- Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, called the numerous media reports of disagreements with President Donald Trump "really unfortunate."
- "The president has listened to what I have said and ... what the other people on the task force have said," Fauci said. "When I made recommendations, he's taken them. He's never countered or overridden me."
- "The idea of just pitting one against the other is just not helpful," Fauci added. "I wish that would stop and we'd look ahead at the challenge we have to pull together to get over this thing."
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Dr. Anthony Fauci, the longtime director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, called the numerous media reports of disagreements with President Donald Trump as "really unfortunate."
During an interview with WMAL radio in Washington, DC, Fauci stressed that he wished the media's portrayal of him butting heads with Trump would stop.
"Because we have a much bigger problem here than trying to point out differences," Fauci said. "There really, fundamentally at the core ... there are not differences."
"The president has listened to what I have said and ... what the other people on the task force have said," Fauci added. "When I made recommendations, he's taken them. He's never countered or overridden me."
Numerous reports of disagreements with the president have emerged in recent days after the physician was catapulted into the national spotlight during the coronavirus pandemic. Fauci's comments about the virus appeared to undercut several of Trump's claims, including whether or not an anti-malaria medication called chloroquine was proven to be beneficial in the treatment of the coronavirus.
When asked about Trump's description of the drug as a "game-changer" and "approved," Fauci replied that the evidence was merely "anecdotal."
Fauci, whose decades-long tenure spans Republican and Democratic presidential administrations, also noted in a separate interview that he would never describe the coronavirus as the "Chinese virus," a description Trump and his allies have embraced even after it quickly spread beyond Wuhan's borders.
The rumor mill went into overdrive when Fauci was previously spotted making facial gestures and covered his face with his hand during a press conference, as Trump cracked a joke. Fauci later told The New York Times that his throat had been scratchy and the lozenge he was having became stuck in his mouth.
Trump also described his relationship with Fauci in glowing terms and said he "absolutely" got along with the doctor: "We get along very well," he said on Fox News on Tuesday.
Fauci said the reports of disagreements were trivial and that the coronavirus outbreak was a more pressing issue.
"The idea of just pitting one against the other is just not helpful," Fauci said to WMAL radio. "I wish that would stop and we'd look ahead at the challenge we have to pull together to get over this thing."
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