Trump Retweets, Later Deletes Tweet Calling for Him to Fire Dr. Fauci

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President Donald Trump retweeted––and later deleted––a tweet calling for him to fire Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases who has become the national face of the White House Coronavirus Task Force.

The tweet came from DeAnna Lorraine, a former Republican Congressional candidate who is still tweeting similar messages. Earlier today, she suggested that liberals “bothered” by the president’s retweet are wasting their time calling for Trump to be removed from office.

The president, meanwhile, defended his decision to temporarily ban travel to and from China to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

“I banned China long before people spoke up,” he wrote, in part.

In an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper, Dr. Fauci said the country “could’ve saved lives” if mitigation tactics had begun earlier.

You know, Jake, as I have said many times, we look at it from a pure health standpoint,” he said. “We make a recommendation. Often, the recommendation is taken. Sometimes it’s not. But we — it is what it is. We are where we are right now.”

During an appearance on Fox News, Dr. Fauci addressed criticisms about the decision to shut down the economy amidst the pandemic, saying he is “humble enough” to explore other solutions, but accepts “the choice we made.”

“We felt at the time and still do now that that was the right thing to do. Could there have been other approaches? I mean I’m humble enough to know that maybe there could be,” he said. “That was the choice we made. Based on the information that we have, one can always second guess. But that happens. This is a serious situation that has impacted a lot of people.”