Donald Trump targets former aides Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx over Covid counsel

Former US President Donald Trump slammed Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx, who served as his top medical advisers on the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the reports by The Hill, Trump issued a statement saying that he ignored both Fauci and Birx while in office. As per Trump, this was as a benefit to the country. The former President also boasted that he was responsible for getting vaccines rapidly developed and approved.

In a statement, Trump said, “Based on their interviews, I felt it was time to speak up about Dr. Fauci and Dr. Birx, two self-promoters trying to reinvent history to cover for their bad instincts and faulty recommendations, which I fortunately almost always overturned”. He added, “They had bad policy decisions that would have left our country open to China and others, closed to reopening our economy, and years away from an approved vaccine--putting millions of lives at risk”.

Trump mocked both of them. He labelled Fauci as "king of 'flip-flopps” as he cited Fauci’s changing guidance after the experts learned more about the pandemic. Talking about Birx, he said, “Dr. Birx is a proven liar with very little credibility left”. He added, “The States who followed her lead, like California, had worse outcomes on Covid, and ruined the lives of countless children because they couldn't go to school, ruined many businesses, and an untold number of Americans who were killed by the lockdowns themselves... Dr. Birx was a terrible medical advisor, which is why I seldom followed her advice”.

Trump slams China, Iran and Biden

In another significant development, Trump crashed a wedding reception at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, where he made a speech about China, Iran and his successor Joe Biden. Trump used the opportunity to make a fiery speech against the US' adversaries and Biden's foreign and domestic policies. Trump attacked the Biden administration on scores of issues, including Washington's new Iran policy and a rise in the influx of migrants from the southern border.

Trump also took the opportunity to suggest that the US Presidential election was rigged in favour of Joe Biden, an unfounded claim he has been making since he lost the polls in November 2020. “They said get 66 million votes, sir, and the election is over. I got 75 million votes, and you saw what happened. At 10.30 pm in the evening, all of a sudden, they said that's a strange thing, why are they closing up certain places. There's a lot of things happening right now,” Trump said.

(Image Credits: AP)