corrected Trump’s erroneous statements on the virus.  

Last month the president insisted the expert was wrong to say that cases are surging in the US – despite the country recording record numbers. 

Questions about Trump and Fauci’s relationship also rose after the doctor didn’t appear at public briefings by the White House Coronavirus Task Force and there were reports the administration sidelined him from doing any interviews with major news outlets. 

In a wide ranging interview broadcast Monday Trump also discussed police brutality, comparing officers who shoot civilians in the back to golfers who choke and miss putts.  

Discussing the police shooting of black man Jacob Blake seven times in the back the president said: ‘They [the officers] choke, just like in a golf tournament, they miss a 3-foot putt.’

Fox News host Laura Ingraham, who had probed the president on the danger of being in the police, quickly interrupted him, saying: ‘You’re not comparing it to golf. Because of course that’s what the media would say. People make, people panic.’

Trump, who was speaking from the White House, reiterated: ‘I’m saying people choke. And people are bad people. You have both.’   

He also claimed that ‘a plane full of thugs’ boarded a flight intent on causing chaos at the Republican National Convention. 

Trump said that his Democratic rival, Joe Biden, was having his ‘strings’ pulled by ‘people in the dark shadows, people you have never heard of.’

Ingraham replied: ‘What does that mean? That sounds like conspiracy theory.’

He replies: ‘We had somebody get on a plane from a certain city, this weekend.

‘And in the plane it was almost completely loaded with thugs wearing these dark uniforms, black uniforms, with gear and this and that.

‘They’re on a plane.’

When asked for details, he replied: ‘I’ll tell you some time. It’s under investigation right now.’   

Last month, Dr. Fauci said at a congressional hearing he was ‘cautiously optimistic that we will have a vaccine by the end of this year and as we go into 2021.’ He suggested health workers and medically vulnerable people will go first.