Dr. Anthony Fauci Discusses His ‘Very Complicated Relationship’ With Donald Trump on ‘Colbert’
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
Dr. Anthony Fauci appeared on The Late Show on Monday night to promote his new memoir, On Call. The former Chief Medical Advisor to the President of United States took the opportunity to chat with host Stephen Colbert about his challenging relationship with Donald Trump during the Covid pandemic.
After a discussion about Fauci’s earlier career, Colbert asked Fauci about the chapter in his book titled “He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not,” inquiring why he picked that name.
More from Rolling Stone
Court Declines Trump's Bid to Appeal His Hush-Money Gag Order
Rep. Byron Donalds Wants Supreme Court to 'Step in' and Overturn Trump Conviction
Trump Challenges Biden to Cognitive Test, Forgets Name of His White House Doctor
“I had a very complicated relationship with President Trump,” Fauci replied. “In the very beginning we got along very well. I write in the book I don’t know whether it’s because two guys from New York, him from Queens, me from Brooklyn, that we kind of understood each other and we got along very, very well early on. It was only when what he was saying and began to say — because he wanted so much for this thing to go away that he was saying things that were incorrect.”
He added that he had to speak out against what Trump said “although it was not comfortable for me to do it.”
“Although the people who attacked me think I did it to sort of tear him down, it was not,” Fauci said. “Because I have a great deal of respect for the presidency of the United States… I had to contradict him publicly because he was saying things that were not correct. Once that happened, then both he and mostly his staff, not so much the president but the staff, I became anathema. Persona non grata.”
Fauci also discussed the politicization of science in America, which he called “quite new and disturbing.”
“In the beginning there was always politics, people of different ideology,” he told Colbert of how it has changed during the time he’s worked for the government. “They disagreed and sometimes would argue with each other, but at the end of the day there was civility and respect for each other. What we’re seeing now is vitriol and pure hostility… Now, it’s pure attack.”
Fauci recently testified about his involvement in the response to the pandemic at a House Oversight Committee hearing, which devolved into chaos thanks to Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.). Green refused to address Fauci as a doctor, refused to allow him to answer questions, and said the veteran civil servant deserves to be in prison.
On Call, out today, chronicles Fauci’s life and upbringing, as well as his role in researching HIV and bringing AIDS into sympathetic public view, his leadership in navigating the Ebola, SARS, West Nile, and anthrax crises, and his work during Covid.
Best of Rolling Stone
