Fauci Calls for Trump Campaign to Take Down Commercial Quoting Him Out of Context, Warns Another Ad Would Be ‘Outrageous’

Dr. Anthony Fauci had some remarkably strong words for the Trump campaign Monday after saying that an ad they feature him in — using his words from March about the federal government response to the coronavirus out of contest — should be taken down.

To briefly recap, the Trump campaign is trying to feature Fauci in a campaign ad touting the president’s accomplishments, but Fauci himself responded in a statement Sunday saying that the campaign is taking him out of context. The Trump camp still continued to defend using the clip anyway despite his objections.

On Monday, CNN’s Jake Tapper spoke with Fauci and directly asked him, “Should the Trump campaign take this ad down?”

“I think so,” Fauci said. “I think it’s really unfortunate and really disappointing that they did that. It’s so clear I’m not a political person. I have never either directly or directly endorsed a candidate. And to take a completely out of context statement and put it in which is obviously a political campaign ad, I thought was really very disappointing.”

“What would you say if I told you I heard the Trump campaign was preparing to do another ad featuring you?” Tapper asked.

“That would be terrible. That would be outrageous if they do that,” Fauci bluntly said. “In fact, that might actually come to backfire on them. I hope they don’t do that. That would be kind of playing a game that we don’t want to play. I hope they reconsider that, if in fact they are indeed considering doing that. I hope they reconsider and not do that.”

You can watch above, via CNN.