(1010 WINS/WWJ) -- Just hours after news broke Monday that Donald Trump called Dr. Anthony Fauci an "idiot" during a call with campaign staff, the president was asked by a reporter why he doesn't just go ahead and fire the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
"I don't want to," Trump responded to the question after deplaning from Air Force One at Prescott Regional Airport in Arizona, according to the pool report. "I don't want to hurt him. He's been there for about 350 years. I don't want to hurt him." (Fauci joined the NIH in 1968.)
Trump was also asked if he targeted Fauci because of his "high standing" among Americans.
"No, I think, really, Dr. Fauci is a very nice man, but we let him do what he wants to do,": Trump said. "He gets a lot of television. He loves being on television, and we let him do it. Sometimes he says things that are a little bit off, and they get built up, unfortunately."
Trump added, "But he's a nice guy. I like him. But he's called a lot of bad calls. He said don't wear a mask and he said don't ban China. They were bad calls. He admits that. And I don't hold that against him. If I did, I wouldn't have him. I think he's a nice a guy.
[shortcode-inline-related expand="1" link="/wwjnewsradio/news/national/trump-people-are-tired-of-hearing-fauci-and-all-these-idiots" headline="President Trump: "People are tired of hearing Fauci and all these idiots"" image="/media-library/image.jpg?id=64550240"]Trump's controversial comments about Fauci are the latest salvo in what many see as the president's battle against science and scientists as he struggles to keep the economy humming amid the pandemic in the midst of a presidential re-election campaign. Trump was allegedly set off when Fauci appeared on "60 Minutes" and said, among other things, he wasn't surprised the president got coronavirus because he was so often in crowds unmasked.
Trump, in response, called Fauci an idiot, and supporters rushed to the defense of the national's top public health official.
"Tony Fauci has been the most clear, consistent proponent of the measures the United States needs to protect itself from a deadly disease," William Haseltine, a renowned public health expert and former professor at Harvard Medical School, told CNN's Erin Burnett on Monday.
