Anthony Fauci said Sunday he would not return to his position as chief White House medical adviser if Donald Trump was re-elected president in 2024.
The infectious disease expert was asked by CNN’s Jim Acosta if he would have confidence in Trump’s ability to deal with a public health emergency should Trump serve another term as president. “Would you want to stay on in your post?” Acosta added.
“Uh, well, no,” Fauci said. “To the second question.”
“The first question … if you look at the history of what the response was during the administration, I think at best you could say at best it wasn’t optimal. I think just history will speak for itself about that. I don’t need to make any further comment on that. It’s not productive.”
Fauci, who stayed on in his White House role when President Joe Biden took office, clashed with the former president in 2020 over public health guidelines and Trump’s misleading statements about COVID-19 and the state and direction of the pandemic.
While Fauci pushed for stricter rules to mitigate the spread of the virus, Trump downplayed the severity of coronavirus and sought to lift masking and social distancing rules and reopen businesses.
Fauci became one of the top targets for conservative ire over COVID-19 as he repeatedly warned of the dangers of the deadly virus and urged the public to take precautions to protect themselves and others.