Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, denied approving the usage of his clips in an ad for President Donald Trump‘s campaign.
“In my nearly five decades of public service, I have never publicly endorsed any political candidate,” Fauci told CNN. “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.”
The ad was released last week, featuring a short clip of Fauci saying, “I can’t imagine that anybody could be doing more.”
Fauci’s words were taken from his comments about himself and the White House coronavirus task force – not about Trump.
“Since the beginning, that we even recognized what this was, 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,” Fauci commented back in March.
He said his words were taken out of context in the ad that seemingly featured him praising the Trump administration and their handling of the pandemic.
In response to Fauci’s allegations, a spokesperson from Trump’s campaign said, “These are Dr. Fauci’s own words. The video is from a nationally broadcast television interview in which Dr. Fauci was praising the work of the Trump Administration. The words spoken are accurate, and directly from Dr. Fauci’s mouth. As Dr. Fauci recently testified in the Senate, President Donald Trump took the virus seriously from the beginning, acted quickly, and saved lives.”
