Fauci: I'm not going anywhere

Dareh Gregorian
Updated ·2 min read

Dr. Anthony Fauci said Monday he plans to stay in his post during the next president's term -- no matter who the president is.

"Absolutely," Fauci said on CNBC's "The News with Shepard Smith" when asked whether he would commit to stay on as head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for the next four years.

"I'm not going to walk away from this outbreak no matter who's the president," Fauci said.

Fauci has intensified his criticism of the White House's response to the coronavirus crisis in the wake of President Donald Trump's positive test for Covid-19. The normally diplomatic Fauci issued a statement Sunday blasting the Trump campaign for featuring him in an ad.

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"In my nearly five decades of public service, I have never publicly endorsed nor do I now endorse any political candidates," Fauci said in a statement. "The comments attributed to me without my permission in the GOP campaign ad were taken out of context from a broad statement I made months ago about the efforts of federal public health officials."

Trump campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh said the campaign would continue to run the ad despite Fauci's objections.

Fauci, once the face of the White House coronavirus task force, has been increasingly sidelined by the White House in favor of other advisers, such as Dr. Scott Atlas, a neuroradiologist who has more aggressively promoted reopening sectors of the economy.

Asked Monday by Smith whether he had put up with too much, Fauci said: "Obviously, there are a lot of things that are going on that you would prefer did not happen, like the ad which put me in a political context. ... That's not helpful, but I'm certainly not going to give up.

"This is too important a problem," he said. "I've devoted my entire professional life to fighting infectious diseases. This is an outbreak of historic proportions, the likes of which we have not seen in 102 years. There's no chance that I'm going to give up on this and walk away from it, no matter what happens."