Dr. Anthony Fauci, the renowned infectious disease expert told CNN that he was not invited to President Donald Trump’s coronavirus briefing on Tuesday evening, The New York Post reports.
“I was not invited, up to this point,” Fauci told host Jake Tapper in a live interview less than an hour before Trump was slated to address reporters in the White House briefing room at 5 p.m.
“I’m assuming that I’m not going to be there because it’s going to be just a short while and I’m still here at the NIH so I’m assuming I’m not going to be there,” he continued.
Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases has faced criticism in recent weeks from President Donald Trump and other administration officials surrounding his response to the pandemic.
President Trump called Fauci an “alarmist” during an interview with Chris Wallace on “Fox News Sunday.”
Fauci, who has described the attacks against him as “bizarre,” pushed back on that criticism on Monday, saying he was more of a “realist.”
Trump this week announced he was bringing back the nightly briefings he held at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic in March and April.