Lindsey Graham Defends Fauci After White House Goes After His Credibility: Trying to ‘Undermine Him’ Isn’t Productive

This past weekend an anonymous White House official sent around a statement going ater the credibility of Dr. Anthony Fauci amid the ongoing global pandemic.

On Tuesday Senator Lindsey Graham came to Fauci’s defense and said trying to go after him is just counterproductive.

“Getting in a contest with Dr. Fauci about whether he was right or wrong doesn’t move the ball forward,” Graham said, adding that it’s time for the U.S. to open “smartly.”

Sen. Lindsey Graham: "Getting in a contest with Dr. Fauci about whether he was right or wrong doesn't move the ball forward." pic.twitter.com/dY7hunUgyn

— The Recount (@therecount) July 14, 2020

Graham went on to say the problem right now isn’t Fauci:

“We don’t have a Dr. Fauci problem. We need to be focusing on doing things that get us to where we need to go. So I have all the respect in the world for Dr. Fauci. I think any effort to undermine him is not going to be productive, quite frankly.”

Sen. Lindsey Graham: "We don't have a Dr. Fauci problem. We need to be focusing on doing things that get us to where we need to go. So I have all the respect in the world for Dr. Fauci. I think any effort to undermine him is not going to be productive quite frankly." pic.twitter.com/Jbso8O8U6B

— The Recount (@therecount) July 14, 2020

The president himself said Tuesday that he has a good relationship with Fauci but just doesn’t agree with him all the time. Some Republicans have been far more critical of Fauci, with one congressman recently saying, “Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Deborah Birx continue to contradict many of President Trump’s stated goals and actions for returning to normalcy as we know more about the COVID-19 outbreak. This is causing panic that compromises our economic recovery. We can protect our most vulnerable from the COVID-19 outbreak while still protecting lives and livelihoods of the rest of the population.”

Graham recently split with Trump on his tweet going after Bubba Wallace, saying the NASCAR driver has nothing to apologize for.

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