I couldn’t fire Fauci but he wasn’t a ‘big player’ during COVID

Former President Donald Trump revealed Wednesday that he had no right to fire Dr. Anthony Fauci but clarified that the White House COVID czar wasn’t a “big player” in his administration during the pandemic.

“The biggest knock on your presidency is you kept Dr. Fauci,” conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt asked the former president. “Why did you keep Dr. Fauci?”

“First of all, you’re not allowed. He’s civil service, and you’re not allowed to fire him,” Trump, 77, responded.

“But forget that, because I don’t necessarily go by everything. But Dr. Fauci would tell me things, and I wouldn’t do them, in many cases. But also, he wasn’t a big player in my administration.”

The former National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director under Trump and President Biden pushed aggressive masking and social distancing mandates in an attempt to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

“Dr. Fauci became a big player in the administration of Biden. He’s a very big player in Biden’s administration,” Trump told Hewitt, adding that the White House chief medical adviser “was a radical no-masker” who “became a super radical masker” over time.

At a rally in Florida days before ballots were cast in 2020, however, the former president floated the idea that he would let Fauci go after winning re-election.

“Don’t tell anybody, but let me wait until a little bit after the election. I appreciate the advice,” Trump said to attendees shouting, “Fire Fauci! Fire Fauci!”

The doctor was also a part of the Trump administration’s “Operation Warp Speed” effort to fast-track COVID vaccinations.

Fauci was not a Trump administration political appointee, which would have made his firing difficult, but federal civil service employees may be ousted for misconduct or unacceptable performance.

If he was fired, Fauci would also have been able to appeal the decision to the Merit Systems Protection Board, which litigates such matters.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is in a distant second place to Trump in the 2024 GOP primary, has frequently criticized the former president for his decision to keep Fauci onboard.

During last month’s first Republican presidential debate, DeSantis, 44, declared he would have sacked Fauci had he been in office during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“[W]hen Ron DeSantis says on the debate stage you didn’t fire Fauci and you shut down the country and that was a mistake, how will you respond?” Hewitt asked Trump.

“He said he wouldn’t let anybody come in. He shut down his beaches. He shut down the entire state,” Trump said, adding that he would later share five or six articles on “Ron DeSanctimonious” and “how much he loves Dr. Fauci.”

The articles, which the Trump campaign has shared widely, refer to DeSantis’ praise for the White House Coronavirus Task Force in the early weeks of the pandemic, saying its members — including Fauci, Dr. Deborah Birx and former Vice President Mike Pence — were “really doing a good job.”

Trump also singled out South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster and South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem for having implemented better COVID policies than DeSantis during the interview.

Florida rescinded its stay-at-home order before South Carolina in 2020. South Dakota never issued statewide COVID mandates.

DeSantis also suspended local COVID-19 emergency orders and signed a law to prohibit future mask mandates and social distancing measures before McMaster in 2021.

The South Carolina governor lifted his state’s emergency declaration a few weeks before the Florida governor in June 2021.

Trump also hit DeSantis for presiding over the third-worst COVID-19 death rate.

“And by the way, just so you know it sounds very negative, third most in deaths from COVID? Unfortunately, Florida,” he said. “Florida was third-worst in deaths. So Ron — and that’s a horrible statistic — but that’s a statistic that sort of counts.”

South Carolina and South Dakota also had worse death rates than Florida in 2020, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data.

In 2021, the Palmetto State had the 10th-worst death rate, the Sunshine State had the 18th-worst death rate and the Mount Rushmore State had the 37th-worst death rate.

Florida had the fourth- and third-most deaths due to COVID-19 in 2020 and 2021, respectively. Its population is roughly 21 million, whereas South Carolina has around 5 million residents and South Dakota has less than 1 million.

DeSantis allies on Thursday pushed back on the former president’s characterization of Florida COVID mandates, posting a letter online that the Trump White House Coronavirus Task Force sent to the governor requesting further mask and social-distancing mandates.

Florida did not comply with the request.

DeSantis trails nearly 38 percentage points behind Trump in the latest RealClearPolitics national polling average.