Dr. Fauci Endorses Mask Mandate Similar to Biden Plan, Brushes Off Trump’s False Claim That He’s a Democrat

Dr. Anthony Fauci dismissed President Donald Trump’s ongoing attacks on him and publicly endorsed the idea of a nationwide mask mandate that sounded very similar to the proposal from 2020 Democratic challenger Joe Biden.

During an appearance on CNN’s OutFront, the nation’s top infectious diseases expert addressed a number of issues with host Erin Burnett.

After a lengthy update on the progress of Covid-19 therapeutic drug approvals and the pace of the ongoing vaccine trials, Burnett turned to Fauci’s increasingly fraught role as an campaign issue in the 2020 election.

“So I understand, you know, you don’t want to wade into politics, but masks are not political, they shouldn’t be political, right?” Burnett said. “We see the president at these rallies and people don’t wear masks. And Joe Biden does have a really different plan. Today he talked about it and specifically talked about making mask wearing mandatory.”

After a clip from a Friday speech where Biden talked about pushing state governors and local leaders to require masks, Burnet noted that the Democrat would also make face-masks mandatory on federal property and on interstate transportation. “Is this what a President of the United States would be helpful if they were doing, fighting for mask mandates?” she asked.

“One of the issues that people that talk about mandating not be a good idea, because then they have to enforce it and it will be a difficulty enforcing it,” Fauci acknowledged, before pushing back on that idea and implicitly endorsing a Biden-like pain. “But if everyone agrees that this is something that’s important, and they mandated it, and everyone pulls together and says, ‘We’re going to mandate it, but let’s just do it,’ I think that would be a great idea to have everybody do it uniformly. One of the issues, though, I get the argument that says if you mandate a mask, then you have to enforce it, creating more of a problem. If people are not wearing masks, then maybe we should be mandating it.”

Minutes later, as the Burnett wrapped up the interview she brought up Trump very notably dismissing Fauci’s prognoses during the second presidential debate on Thursday and saying of the public health official: “I think he’s a Democrat.” Fauci, who has served in both Republican and Democratic administration, has never endorsed a political candidate and is not, in fact, a registered Democrat.

“You made it clear obviously you’re not registered to either party,” Burnett affirmed. “And as I’ve said on this show, it’s irrelevant what you are, it’s not relevant to what you do. But he keeps saying this to disparage you, to kind of bring your reputation down among people to whom that would seem to be a negative. Do you think he’s trying to get you to quit?

“I don’t think so, Erin. I don’t pay attention to that kind of thing,” Fauci responded. “I have the ability to just focus like a laser on what I need to do. And my job, through vaccines, through therapies and by public health measures, is to safeguard the health, safety of the American public. These other kind of things, people may find it difficult to believe, are mere distractions. They don’t bother me. I know what my job is, and I’m going to do it. So that kind of — whatever you want to call it — is to me, it’s just noise.”

Watch the video above, via CNN.