As Trump signals readiness to break with experts, his online base assails Fauci

[Eugene]

Source: Washington Post

As Trump signals readiness to break with experts, his online base assails Fauci

By Isaac Stanley-Becker
March 26, 2020 at 7:04 p.m. EDT

A cadre of right-wing news sites pulled from the fringes in recent years through repeated mention by President Trump is now taking aim at Anthony S. Fauci, the ­nation’s top infectious diseases ­expert, who has given interviews in which he has tempered praise for the president with doubts about his pronouncements.

Although both men are seeking to tamp down the appearance of tension — “Great job,” Trump commended the doctor during the White House’s briefing on Tuesday — the president is increasingly chafing against medical consensus. He has found support from a chorus of conservative commentators who have cheered his promise to get the U.S. economy going again as well as his decision to tout possible coronavirus treatments not yet approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

“The president was right, and frankly Fauci was wrong,” Lou Dobbs said Monday on his show on the Fox Business Network, referring to the use of experimental medicine.

Beyond prime-time television, however, the disregard for expert guidance being pushed by some conservative and libertarian voices goes further — aimed not simply at proving Fauci wrong but at painting him as an agent of the “deep state” that Trump has vowed to dismantle. The smear campaign taking root online, and laying the groundwork for Trump to cast aside the experts on his own coronavirus task force, relies centrally on the idea that there is no expertise that rises above partisanship, and that everyone has an agenda.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/as-trump-signals-readiness-to-break-with-experts-his-online-base-assails-fauci/2020/03/26/3802de14-6df6-11ea-aa80-c2470c6b2034_story.html

[flibbitygiblets]

1. I can't help but notice that anyone who disagrees with Rump is automatically "Deep State"

according to his followers.

"Trump was right" about the experimental medicine, and a renowned medical expert was wrong, eh? SMH

[hlthe2b]

2. At this point our only hope may be if COVID-19 is discriminating towards the idiots putting all

of us at intense increased risk.

[duforsure]

3. trumps not worried about protecting the American people,

He's worried about how he can protect his image from his failing with handling the crisis, and how to profit from it and how to use it as a weapon against us now.