WASHINGTON – President Biden liked to joke during the height of the pandemic that controversial former COVID czar Anthony Fauci could replace Kamala Harris as his number two, an explosive new book says.
As Biden’s team raced to address the coronavirus in 2021, the president joked during meetings that his then-chief White House medical adviser should sit in the vice president’s chair.
“When the president assembled his COVID team, he jokingly ordered Anthony Fauci to sit in the vice president chair,” according to Franklin Foer’s “The Last Politician,” who says he had “unparalleled access to the tight inner circle of advisors who have surrounded Biden for decades.”
For his part, Fauci “struggled to contain his exuberance” about working with Biden, says the book, which went on sale Tuesday.
A new administration was in charge of ending the pandemic, one that would listen to him, unlike that of former President Donald Trump, Foer writes.
President Biden liked to joke during the pandemic that Anthony Fauci could replace Kamala Harris as his No. 2, a new book says. AFP via Getty Images
Fauci had been “traumatized” by public conferences with Trump, who had infamously asked scientists if there was a way to inject disinfectant into humans to kill the coronavirus, the book says.
Trump later claimed the comment was “sarcastic.”
“When Fauci took the podium in the White House briefing room for the first time after the [Biden] During the inauguration, he felt a wave of traumatic memories wash over him,” Foer writes. “For the first time in years, he was no longer in the uncomfortable situation of having to correct the administration he was in.”
Fauci had been “traumatized” by speaking publicly with Trump, according to Franklin Foer’s “The Last Politician.”Shutterstock
But Biden harangued Fauci during his first month as president with a “challenging question,” according to the book: “When would the nation return to normal?”
The president depended deeply on the advice and assistance of the controversial figure, so much so that when other public health officials tried to draft a response, “Biden ignored them and asked to speak to Fauci,” the author says.
Later, when new variants of the coronavirus began arriving in the United States, Biden pressed Fauci to find out whether the coronavirus vaccine would protect against them, Foer says.
But Biden, during his first month as president, would ask Fauci a “challenging question,” according to the book: “When would the nation get back to normal?” PA
But Fauci said it would take weeks to find out, causing great anxiety in the administration about the unknown, the biography says.
“There was no avoiding the fact that a painful period of ignorance awaited them, unsure whether the virus had defeated the vaccine, unsure of the severity of the new strain, unsure whether the existing stock of tests might even detect its presence. Foer writes about administration.
Categories: Trending
Source: vtt.edu.vn