This is the newest, breathtakingly vindictive and destructive missive springing from Trump’s fragile ego.
If Trump now feels encouraged to actually pressure the National Institutes of Health to fire Dr. Fauci, in the midst of this global pandemic, all hell should break out in ways even more viral than Covid-19.
Amid a flurry of overnight campaign-oriented tweets, which offered a low-percentage of messages addressing the pandemic emergency, the president retweeted a call from a Republican (who was a challenger to Speaker Pelosi) that Dr. Anthony Fauci should be fired, and who included in her tweet the hashtag: #FireFauci.
From the Washington Post:
President Trump retweeted a call to fire his top infectious disease specialist Anthony S. Fauci Sunday evening, amid mounting criticism of the federal response to the coronavirus pandemic.
The call, with the hashtag “FireFauci” came from a former Republican congressional candidate, DeAnna Lorraine, who amassed 1.8 percent of the vote in an open primary challenge to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) this year.
The tweet from Lorraine that Trump retweeted:
The original tweet from Lorraine was penned in response to the broadcast of an interview with National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases chief Fauci on CNN’s “State of the Union, where he stated that a stronger early response by the administration to the outbreak “could have saved lives,” but also characterized the decision to implement social distancing guidelines as “complicated.”
Fauci said: “Obviously, it would have been nice if we had a better head start, but I don’t think you could say that we are where we are right now because of one factor,” Fauci said on CNN Sunday. “It’s very complicated.
What we have on display with the president’s response to Dr. Fauci’s statement is a textbook case of "Narcissistic Injury".
A narcissistic injury occurs when malicious narcissists react negatively to perceived or real criticism or judgment, boundaries placed on them, and/or attempts to hold them accountable for harmful behavior.
Most. Malicious. Petty. Dangerous. President. Evah.
Recent polls have shown that Americans trust Fauci much more than they trust Trump, which could rankle the president.
Hounding out Fauci could also further erode public confidence in the president’s handling of the deadly pandemic.
Fauci is a career government scientist who has never been a partisan figure. He was first appointed to his position in 1984, and Fauci has led the agency (part of the National Institutes of Health) under six presidents, starting with Ronald Reagan.
George W. Bush said he has “absolute confidence” in Fauci and the other experts leading the way on the coronavirus outbreak. Bush awarded him the nation’s highest civilian honor, the Medal of Freedom. And Fauci developed a reputation as a skilled public health expert while combating the AIDS crisis in the 1980s.
Here are the relevant excerpts from Sunday’s Fauci interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper that elicited the sycophantic partisan tweet from Lorraine, and Trump’s spiteful retweet:
TAPPER: The New York Times reported yesterday that you and other top officials wanted to recommend social and physical distancing guidelines to President Trump as far back as the third week of February, but the administration didn’t announce such guidelines to the American public until March 16, almost a month later. Why?
FAUCI: You know, Jake, as I have said many times, we look at it from a pure health standpoint. We make a recommendation. Often, the recommendation is taken. Sometimes, it’s not. But we — it is what it is. We are where we are right now.
TAPPER: Do you think lives could have been saved if social distancing, physical distancing, stay-at-home measures had started third week of February, instead of mid-March?
FAUCI: You know, Jake, again, it’s the what would have, what could have. It’s — it’s very difficult to go back and say that. I mean, obviously, you could logically say, that if you had a process that was ongoing, and you started mitigation earlier, you could have saved lives. Obviously, no one is going to deny that.
But what goes into those kinds of decisions is — is complicated. But you’re right. I mean, obviously, if we had, right from the very beginning, shut everything down, it may have been a little bit different.
The US had fair warning as the novel coronavirus was spreading geographically elsewhere to prepare and defend against the pandemic.
This video response to Lorraine’s tweet is as accurate as it is terrifying regarding the cost in lives due to the lack of this administration’s emergency response:
In this administration’s surreal abysmally dystopian landscape it would not be surprising if the First Lady were asked for comment, she deferred to her PR management — Melania’s Malicious Mackintosh — which would speak for her with the hashtag:
#IReallyDon’tCareDoU?