Real doctor shares spotlight with a self-ID doctor
Story
from Reuters (April
13) – about to get a lot hotter – bet on it. The headlines a real eye-catcher:
White House denies
plan to fire health adviser after Trump retweets # FireFauci
Short background on this story:
WASHINGTON, DC – President Donald Trump retweeted a
call to fire Dr. Anthony Fauci after the top U.S. expert on infectious diseases
said lives could have been saved if the country had shut down sooner during the
novel coronavirus outbreak.
Trump retweeted a message on Sunday (April 12) from
a former Republican congressional candidate (who lost to Pelosi and only had a
2% vote) and who criticized Fauci's comments during a television interview and
tweeted afterward: “Time to #FireFauci.”
Trump in the
past has repeated critical tweets of officials or enemies rather than make the
criticism himself. The retweet fueled speculation Trump was running out of
patience with the popular scientist and could fire him.
The White House later denied Trump intended to fire Fauci with White
House spokesman Hogan Gidley saying: “This
media chatter is ridiculous – President Trump is not firing Dr. Fauci. Dr.
Fauci has been and remains a trusted advisor to President Trump.” Gidley went
on to say that Trump's retweet addressed what he considered a false report on
his travel restriction involving China, where the novel coronavirus originated.
I note: Ever since the daily virus task
force press conferences Trump has challenged and collided with Dr. Fauci on
numerous points.
Almost daily
since, speculation has run high on how long Trump would take a back seat to Dr.
Fauci.
Plus, that
is more so especially since Dr. Fauci has assumed national prominence – and a
degree of affection – as a leader in the fight against the coronavirus (which obviously
Trump resents bigly anyone hogging the limelight from him).
This tweet from
Joe Lockhart, former press secretary to Bill Clinton: “Trump won't fire Fauci today. That's not his style. He needs to
humiliate him a while first.”
My 2 cents: I agree with Lockhart’s assessment about Trump’s style -— humiliation as well as nasty insults,
belittling, and bashing the person for weeks or longer and the he fires them.
He has to remain as the top dog showing that the
person fired was bad awful and needed to be fired and as Trump probably would
say about them: “He (or she) needed to be
fired for a very long time, a very long, a long time, believe me” (or words
to that effect).
Trump is truly incorrigible, so on this issue with Dr.
Fauci, time will tell. To remove Dr. Fauci, with a stellar 36-year medical
career tracking down viruses and helping to eradicate them would be a hard sell
even for Trump. I also think the public and most Republicans would not stand
for such a firing — but we shall see.
To see a world renowned Doctor vs. a TV Reality
Show Doctor (self-identified), which I posted about that here
and and here. It is no contest and especially in this very troublesome time.
Finally the $64,000 question: Does Trump have
the authority to fire Dr. Fauci? In a word, no. And, what would be Trump's reason for getting him fired - a valid reason or willy-nilly jealousy? Main reason; Dr. Fauci is a federal employee
who does not report to the president.
Trump could,
however, direct HHS Secretary Alex Azar to see to it that Fauci is fired.
Azar in turn would have to order Dr. Francis Collins, the head of the NIH to fire Fauci.
Fauci as the Director of the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases reports to the head of NIH (Collins), who in turn reports to Azar, who then reports to Trump.
So stay tuned. Thanks for stopping by.
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