Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks at a press conference on the dismissal of 9th Judicial Circuit Florida prosecutor Monique Worrell in Tallahassee, Fla., on Aug. 9, 2023. (Ron DeSantis/Screenshot via The Epoch Times)
Posted on 09/09/2023 9:37:01 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Former President Donald Trump responded to questions about why he did not terminate the employment of former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Anthony Fauci amid the early onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
During an interview with radio host Hugh Hewitt, President Trump was asked about Dr. Fauci, who had been on the Trump pandemic response force, in 2020. "First of all, you’re not allowed," the former president said when asked why he didn't fire him, which Mr. Hewitt said was the "biggest knock" on his presidency.
"No, no, no, Dr. Fauci was there. First of all, he’s civil service, and you’re not allowed to fire him. But forget that because I don’t necessarily go by everything … but Dr. Fauci would tell me things, and I wouldn’t do them in many cases. But also, he wasn’t a big player in my administration," President Trump said. "Dr. Fauci became a big player in the administration of Biden. He’s a very big player in Biden’s administration."
The former president has received some criticism—namely from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis—for not firing Dr. Fauci, who ultimately became a controversial figure during the pandemic for his often dire predictions about the course of the virus. The former public health official also often recommended people wear masks, get the vaccines, and defended COVID-19-related lockdowns and stay-at-home orders.
In response to President Trump's comments this week, Mr. DeSantis dismissed the former president's arguments that he couldn't fire him. He said that President Trump's comment differs from the ones he gave about Dr. Fauci in the past.
"It's important to point out for a long time that was not his excuse," Mr. DeSantis told the Rubin Report on Wednesday. "His excuse had been that if you fired Fauci, both the Democrats and the media would have pitched a fit, which, of course, is 100 percent true."
"But that's the price of leadership. You got to stand up and do what's right," the governor continued to say. "Clearly, he could have been fired from the White House Task Force. There was no obligation to run him out at press conference after press conference, have him doing media interviews."
During the pandemic, Mr. DeSantis grew a national profile for ending COVID-19 lockdowns early and reopening businesses while also backing laws that would prevent vaccine or mask mandates, or any new lockdowns. However, like other governors around the United States, Mr. DeSantis in March 2020 ordered a statewide lockdown due to the virus before he rescinded it several months later.
"During the height of the COVID stuff in 2020, Fauci would do local hits in Florida media attacking me for having schools open and some of these other stuff," he told the Rubin Report. "So, there was no obligation to do that. I think you could have also fired him from NIH because he had basically committed misconduct with the gain of function [research]."
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks at a press conference on the dismissal of 9th Judicial Circuit Florida prosecutor Monique Worrell in Tallahassee, Fla., on Aug. 9, 2023. (Ron DeSantis/Screenshot via The Epoch Times)
But President Trump said that Mr. DeSantis "shut down Florida," and the state "was tight as a drum." He added: "He had vax lines. He was vaxxing everything. Now, he talks about the vaccinations this and that."
"And let me tell you the other thing. I will send you, after this conversation, five articles about how much he loves Dr. Fauci," he continued. "'I do what Dr. Fauci says. This is Ron DeSantimonious. I do what Dr. Fauci says.' That’s what he says. And I’ve got the articles here. But he doesn’t like to go back."
The spat over Dr. Fauci, who stepped down from his federal government positions in late 2022, comes as some hospitals, schools, and businesses have reinstated mask mandates. In a Thursday news conference, the Florida governor announced that there won't be any new mandates in his state, reiterating a prior stance he has taken.
The former president added: "To every covid tyrant who wants to take away our freedom, hear these words: we will not comply, so don't even think about it. We will not shut down our schools; we will not accept your lockdowns; we will not abide by your mask mandates; and we will not tolerate your vaccine mandates.
“Even today, parts of our country are forcing children to wear masks in the classroom,” Mr. DeSantis told the news conference. “Those mandates are [dead on arrival’ in Florida, and we will protect parents and children from this perpetual COVID hysteria.”
As for President Trump, he released a video several days ago saying that Americans should "not comply" with any lockdowns, mandates, or other COVID-19 rules.
"The left-wing lunatics are trying very hard to bring back COVID lockdowns and mandates with all of their sudden fearmongering about the new variants that are coming," he said. "Gee whiz, you know what else is coming? An election."
The former president continued: "To every COVID tyrant who wants to take away our freedom, hear these words: we will not comply, so don't even think about it. We will not shut down our schools; we will not accept your lockdowns; we will not abide by your mask mandates; and we will not tolerate your vaccine mandates.
That is a long time to be a department head, way too long in my opinion. I spent some time in big organizations. Usually people are climbing the ladder or moving on to the next best thing.
“Stop the circular firing squad, people, please!”
But that’s what a lot of posters here do mainly because they don’t have a clue.
How many here have actually fired a civil service employee? Try it with an employee that has 30+ years on the job and see what happens. It is a known fact that Federal managers know that it is nearly impossible to fire a civil service employee.
Suppose you were successful in removing Fauci and survive the turmoil that Trump would receive, who would replace him. There was that Debra lady with the scarf and after her was another lady Rochelle Walensky which would be your choice?
Sometimes it is better to stick with the devil you know than the devil you don’t know.
President Trump handled the nightmare the best he could and I doubt if anyone here could have done better.
First of all, he’s civil service, and you’re not allowed to fire him.
He’s right guess why there’s so many swamp members in D.C. they are lifers it’s a big problem.
aka the suck up bunch
And Fauci was an admitted liar. You just bring that up at every covid presser. After you give him the podium. Explain that he is a liar. Do this for a week and he will self evacuate.
The Covid task force was a temporary position. Trump/Pence could have sent him back to his day job. On a slightly different note, how many civil servants do you know that are fully vested stick around when eligible to retire? Getting rid of rank and file civil servants is possible, but takes some time.
Trump the ONLY president who did not start stupid foreign wars or continued asinine foreign wars with borrowed money
Trump the only president who actually built a substantial wall on southern border in spite of resistance from deep state.
Trump gave us record low unemployment.
Trump gave us record low gas prices (inflation adjusted).
Trump gave us record low inflation.
Trump nominated 3 good persons to SCOTUS.
Trump gave us biggest tax cut in history.
Trump stopped N Korea from launching rockets with just personal relationship with Kim. DeSantis or any others have no such personality.
Putin did not invade anybody when Trump was president.
Trump built strongest US military in history.
Pipe dream. Money involved. Fauci has no shame.
That’s true. But having trump as nominee will result in another 2020. Oh goodie.
Doesn’t work that way here lol
I hate Trump now!!!!
(Hurling myself on my bed squalling)
Yeah. And return the highest tax increase in history in 2025. Oh he’s groovy.
You are quite the Monday Morning quarterback.
I’m not sure what your point is other than to be split-hairs. No one is claiming that Florida was the first to drop lockdowns. It was one of the earliest to do so, often by only a few days from other earlier states. It was also one of the last to start a lockdown, and both ends were in phases that did not strictly follow the Trump administration’s recommendations, depending on the lockdown’s target.
DeSantis’ reelection results are a good indication that Floridians liked how he handled the lockdowns and that he opposed mandating the jab, among other things. Trump should’ve had a similar outcome for 2020 if the various fraudulent activities hadn’t taken place. I was looking forward to the demographic breakdown of the voters after watching WalkAway videos and the like.
Obviously you haven't read each and every comment made on this thread, or the comments from Reno telling me to never post to them again, so you are actually chastising me for Reno's original calls to censor me.
Reno repeatedly puts crap out there on multiple threads as often as they can. It's the same crap repeated over and over, that are nothing but rumors they made up, innuendoes, and gossip. This time, like in the past, they once again brought Melania Trump into their gossip mongering. Then they throw a temper tantrum when they are challenged about it, then cry victim, and demand people stop making comments to them. Yet they want to continue being able to promote cow manure without anyone refuting those claims. If you don't want to be challenged, don't offer gossip you have no evidence to back up.
The only messenger/replies being killed here are the ones Reno doesn't like. If you don't like the comment you ignore it, but you don't act like a freaking baby, and whine that you're being picked on, because someone replies to your lies. This isn't kindergarten. I've been here 26 years, and I've never seen such a bunch of cry babies who can't deal with having their crap comments responded to.
Ummm, I think we’re in agreement.
LOL!! I can say anything I want, and you can’t challenge me on it. In fact, you can’t even comment on anything I write. You’re a big, fat meanie, and I’m not going to put up with it. I’m going to have Jim Robinson give you 20 lashes with a wet noodle if you dare to question anything I say on Free Republic, or ever comment to me again. 🤣
They just all push Nuland and Blinken talking points and ignore any facts or alleged facts that don’t fit
Their sourcing ranges from neocon and uniparty to woke ideologues
Putin is Stalin
Russia is commie unchanged from 1980s
Maiden never happened and so what if it did
Patrick Lancaster is a Russian agent
And if Russia isn’t poised to take us over there is always China in the bullpen
And what culture war?
And Trump sucks too btw for most of them
You can see how the puzzle pieces fit
And throw in confirmation bias which makes empirical discussion on this forum pretty impossible today in general but especially this
When it’s all over they will deny deny deny
Wish this forum still had cache like 20 years ago
Thanks for the input of sanity. The main thing I've found is that most of them pushing this proxy war, don't seem to mind that none of the billions being sent to Ukraine are being accounted for on the other end, or that this country is being destroyed from within. For them, Ukraine is the important thing, not what's going on in their own country. They've got blinders on when it comes to that. I don't know how any of them can call themselves Americans anymore, when they are cheering on this country's destruction by supporting Biden's proxy war.
Yup, this.
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