The head of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Francis Collins, says no one from the White House has asked him to fire Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
During an interview on NBC’s “Meet The Press” on Sunday, Collins was asked if he has been requested to demote of fire Fauci.
He responded, “Nobody has asked me to do that. And I find that concept unimaginable.”
“And I am amused that everybody’s calling me Dr. Fauci’s boss because his real boss is his wife, Christine Grady. She might have something to say about that,” Collins said.
Watch the video below:
EXCLUSIVE on #MTP: @NIHDirector, Dr. Francis Collins says he finds the idea of firing Dr. Fauci "unimaginable." pic.twitter.com/sOHdi2OGNj
— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) July 19, 2020
His comments come as several reports have suggested that White House officials are trying to undermine Fauci.
However, members of the White House coronavirus task force denied that officials were trying to stifle Fauci because President Donald Trump does not like his advice.
But, after days of denying that the White House that there was a campaign against Fauci, trade advisor Peter Navarro published an op-ed in USA Today that blasted Fauci’s credibility, as IJR reported.
“Dr. Anthony Fauci has a good bedside manner with the public, but he has been wrong about everything I have interacted with him on,” Navarro wrote.
However, on Wednesday, White House Director of Strategic Communications Alyssa Farah said Navarro circumvented the normal process for publishing op-eds.
“The Peter Navarro op-ed didn’t go through normal White House clearance processes and is the opinion of Peter alone. [Trump] values the expertise of the medical professionals advising his Administration,” Farah said in a tweet.
The Peter Navarro op-ed didn’t go through normal White House clearance processes and is the opinion of Peter alone. @realDonaldTrump values the expertise of the medical professionals advising his Administration.
— Alyssa Farah (@Alyssafarah) July 15, 2020
And when Trump was asked about the op-ed, he said, “Well, he made a statement representing himself. He shouldn’t be doing that.”
“I have a very good relationship with Anthony,” he added.
Fauci also addressed the “bizarre” attempts to discredit him. In an interview with The Atlantic, Fauci said, “I think if you talk to reasonable people in the White House, they realize that was a major mistake on their part, because it doesn’t do anything but reflect poorly on them. And I don’t think that that was their intention.”
And he addressed Navarro’s op-ed and said he is in “a world by himself.”
