During the same Thursday briefing in which he nuked a CNN story about the Biden administration’s coronavirus vaccine distribution efforts, White House chief medical adviser Dr. Tony Fauci and members of the far-left White House press corps shared a laugh as they commiserated about having scrapped by in 2020 as the Trump administration made their lives miserable.
Fauci cracked open this door when Fox News’s Peter Doocy asked him an important question about Amazon’s newfound willingness to participate in vaccines: “How helpful would it have been if Amazon got involved with the federal response to COVID-19 before Biden took office? And do you know about any plans or discussions ahead of yesterday?”
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases head deflected, claiming he didn’t “think I could answer that question.”
But instead of stopping there, he took the first of many petty digs at now-former President Donald Trump and the many, many others that made up the Coronavirus Task Force: “I'd be waving my hands about that. Sorry. But you know, one of the new things in this administration is if you don't know the answer, don't guess. Just say you don't know the answer. Yeah.”
Two questioners later, the Associated Press’s Zeke Miller continued down that road by wondering about Fauci’s “experience with this new team and, in your view, what would have been different in terms of the trajectory of this outbreak from the start had a team like this been in place at the beginning.”
Fauci took this as yet another chance to impugn and lambaste the previous team and, when Miller lobbed a follow-up, Fauci continued (click “expand”):
FAUCI: Well, I can tell you my — my impression of — of what's going on right now. The team — I don't know if I can extrapolate other things but one of the things that was very clear as recently as about 15 minutes ago when I was with the President is that one of the things that we're going to do is to be completely transparent, open and honest. If things go wrong, not point fingers but to correct them and to make everything we do be based on science and evidence. I mean, that was literally a conversation I had 15 minutes ago with the President. And he has said that multiple times.
MILLER: Is there anything that you — looking back on your comments the last 10, 12, months, would like to now -- with that license to — to — to amend or clarify?
FAUCI: No. I mean, I always said everything on the -- that's why I got in trouble sometimes.
[REPORTERS LAUGH]
FAUCI: Yeah, right.
New York Times reporter Michael Shear closed out the Fauci portion of the briefing by acknowledging Fauci seemed to have “joked a couple times today already about the difference in — that you feel in being kind of the spokesperson for this issue in this administration versus the previous one” and thus he wanted to know “how free,” “different,” and “released” he feels now that Trump isn't “standing behind you.”
Fauci was more than happy to oblige, chuckling himself and drawing raucous laughter from his fellow Swamp denizens (click “expand”):
FAUCI: Yeah, but you said I was joking about it. I was very serious about it. [LAUGHS] I wasn't joking. No, actually, I mean, obviously, I don't want to be going back, you know, over history, but it's very clear that there were things that were said, be it regarding things like hydroxychloroquine and other things like that really was an uncomfortable [sic] because they were not based on scientific fact. I can tell you, I take no pleasure at all in being in a situation of contradicting the President. So it was really something that you didn't feel that you could actually say something and there wouldn't be any repercussions about it. The idea that you can get up here and talk about what you know, what the evidence — what the science is, and know that's it, let the science speak, it is somewhat of a liberating feeling.
SHEAR: I mean, you were basically banished for a few months there for a while. You feel like you're back now?
FAUCI: I think so.
PSAKI: Well —
FAUCI: Okay.
[FAUCI, REPORTERS LAUGH]
PSAKI: — that’s Mike Shear. You don’t want to take questions from him.
[FAUCI, REPORTERS LAUGH]
PSAKI: Thank you, Dr. Fauci, so much for joining us. We really appreciate it and we'll have him back again.
Reacting to Fauci’s hobnobbing and gallivanting after the briefing, Greg Gutfeld teed off The Five about Fauci as “a political animal” who, in an office setting, comes off as “one of those coworkers that plays the field politically and will always end up being on the side of whoever’s in charge, which is why he spewed these talking points at the start that seem contradictory to actually happened.”
Gutfeld added that, while Trump “often quibbled with” him, “[t]here was nothing that Fauci said as advice that ever ignored by Trump” (including the need for lockdowns) and was arguably “ahead of Fauci when it came to the travel ban on China.”
To see the relevant transcript from January 21's briefing, click “expand.”
White House Press Briefing
January 21, 2021
4:12 p.m. EasternPETER DOOCY: How helpful would it have been if Amazon got involved with the federal response to COVID-19 before Biden took office? And do you know about any plans or discussions ahead of yesterday?
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI: No, I don't think I could answer that question. I'd be waving my hands about that. Sorry. But you know, one of the new things in this administration is if you don't know the answer, don't guess. Just say you don't know the answer. Yeah.
(....)
4:15 p.m. Eastern
ZEKE MILLER: Dr. Fauci, you're one of the few holdovers from the previous administration, to this current one. What has been your experience with this new team and, in your view, what would have been different in terms of the trajectory of this outbreak from the start had a team like this been in place at the beginning?
FAUCI: Well, I can tell you my — my impression of — of what's going on right now. The team — I don't know if I can extrapolate other things but one of the things that was very clear as recently as about 15 minutes ago when I was with the President is that one of the things that we're going to do is to be completely transparent, open and honest. If things go wrong, not point fingers but to correct them and to make everything we do be based on science and evidence. I mean, that was literally a conversation I had 15 minutes ago with the President. And he has said that multiple times.
MILLER: Is there anything that you — looking back on your comments the last 10, 12, months, would like to now -- with that license to — to — to amend or clarify?
FAUCI: No. I mean, I always said everything on the -- that's why I got in trouble sometimes.
[REPORTERS LAUGH]FAUCI: Yeah, right.
(....)
4:22 p.m. Eastern
MICHAEL SHEAR: Dr. Fauci —
FAUCI: Yes.
SHEAR: You’ve joked a couple times today already about the difference in — that you feel in being kind of the spokesperson for this issue in this administration versus the previous one. Can you — can you talk a little bit about how free — how much different do you feel? Less constrained? What is the — you know, you for so many times you stood up behind the podium with Donald Trump standing behind you. That was a different — that was a different feeling, I'm sure, than it is today. Can you talk a little bit about how you feel kind of released from — from what you had been doing for the last year?
FAUCI: Yeah, but you said I was joking about it. I was very serious about it. [LAUGHS] I wasn't joking. No, actually, I mean, obviously, I don't want to be going back, you know, over history, but it's very clear that there were things that were said, be it regarding things like hydroxychloroquine and other things like that really was an uncomfortable [sic] because they were not based on scientific fact. I can tell you, I take no pleasure at all in being in a situation of contradicting the President. So it was really something that you didn't feel that you could actually say something and there wouldn't be any repercussions about it. The idea that you can get up here and talk about what you know, what the evidence — what the science is, and know that's it, let the science speak, it is somewhat of a liberating feeling.
SHEAR: I mean, you were basically banished for a few months there for a while. You feel like you're back now?
FAUCI: I think so.
PSAKI: Well —
FAUCI: Okay.
[FAUCI, REPORTERS LAUGH]
PSAKI: — that’s Mike Shear. You don’t want to take questions from him.
[FAUCI, REPORTERS LAUGH]
PSAKI: Thank you, Dr. Fauci, so much for joining us. We really appreciate it and we'll have him back again.
