Dr. Anthony Fauci admitted on Thursday to sometimes feeling "uncomfortable" during the Trump administration and described the ability to now speak honestly and openly as "liberating."
Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert and President Biden's chief medical adviser, made the comments during his first White House press briefing under Biden. He also promised the new administration will make all of its decisions "based on science and evidence," while noting he "got in trouble sometimes" for his honesty under former President Donald Trump.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
"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," Fauci said. "The idea that you can get up here and talk about what you know, what the science is, and know that's it, let the science speak, it is somewhat of a liberating feeling."
Fauci was known to contradict Trump's rosier or scientifically baseless comments about the COVID-19 pandemic, drawing the president's ire. Trump once attacked Fauci as an idiot and also floated the idea of firing him after the election. At Thursday's briefing, Fauci told reporters he felt "uncomfortable" by "things that were said" under Trump that were "not based on scientific fact," and he also pointed to another difference between the old and new administration.
"One of the new things in this administration is if you don't know the answer, don't guess," Fauci said. "Just say you don't know the answer."
Later, when a reporter noted that Fauci had "joked" a few times about the differences in two administrations, Fauci laughed and shot back, "I was very serious about it. I wasn't joking." Brendan Morrow
-
Is the Catholic Church taking on Trump?Today's Big Question Pope calls for ‘deep reflection’ on immigration
-
Political cartoons for November 10Cartoons Monday's political cartoons include TSA delays, gerrymandering, and the power of the filibuster
-
Gopichand Hinduja and the UK's richest familyIn The Spotlight Following the death of the patriarch, the family’s ‘Succession-like’ feuds are ‘likely to get worse’
-
Has Zohran Mamdani shown the Democrats how to win again?Today’s Big Question New York City mayoral election touted as victory for left-wing populists but moderate centrist wins elsewhere present more complex path for Democratic Party
-
Senate votes to kill Trump’s Brazil tariffSpeed Read Five Senate Republicans joined the Democrats in rebuking Trump’s import tax
-
Border Patrol gets scrutiny in court, gains power in ICESpeed Read Half of the new ICE directors are reportedly from DHS’s more aggressive Customs and Border Protection branch
-
Shutdown stalemate nears key pain pointsSpeed Read A federal employee union called for the Democrats to to stand down four weeks into the government standoff
-
Trump vows new tariffs on Canada over Reagan adspeed read The ad that offended the president has Ronald Reagan explaining why import taxes hurt the economy
-
NY attorney general asks public for ICE raid footageSpeed Read Rep. Dan Goldman claims ICE wrongly detained four US citizens in the Canal Street raid and held them for a whole day without charges
-
Trump’s huge ballroom to replace razed East WingSpeed Read The White House’s east wing is being torn down amid ballroom construction
-
Trump expands boat strikes to Pacific, killing 5 moreSpeed Read The US military destroyed two more alleged drug smuggling boats in international waters
