Fauci Knocks ‘Trump Loyalists’ in Fox Interview: Telling the Truth About His Covid Comments ‘Annoyed Them’

Dr. Anthony Fauci talked on Friday about the criticism he has faced, remarking that “loyalists” of former President Donald Trump got “annoyed” with him for telling the truth.

Neil Cavuto spoke with Fauci and asked him about reactions to his fiery exchange with Senator Rand Paul over whether the National Institutes of Health funded gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, including a critical piece from Washington Post columnist Josh Rogin.

One comment Cavuto brought up was Congressman Madison Cawthorn accusing Fauci of being a “pawn for the Chinese Communist Party” and saying “we want to prosecute this guy to the full ability of the law.”

“Think about what you got involved with with President Trump in the beginning when all of this started,” Cavuto said. “Have you ever gotten to the point where you just want to say, ‘The hell with it? I don’t need this?'”

“No,” Fauci responded. “I’m a scientist and my job… is to be a scientist and a public health official. I certainly don’t like how all of this has turned out to be so contentious.”

Cavuto asked if this comes back to his pushback on some of what the former president said about the virus.

Fauci responded:

I think there’s no doubt that because I had to speak the truth during the Trump administration, which at times was contrary to President Trump, that that annoyed a lot of people who got very upset with me. But I wasn’t doing anything personal, I was just trying to speak the truth about what was really going on with the outbreak. It was nothing at all against President Trump. And in fact, if you look at the record, I have never said anything derogatory against the president. I was only talking about correcting misstatements about the science. I had nothing against the president at all. Not at all. He knows that. In fact, he even says that at times. But when I was saying things that this is not going to just disappear, that this is not going to just go away, that we do have a very serious problem, that annoyed a lot of Trump loyalists. I’m sorry it annoyed them but it is the truth. And that’s what I was trying to do and still do, is to tell the truth.

You can watch above, via Fox News.