The Trump campaign is refusing to take down an ad which features Dr. Anthony Fauci saying, purportedly, of the president, “I can't imagine that anybody could be doing more [about COVID].”
Fauci blasted Trump's use of the clip in a statement to CNN on Sunday: “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.”
Trump campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh defended the use of Fauci in the ad and said it would continue to run it: “These are Dr. Fauci's own words. The video is from a nationally broadcast television interview in which Dr. Fauci was praising the work of the Trump Administration. The words spoken are accurate, and directly from Dr. Fauci's mouth.”
NBC News adds: “As Trump was recovering from his infection, Fauci said last week that the Rose Garden ceremony announcing federal appeals Judge Amy Coney Barrett's nomination to the Supreme Court was a ‘superspreader event,' as multiple attendees have since tested positive for the virus. In the days around Trump's Covid-19 diagnosis, 23 people close to him and three Republican senators have tested positive.”
