The outgoing director of the National Institutes of Health claims that Trump pressured him to fire Dr. Fauci
Drew Angerer/Getty Images
After nearly a year of openly struggling to partner with former President Donald Trump and his administration to contain COVID-19, Dr. Anthony Fauci spoke of how he felt under the new Biden administration during a press briefing at the White House in January 2021. “I can tell you, I take no pleasure at all in being in a situation of contradicting the President,” Fauci said during the press briefing, per CNN. “The idea that you can get up here and talk about what you know, what the evidence, what the science is — let the science speak. It is somewhat of a liberating feeling.”
On Sunday, during an interview with CBS News, Dr. Francis Collins, the outgoing director of the National Institutes of Health, admitted that Trump and other Republicans pressured him to promote unproven COVID-19 treatments, like hydroxychloroquine, and, more shockingly, to fire Dr. Fauci. However, as he said during the CBS News interview, Dr. Collins resisted these political pressures at every turn. “I have done everything I can to stay out of any kind of political, partisan debates because it is really not a place where medical research belongs,” Dr. Collins told CBS News, per CNN. “I was not going to compromise scientific principles to just hold onto the job. … Can you imagine a circumstance where the director of the NIH, somebody who believes in science, would submit to political pressures and fire the greatest expert in infectious disease that the world has known, just to satisfy political concerns?”
Did Donald Trump Really Try To Get Dr. Fauci Fired?
Win Mcnamee/Getty Images
By Ashley Moor/Dec. 20, 2021 1:53 pm EST
Almost a year after leaving the White House, Trump is still making headlines for his alleged treatment of Dr. Fauci.
The outgoing director of the National Institutes of Health claims that Trump pressured him to fire Dr. Fauci
Drew Angerer/Getty Images
After nearly a year of openly struggling to partner with former President Donald Trump and his administration to contain COVID-19, Dr. Anthony Fauci spoke of how he felt under the new Biden administration during a press briefing at the White House in January 2021. “I can tell you, I take no pleasure at all in being in a situation of contradicting the President,” Fauci said during the press briefing, per CNN. “The idea that you can get up here and talk about what you know, what the evidence, what the science is — let the science speak. It is somewhat of a liberating feeling.”
On Sunday, during an interview with CBS News, Dr. Francis Collins, the outgoing director of the National Institutes of Health, admitted that Trump and other Republicans pressured him to promote unproven COVID-19 treatments, like hydroxychloroquine, and, more shockingly, to fire Dr. Fauci. However, as he said during the CBS News interview, Dr. Collins resisted these political pressures at every turn. “I have done everything I can to stay out of any kind of political, partisan debates because it is really not a place where medical research belongs,” Dr. Collins told CBS News, per CNN. “I was not going to compromise scientific principles to just hold onto the job. … Can you imagine a circumstance where the director of the NIH, somebody who believes in science, would submit to political pressures and fire the greatest expert in infectious disease that the world has known, just to satisfy political concerns?”
On Sunday, during an interview with CBS News, Dr. Francis Collins, the outgoing director of the National Institutes of Health, admitted that Trump and other Republicans pressured him to promote unproven COVID-19 treatments, like hydroxychloroquine, and, more shockingly, to fire Dr. Fauci. However, as he said during the CBS News interview, Dr. Collins resisted these political pressures at every turn.
“I have done everything I can to stay out of any kind of political, partisan debates because it is really not a place where medical research belongs,” Dr. Collins told CBS News, per CNN. “I was not going to compromise scientific principles to just hold onto the job. … Can you imagine a circumstance where the director of the NIH, somebody who believes in science, would submit to political pressures and fire the greatest expert in infectious disease that the world has known, just to satisfy political concerns?”
