5 times Trump praised Dr. Fauci prior to retweeting that he should be fired

• President Trump amplified a call to fire Dr. Fauci on Twitter on April 12.
• Despite this, Trump has praised Fauci many times in the past few weeks.
• Dr. Fauci is the longtime director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and a key player in the Trump Administration's handling of the novel coronavirus pandemic.
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Following is a transcript of the video.

Narrator: On Sunday, April 12, President Trump retweeted a call to fire Dr. Anthony Fauci. Dr. Fauci is the longtime director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a key player in the Trump administration's handling of the novel-coronavirus pandemic. The tweet in question referred to an interview Fauci did with CNN where he implied that if the Trump administration had acted sooner, more lives would have been saved.

Fauci: You could logically say that if you had a process that was ongoing and you started mitigation earlier, you could have saved lives. Obviously no one is gonna deny that.

Narrator: Despite amplifying a call to fire him, which caused the hashtag #FireFauci to trend on Twitter, Trump has praised Fauci on several occasions.

Trump: We have, whether it's Dr. Fauci, we have the best people on earth.We have the most talented people on earth.

Dr. Fauci, Dr. Fauci is great.

No, he's a good man. I like Dr. Fauci a lot, just so you understand.

He was a great basketball player. Did anybody know that? Couple of years ago.

Fauci: A few years ago.

Trump: The head never changes. The attitude never changes.

Because I have great respect for this group. In fact, I told Tony Fauci, I said, "Why don't you move to New York, run against AOC? You will win easily."

Narrator: And at an April 13th press briefing, Trump was asked why he retweeted a call to fire Fauci.

Trump: Today I walk in, I hear I'm gonna fire him. I'm not firing him, I think he's a wonderful guy.

Reporter: Why did you tweet something that said #FireFauci?

Trump: I retweeted somebody, I don't know. They said fire, doesn't matter. I was immediately called upon that and I said, "No, I like him." I think he's terrific.

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