Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Anthony Fauci smiles as White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki (L) speaks to reporters during the daily briefing in the Brady Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, DC on January 21, 2021. (Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)
(CNSNews.com) – The difference between working with the Biden administration versus the Trump administration on the coronavirus task force is with President Joe Biden, he was encouraged to be honest,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), said Thursday.
“One of the things that was very clear as recently as about 15 minutes ago when I was with the president is that one of the things we’re going to be is completely transparent, open and honest. If things go wrong, not point fingers but to correct them and to make everything we do be based on science and evidence. I mean that was literally a conversation I had 15 minutes ago with the president, and he has said that multiple times,” Fauci said at Thursday’s White House press briefing.
When asked whether there was anything looking back over the last year that he would like to amend or clarify, he said, “No. I always said everything — that’s why I got in trouble sometimes.”
Another reporter asked Fauci, “Dr. Fauci, you’ve joked a couple times today already about the difference — that you feel in being kind of the spokesperson for this issue in this administration versus the previous one. Can you talk a little bit about how free, how much different — do you feel less constrained? What is the — you know for so many times you stood up behind the podium with Donald Trump standing behind you. That was a different feeling, I’m sure than it is today. Can you talk a little bit about how you feel kind of released from what you had been doing for the last year?”
“Yeah, but you said I was joking about it. I was very serious about it. I wasn’t joking. No, actually I mean, obviously I don’t want to be going back over history, but it’s very clear that there were things that were said, be it regarding things like hydroxychloroquine and other things like that, that really was uncomfortable, because they were not based on scientific fact,” Fauci said.
“I can tell you, I take no pleasure at all being in a situation of contradicting the president. So it was really something that you didn’t feel that you could actually say something and there wouldn’t be any repercussions about it. The idea that you can get up here and talk about what you know, what the evidence, what the science is and know that’s it, let the science speak. It is somewhat of a liberating feeling,” he said.
“You were basically banished for a few months there for awhile. Do you feel like you’re back now?” the reporter asked.
“I think so,” Fauci said, laughing.
