- Dr Anthony Fauci has shrugged off suggestions he could lose his job after President Donald Trump retweeted a post with the hashtag #FireFauci.
- He told C-SPAN on Monday that it was entirely possible for Trump to replace him on the coronavirus task force, but said he had talked to the president afterwards and he "has no intention of doing that."
- The hashtag spread on Sunday after Fauci told CNN that if the US government had taken action against coronavirus sooner, it "could have saved lives."
- The US currently has the most coronavirus cases and deaths in the world.
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Dr. Anthony Fauci appeared unflustered by the possibility that he could lose his job, prompted after President Donald Trump shared a tweet with the hashtag #FireFauci.
The top infectious-diseases expert, who has served six administrations and currently leads Trump's coronavirus task force, told C-SPAN on Monday that despite the implicit threat of being terminated, the president "has no intention of doing that."
"I had a chat with him and he's fine," he added.
The #FireFauci retweet came after Fauci told CNN on Sunday that the government could have saved lives if it had taken earlier action to contain the coronavirus outbreak. Trump has long been criticized for his slow response to the outbreak.
Soon after the CNN interview, conservative conspiracy theorist DeAnna Lorraine published a tweet that said: "Time to #FireFauci." Trump later retweeted it.
The White House had also attempted to quash the speculation that Trump would fire Fauci, releasing a statement on Monday saying it was "ridiculous" and that the president had been reacting to the media trying to "maliciously push a falsehood."
Speaking to C-SPAN, Fauci said that it was within Trump's power to remove him from the coronavirus task force, but that it was unlikely.
"I depends on what you mean by 'fire me,'" he said. "I'm on the task force serving at his pleasure. He could remove me from the task force. I was with him for quite a while today, he has no intention of doing that."
"He said we're fine. I mean, he saw that, I walked in, I had a chat with him and he's fine."
In response to the hashtag itself, Fauci laughed and said: "This is the world we live in, you're going to see things like that all the time."
He said his answer about preventable coronavirus deaths was in response to a hypothetical, but valid, question.
"Somebody didn't like the way I answered it so they hashtagged it #FireFauci," he said. "That's it, that's the world we live in, I accept it. It doesn't bother me."
DataTicker - Covid 19 Global and USThe US currently has more than 582,000 reported coronavirus cases, and more than 23,000 people have died of the disease, according to Johns Hopkins University's tracker. It has the highest number of coronavirus infections and deaths in the world.
Trump has been rushing to defend his record on the coronavirus response.
During a White House briefing on Monday, he lashed out at a CBS reporter who asked what action the government had actually taken in February with time gained from a travel ban on Chinese nationals.
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Sorry Fake News, it's all on tape. I banned China long before people spoke up. Thank you @OANN https://t.co/d40JQkUZg5
- Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 12, 2020