Trump Promotes Video Undermining Fauci Which Facebook, YouTube and Twitter Remove for ‘False Information’
President Donald Trump appears to have complicated feelings for Dr. Anthony Fauci While the commander in chief has publicly said that he has a good relationship with the nation’s top immunologist, his Twitter feed tells a different story.
In a flurry of curious Tweets and retweets late Monday night, Trump’s retweeted a podcast promotion that featured Fauci-critic Dr. Lee Vliet which is sure to cause drama at the next White House Coronavirus Task Force meeting (at least one that both Trump and Fauci will attend.)
The tweet originated from a Twitter account called WarRoomPandemic, and claimed: “Dr. Fauci has misled the American people on many issues, but particular, on dismissing #hydroxychloroquine and calling Remdesivir the new gold standard.” A screengrab of that tweet was shared by CNN’s Manu Raju below:
The tweet led to a Breitbart-hosted video that some might call scientifically questionable observations that promoted the still-unproven hydroxychloroquine and questioned the benefits of mask-wearing. The video was also shared by Donald Trump Jr., was eventually removed by Facebook for pushing “false information about cures and treatments for COVID-19.” YouTube and Twitter also pulled the video.
But it was another undermining tweet of Dr.Fauci that will restart a media conversation about their relationship.
This is not the first time that Trump has promoted criticism of Dr. Fauci. The deteriorating state of the relationship between Trump and Fauci drew new intrigue in early April after Trump went on a Twitter binge and retweeted a post bearing the hashtag #FireFauci. This happened after Fauci gave an interview to CNN and said “obviously” more lives would have been saved if the federal government adopted coronavirus counterstrategies earlier.
Fauci’s approval rating for his role in fighting the coronavirus has been significantly higher than that of Trump’s. In a national poll of 1,337 registered voters conducted by The New York Times and Siena College in mid-June, 76% of respondents said they trusted Fauci for “accurate information” about the COVID-19 pandemic compared with just 26% who said they trusted Trump. This has led to multiple reports of the president feeling some animus towards Dr. Fauci, which may be the reason for Monday’s night’s undermining tweet.
[Mediaite]