NASHVILLE - U.S. Senate Health Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander, R-Tennessee, defended Dr. Anthony Fauci on Monday following news accounts that President Donald Trump called Fauci a "disaster" and said Americans have tired of the coronavirus during a call with campaign staffers.
"Dr. Fauci is one of our country's most distinguished public servants. He has served six presidents, starting with Ronald Reagan," Alexander said of the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, whose statements have sometimes put him crosswise with the president.
Alexander, who rarely contradicts the president publicly, added that "if more Americans paid attention to [Fauci's] advice, we'd have fewer cases of COVID-19, and it would be safer to go back to school and back to work and out to eat."
The Hill newspaper reported on its website that Trump said during the private call that "people are tired of COVID. Yup, there's going to be spikes, there's going to be no spikes, there's going to be vaccines. With or without vaccines, people are tired of COVID.
"I have the biggest rallies I have ever had and we have COVID," Trump was quoted as adding. "People are saying whatever, just leave us alone. They're tired of it."
The president also charged that Fauci has provided inconsistent advice about the coronavirus pandemic and said if he had followed all of Fauci's advice the United States would have "700,000 to 800,000 deaths right now," The Hill reported.
More than 220,000 Americans have died from COVID-19.
"People are tired of hearing Fauci and all these idiots, these people, these people that have gotten it wrong," Trump was quoted saying. "Fauci is a nice guy, he's been here for 500 years, he called every one of them wrong."
The president also said "he's like this wonderful guy, a wonderful sage telling us how he said, do not wear facemasks - that's a number of months ago. He said, do not close it up to China. I have a list of 15 things. And yet we keep him. Every time he goes on television there's always a bomb. But there is a bigger bomb if you fire him. But Fauci is a disaster. I mean, this guy, if I listened to him, we would have 500,000 deaths."
Quickly expanding the figure to 700,000 to 800,000 deaths, Trump added "so, with that, I get along with him. If there's a reporter on, you have it just the way I said it. I couldn't care less," reported The Hill, which obtained a recording of the call.
The president's latest criticisms of Fauci came during a segment Sunday on CBS's "60 Minutes" in which Fauci said he wasn't surprised Trump contracted the coronavirus after a White House event with the president's latest Supreme Court nominee at which most guests were not wearing masks or social distancing.
"I was worried that he was going to get sick when I saw him in a completely precarious situation of crowded, no separation between people, and almost nobody wearing a mask," Fauci said during the "60 Minutes" interview. "When I saw that on TV, I said, 'Oh my goodness. Nothing good can come out of that, that's got to be a problem.' And then sure enough, it turned out to be a superspreader event."
Fauci joined the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease in 1984.
Contact Andy Sher at asher@timesfreepress.com or 615-255-0550. Follow on Twitter @AndySher1.