WASHINGTON – President Biden liked to joke at the height of the pandemic that controversial former COVID czar Anthony Fauci could replace Kamala Harris as No. 2 of them, says a great new book.
As Biden’s team raced to deal with the coronavirus in 2021, the president would quip during meetings that the White House’s then-chief 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’s chair,” according to “The Last Politician” by Franklin Foer — who said he had “unparalleled access to the tight inner circle of advisers that has surrounded Biden for decades.”
For his part, Fauci “struggled to contain his excitement” about working with Biden, said the book, which went on sale Tuesday.
The new administration is responsible for ending the epidemic — one that will listen, unlike former President Donald Trump, Foer wrote.
President Biden liked to joke during the pandemic that Anthony Fauci could replace Kamala Harris as No. 2, says a new book. AFP via Getty Images
Fauci was “traumatized” by the public speaking event with Trump, who had asked scientists if there was a way to inject disinfectants into humans to kill the coronavirus, the book said.
Trump later claimed the comments were “sarcastic.”
“When Fauci headed to the podium in the White House briefing room for the first time since then [Biden] inauguration, he felt a surge of traumatic memories wash over him,” Foer wrote. “For the first time in years, he was no longer in the awkward position of correcting the administration he had served.”
Fauci was “traumatized” by the public speaking event with Trump, according to “The Last Politician” by Franklin Foer.Shutterstock
But Biden would taunt Fauci in his first month as president with a “challenging question,” according to the book: “When will the country return to normal?”
The president relied so much on the controversial figure’s advice and help that when other public health officials tried to formulate an answer, “Biden would ignore them and ask to speak to Fauci,” the author said.
Then, when new variants of the coronavirus began making their way to the United States, Biden pressed Fauci to find out whether a coronavirus vaccine would protect against them, Foer said.
But Biden in his first month as president will present Fauci with a “challenging question,” according to the book: “When will the country return to normal?” AP
But Fauci said it would take weeks to find out, leaving the administration concerned with the unknown, the biography said.
“There is no escaping the fact that they are in a period of painful ignorance, uncertain whether the virus has defeated the vaccine, uncertain of the severity of the new strain, uncertain whether the existing testing stockpile can detect its presence,” Foer wrote of the administration.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
