's continued attacks against the nation's top infectious disease official on Monday prompted a prominent Republican lawmaker to come to the defense of Dr. Anthony Fauci.
"Dr. Fauci is one of our country's most distinguished public servants," Sen. Lamar Alexander , who chairs the Senate Health Committee, said in a statement."He has served six presidents, starting with Ronald Reagan."the longtime National Institutes of Health official, saying coronavirus experts like Fauci and others are"idiots" and that Fauci has been"a disaster.
Alexander, who is not seeking re-election and will retire at the end of his term in January, directly contradicted Trump's claim. He did not, however, explicitly mention Trump's name or reference the criticism that Trump made against Fauci."If more Americans paid attention to his advice," Alexander said,"we'd have fewer cases of COVID-19, & it would be safer to go back to school & back to work & out to eat.
Senator Lamar Alexander, a Republican from Tennessee and chairman of the Senate Health Education Labor and Pensions Committee, listens during a hearing in Washington, DC, on June 30.As of Monday, nearly 220,000 Americans have died from the deadly virus that persists in the U.S., despite Trump continuing to downplay the disease. New daily case counts are once again rising in the U.S., even as Trump holds massive campaign rallies and just recovered from his own coronavirus infection.
Trump sustained his attacks on Fauci throughout Monday, including on Twitter and to supporters at an Arizona rally. The barrage of criticism came after Fauci appeared on CBS