White House Aide Claims That Peter Navarro ‘Went Rogue’ In Anti Fauci Op Ed to Jake Sherman
Politico’s Jake Sherman reported a bit of White House intrigue surrounding the brewing animus between Economic Advisor Peter Navarro and Dr. Anthony Fauci during a Wednesday morning appearance on Morning Joe.
The Director of the Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy, wrote in USA Today Tuesday night that during the coronavirus crisis, the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases has been wrong several times. “Dr. Anthony Fauci has a good bedside manner with the public, but he has been wrong about everything I have interacted with him on,” Navarro wrote, just days after the White House ostensibly released opposition research undermining Fauci’s credibility.
But Sherman, a well-connected and respected White House reporter, revealed on MSNBC that he had just received a text message from a senior White House aide who noted: “that Peter Navarro went rogue and he bypassed the Op-Ed approval process in writing in the nation’s largest paper, USA Today, that he doesn’t trust Anthony Fauci.”
Speaking on behalf of a nation of confused citizens, Sherman added: “I’m not actually sure if that’s better or worse, frankly, and it kind of leaves me speechless that a senior aide to the president would publish an Op-Ed on his own, but that’s what their line is, is that they didn’t approve this Op-Ed, and they did it without permission.”
ABC News is corroborating Sherman’s reporting:
A White House official tells @ABC that Peter Navarro’s anti-Fauci USA TODAY op-ed was not signed off on by the White House’s communications office
— Ben Gittleson (@bgittleson) July 15, 2020
It’s worth pointing out that White House officials have yet to agree to go on the record with these statements https://t.co/xvzxgfBpmG
— Katherine Faulders (@KFaulders) July 15, 2020
Watch above via MSNBC.
