'They're indeed his own words,’ claims Trump as Fauci denies praising his COVID handling

While US’ top infectious disease expert Dr Anthony Fauci accused Trump campaign of taking his words ‘out of context’ in an advertisement, the US President Donald Trump, in a tweet, responded by saying ‘they are indeed Fauci’s own words’. The 30-second ad clip uploaded on YouTube has an excerpt from Fauci’s statement to praise Trump’s handling of coronavirus pandemic. However, while speaking to CNN, Fauci had clarified that he had lauded efforts of federal health officials and not the president. 

The Trump campaign had released the new ad last week after the President was discharged from the hospital following treatment for coronavirus. The ad touts Trump’s personal experience with COVID-19 and uses a quote from Fauci in an attempt to make it appear as if he is praising Trump’s response. On Sunday, Fauci, however, said that the comments attributed to him without his permission in the GOP campaign ad were taken out of context from a broad statement he made months ago about the efforts of federal public health officials. 

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Soon after Fauci’s accusation, Trump campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh defended the ad in a statement and said that the words from Fauci are ‘accurate, and directly from Dr Fauci’s mouth’. Murtaugh added that as Fauci recently testified in the Senate, President Trump took the virus seriously from the beginning, acted quickly and saved lives. Echoing the same sentiment, Trump also took to Twitter and lauded his administration’s ‘phenomenal job’ and said that they were Fauci’s own words. 

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White House infections could’ve been prevented: Fauci

Fauci and Trump have not always agreed on how to handle the unprecedented pandemic, which has infected over seven million people in the US and killed more than 200,000. The recent incident comes after Dr Fauci said White House had hosted a 'super spreader' event where people had gathered in large numbers without wearing masks. The top infectious disease specialist was referring to the White House Rose Garden event held on September 26 where US President Donald Trump named Amy Coney Barrett as his nomination for Supreme Court.

"We had a super spreader event in the White House and it was in a situation where people were crowded together, were not wearing masks. So the data speak for themselves," said Fauci. 

(With inputs from ANI) 

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