Dr. Anthony Fauci called out the media on Monday for misusing and manipulating a quote he gave during an interview with CNN over the weekend.
ABC, among others, used the soundbite to make it seem as if Dr. Fauci was blaming President Trump for the deaths of more than 20,000 Americans by not acting faster against the coronavirus, which he did not.
During its "World News Tonight" broadcast, ABC senior national correspondent Terry Moran suggested that Fauci may have caused a rift between himself and President Trump because of the interview. He also falsely claimed that "Fauci declared, in an interview on CNN, that the administration's reluctance to call for shutdowns and strong social distancing measures sooner has cost more American lives in the pandemic."
During the White House coronavirus task force briefing Monday, Fauci set the record straight:
"That was taken as a way that maybe somehow something was at fault here ... But clearly, as happens all of the time, there were interpretations of that response to a hypothetical question that I just thought it would be very nice for me to clarify because I didn't have the chance to clarify."
ABC conveniently left that out as well.