In what could be one of his last public disagreements with President Donald Trump, Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander has defended the work of the country’s top expert on infectious diseases.
In a statement and a tweet Monday, Alexander said people should actually be paying more attention to what Dr. Anthony Fauci has to say.
“Dr. Fauci is one of our country’s most distinguished public servants. He has served six presidents starting with Ronald Reagan,” Alexander said. “If more Americans paid attention to his advice, we’d have fewer cases of COVID-19, and it would be safer to go back to school and back to work and out to eat.”
Alexander’s comments came hours after Trump called Fauci “a disaster,” Axios reported. The president also went on Twitter to ask Fauci “to make better decisions.”
Trump has expressed his discontent over an interview Fauci gave to 60 Minutes that aired on Sunday, in which he said the White House has controlled his media appearances.
“I certainly have not been allowed to go on many, many, many shows that have asked for me,” Fauci said in the interview.
This is not the first time that Alexander publicly disagrees with Trump, but it could certainly be the last one: The senator is retiring from the Senate this year.
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