Poor Dr. Anthony Fauci.
The good doc, who is the nation’s leading infectious disease expert and has long been at the forefront of our collective battle against the coronavirus, now has a bone to pick with President Donald Trump! And that’s because Trump took a quote from Fauci and wrapped it up in misleading context as part of a new ad for his campaign ahead of next month’s presidential election.
Related: Flashback To Our Iconic Trump Zinger From The 2015 Miss Universe Pageant!
In the ad, which you can see on video in full (below), a narrator touts Trump’s supposedly strong response to the COVID-19 pandemic with a bunch of half-truths and ridiculous statements. Which, fine, that’s what a campaign ad is — all bull s**t.
But as you can see near the end of the ad itself, it’s when a clip of Fauci pops up that we really must take notice here, as he is quoted as saying “I can’t imagine that anybody could be doing more.”
Trump’s campaign team ran with that old quote and, well, here we are:
As a public servant and career civil service worker who only wants to help the American people regardless of who’s in power, the use of his comments for a campaign ad terrified Dr. Fauci.
The infectious disease expert told CNN on Sunday that his comments were misquoted, and he was not referring to Trump but rather the career public health professionals who were working around the clock to respond to the pandemic (below):
“In my nearly five decades of public service, I have never publicly endorsed any political candidate. The comments attributed to me without my permission in the GOP campaign ad were taken out of context from a broad statement I made months ago about the efforts of federal public health officials [and not just Trump.]”
It’s a cynical ploy by the Trump administration to use Fauci’s name and reputation in such a way, of course. But the President will increasingly do anything to try to win next month’s election as times get desperate — especially considering how badly he bungled his actual coronavirus response over the past eight or so months.
And of course, Fauci is wildly popular in America, and Trump is not. So, that may have something to do with it. Trump always hates when people are more well-liked than he is!! (Which is actually kind of ironic because, spoiler alert: barely anybody likes Trump!) Just saying!!!
Related: Trump Didn’t Learn A Damn Thing While He Was Sick With COVID-19!
Anyways, what do U make of this hilariously and offensively misleading Fauci ad, Perezcious readers?! Poor Doctor Fauci. Just quit if this is the way you’re getting treated, man!
Then again, maybe he’s holding out hope Joe Biden can win the Presidency and restore some normalcy to the whole office.
Doesn’t that sound nice right about now…
[Image via WENN/Instar]
The post Ridiculously Misleading Trump Campaign Ad On Coronavirus Response Misquotes Fauci — And The Doctor Is Pissed! appeared first on Perez Hilton.