'I appreciate the advice': Trump tells crowd chanting, 'Fire Fauci!' to wait until after election

OPA-LOCKA, Fla. – President Donald Trump suggested to a crowd of supporters Sunday that if elected to a second term, he would fire Anthony Fauci, the nation's leader on infectious diseases who has pushed back on the president's rosy outlook on the coronavirus.

Trump made the remark during a rally that capped off a marathon day in which the president visited five battleground states.

"We're going to have a safe vaccine that ends the pandemic," Trump promised the crowd. Even without it, he said, "we're rounding the turn."

He repeated complaints he has made along the campaign trail about being tired of discussing the pandemic, which has killed more than 231,000 people in the USA, and again claimed that his opponents would no longer be concerned about the virus after the election.

"Fire Fauci!" the crowd began to chant.

Trump paused briefly to listen to the refrain before telling his supporters, "Don't tell anybody, but let me wait till a little bit after the election, please."

"I appreciate the advice. I appreciate the advice," Trump continued. "No, he's been wrong though a lot. He's a nice man though."

The president repeated his criticisms of Fauci for initially opposing the use of masks and the ban on travel from China.

In an interview with The Washington Post that was conducted Friday and published Saturday, Fauci said that contrary to the president's assertions, the USA still faces a "whole lot of hurt" from the virus, which causes more new cases every day than at any other point in the outbreak.

"It's not a good situation," said Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984. "All the stars are aligned in the wrong place as you go into the fall and winter season, with people congregating at home indoors. You could not possibly be positioned more poorly."

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Fauci praised Democratic nominee Joe Biden's adherence to recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Fauci told the Post that Biden's campaign "is taking it seriously from a public health perspective." He said Trump is "looking at it from a different perspective" focused on "the economy and reopening the country."

The White House labeled Fauci a member of "the swamp."

"It’s unacceptable and breaking with all norms for Dr. Fauci, a senior member of the president’s Coronavirus Task Force and someone who has praised President Trump’s actions throughout this pandemic, to choose three days before an election to play politics," White House spokesman Judd Deere said.

Deere said Fauci should push for changes internally but instead chose "to criticize the president in the media and make his political leanings known by praising the president’s opponent – exactly what the American people have come to expect from the swamp."

Last month, the president called Fauci "a disaster" who drops a "bomb" every time he goes on television after the doctor told CBS News' "60 Minutes" he was "absolutely not" surprised Trump – who he said regularly eschewed the use of masks "as a statement of strength" – contracted COVID-19.

"He sometimes equates wearing a mask with weakness," Fauci said, adding that view made no sense to him.

After the interview, Trump told supporters at a rally, "People are tired of hearing Fauci and all these idiots."

Asked why he didn't fire Fauci, Trump said, "I don’t want to. I don’t want to hurt him. He’s been there for about 350 years."

Contributing: David Jackson

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Will Trump fire Anthony Fauci after the election?