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Fauci Slams New Trump Campaign Ad, Says His Comments are ‘out of context,’ and; Joe Biden is Polling Better Than Any Presidential Challenger Since 1936.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, clapped back against the Trump Campaign on Sunday. He said that he was “taken out of context” in a new campaign ad that features his comments “without my permission.”
“In my nearly five decades of public service, I have never publicly endorsed nor do I now endorse any political candidates,” Fauci told NBC News in a statement. “The comments attributed to me without my permission in the GOP campaign ad were taken out of context from a broad statement I made months ago about the efforts of federal public health officials.”
The ad was released on Saturday and promotes Trump’s response to the pandemic, and features Fauci saying that he “can’t imagine that anybody could be doing more.”
However, Trump campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh says the campaign ad will continue to be broadcast despite Fauci’s objections.
Just last week, Fauci said that the Rose Garden ceremony where Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination was announced, was a “superspreader event.”
“Well, I think the data speak for themselves. We had a superspreader event in the White House, and it was in a situation where people were crowded together and were not wearing masks,” he told CBS News Radio. “So the data speak for themselves.”
Trump also downplayed the virus last week as similar to the flu, while Fauci said it “is much different from influenza.”
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President Donald Trump is being dominated by former Vice President Joe Biden in the latest polls. That doesn’t mean Trump doesn’t have a chance of winning, but the odds are shifting in Biden’s favor if the voter turnout is high enough.
In fact, an ABC News/Washington Post poll released on Sunday shows that Biden is leading Trump by a 55% to 43% margin among likely voters. This represents the third high quality national poll published over the past week that shows Biden with at least a 10 point lead and above 50%.
Those numbers are unprecedented for a challenger with only 23 days to go until Election Day.
In the 21 previous presidential elections, there have only been five challengers who led at this time since 1936. The only one of those five ahead by more than 5 points was Bill Clinton in 1992.
However, the Electoral College is what really matters. If enough people get out to vote, Trump doesn’t have as much of a chance of winning if he loses nationally by 5 to 6 points.
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