When asked, “Why do you think you re the target of so many accusations about covering up the source of COVID-19?” Fauci claimed it was politically motivated.
the things that he was saying that were just not true. neil: like hydrox cychlorquine, on that and the bleach thing. how did he react to that, doctor? how do i react to that? how did he react to that, you challenging him on that. well, i mean, at the time he was not very aggressive against me at all. he always acted in a rather gentlemanly way with me. it was only when the attention turned away from the outbreak and focused very much on the economy and the election, when he was out on the stump talking to people, then the fire fauci this and fire fauci that came up. i mean, whether or not he really felt that way, you ll have to ask him, but that s when things turned in the wrong
neil: a cure for this, or a remedy for this? exactly. neil: you challenged him on that, and on the bleach thing. how did he react to that, doctor? how do i react to that? neil: how did he react to you challenging him on that? well, i mean, at the time he was not very aggressive against me at all. he always acted in a rather gentlemanly way with me. it was only when the attention turned away from the outbreak and focused very much on the economy and election, when he was out on the stump talking to the people, then the fire fauci this and fire fauci that came up. i mean, whether or not he really felt that way, you ll have to ask him. that s when things turned in the wrong direction. on a daily basis from the beginning, my relationship was quite good with him.
hiv/aids crisis, zika, and obviously most notably covid. that is where he became a serious political hot button issue. he is somebody that progressives and democrats continue to hold up as kind of a paragon of what the government is supposed to be about and he is somebody that conservatives have villified and become the face of many of the policies conservatives push back very sharply against, whether it s masking or the shutdowns that transpired in the early days of the covid pandemic. he obviously had very sharp disagreements with former president donald trump, most of which were behind the scenes and spilled out publicly in the wake of that and has become a rallying cry for some republicans, fire fauci, which didn t start with republicans and covid, it was aids and hiv activists when he was leading in that role. he eventually came to side with them on many of those issues. that has not happened with covid. he s been the chief medical advisor to president biden. president biden very
name. we are still at low risk in the american public, but we want to keep it at low risk. reporter: always pushing for science first in president trump s white house. fauci at times exasperated, his face in hand. he became the target of death threats, and a rallying cry for conservatives opposed to masks and lockdowns. fire fauci! reporter: as the virus claimed more than a million lives in the u.s., fauci acknowledged early missteps, like when he advised against wearing masks. we didn t realize at all the extent of asymptomatic spread. reporter: now at 81, after half a century of government service, the nation s top infectious disease expert saying it s time for his next chapter. next chapter, 81 years young. cecilia, dr. fauci making it clear he s leaving government, but he s not retiring. reporter: yeah, david, he s adamant there s more to come. he s said to be working on a book, but as much as he might look to leave the politics, that might not be so easy. republica