Trump childishly mimics Dr. Fauci playing baseball at Arizona campaign rally
Donald Trump invited a wave of criticism earlier today when, during a phone call with campaign staffers, he attacked Dr. Anthony Fauci, the respected Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a prominent member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force. The president said that Americans are “tired of hearing Fauci and these idiots, all these idiots who got it wrong” and that Fauci is a “disaster.”
The attempt to scapegoat medical professionals for Trump’s own monumental failures is as pathetic as it is transparent. Trump refused to take this pandemic seriously from the beginning and intentionally misled the American public about the risks of COVID-19. As a direct result, over 218,000 Americans are now dead and the number continues to rise. Conversely, Dr. Fauci has been trying to educate the country about proper safety precautions and the nature of the virus for months now, often in direct opposition to the president’s misinformation.
Presumably, Trump’s latest barrage against Fauci was prompted by an interview the doctor did with 60 Minutes yesterday during which he stated that he wasn’t surprised that Trump contracted the coronavirus given the manner in which he willingly placed himself in crowded areas with unmasked people.
Apparently, ranting about Dr. Fauci on the phone wasn’t enough to sate Trump’s vindictiveness though. The president attacked Fauci on Twitter several hours later, saying that the doctor “gets more airtime than anybody since the late, great Bob Hope.” The president said that all he asks of “Tony is that he make better decisions.” Trump then pivoted to an incredibly juvenile insult, mocking Fauci for his “Bad arm,” a reference to the less-than-perfect pitch Fauci threw to open the 2020 Major League Baseball season.
Trump fired off a second tweet, saying that Dr. Fauci should “stop wearing the Washington Nationals’ Mask” because it is “not up to the high standards that he should be exposing” and because it “keeps reminding” Trump that “Tony threw out perhaps the worst first pitch in the history of Baseball!”
Somehow, the President of the United States thinks that mocking a 79-year-old immunologist’s athletic performance is a good use of his time at the height of a global pandemic. In doing so, he’s displaying all the intellectual depth of a schoolyard bully. People are dying and Trump is flitting away his time on Twitter, hurling petty insults at the man trying to save them.
Seemingly fixated on the issue for some reason, Trump retweeted a video of himself throwing a baseball pitch years ago, presumably in an effort to portray himself as a superior athlete to Dr. Fauci, as if anyone but the most braindead MAGA fanatics care about such a thing.
Dr.Tony Fauci says we don’t allow him to do television, and yet I saw him last night on @60Minutes, and he seems to get more airtime than anybody since the late, great, Bob Hope. All I ask of Tony is that he make better decisions. He said “no masks & let China in”. Also, Bad arm!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 19, 2020
…P.S. Tony should stop wearing the Washington Nationals’ Mask for two reasons. Number one, it is not up to the high standards that he should be exposing. Number two, it keeps reminding me that Tony threw out perhaps the worst first pitch in the history of Baseball!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 19, 2020
A perfect strike for the American people! https://t.co/LqqvhWpqis
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 19, 2020
At his rally in Prescott, Arizona Trump repeated the bizarre line of attack. He said Dr. Fauci is a “wonderful guy” who has “a very bad arm.” Clearly, he’s decided that this incredibly inane, submoronic rhetoric plays well with his base.
Trump mockingly mimics Dr. Fauci’s first pitch pic.twitter.com/gnNtfBvlf8
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 19, 2020
At this point, “national disgrace” doesn’t even begin to describe Donald Trump. He represents the most grotesque mockery of the presidency imaginable and the moment we boot him from office we can begin the long process of rebuilding our nation’s once-great reputation.
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