A 30-second spot for the re-election of President Donald J. Trump that has been airing in Michigan and during the Eagles-Steelers game yesterday, has been called “misleading” as it features a quote from Dr. Anthony Fauci that was taken out of context.
The new ad touts Trump’s personal experience with the virus and uses a quote from Fauci in an attempt to make it appear as if he is praising Trump’s response.”President Trump is recovering from the coronavirus, and so is America,” the ad’s narrator says. “Together we rose to meet the challenge, protecting our seniors, getting them life-saving drugs in record time, sparing no expense.”
Now, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert revealed his words were taken out of context.
Fauci was asked by CNN about his input on the ad. He released the statement, “In my nearly five decades of public service, I have never publicly endorsed any political candidate. 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.” Fauci also notes that his words were “about the efforts of federal public health officials,” which is to say, not about Trump.
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“We’ve never had a threat like this. The coordinated response has been…There are a number of adjectives to describe it — impressive, I think is one of them. We’re talking about all hands on deck. I, as one of many people on a team, I’m not the only person,” Fauci said at the time. “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.”
In response to Fauci saying the ad took his words out of context, Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh 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.”
Trump( as he usually does) is now insisting that Fauci’s “own words” actually did praise his personal handling of this whole crisis. In fact, Trump’s use of them falsifies the history of his towering failures all throughout.
The staggering dishonesty on display here should only serve as a reminder of that history.
SOURCE: CNN
