‘He’s been very, very helpful.’ Biden says his staff is now communicating with Fauci
President-elect Joe Biden says his team has been in touch with Dr. Anthony Fauci.
Biden told reporters Tuesday he has not personally spoken with Fauci, the nation’s top infectious diseases expert, but said that his staff has been in contact with him.
“He’s been very, very helpful,” Biden said, according to a pool report.
Fauci confirmed to CNN that he’s had “preliminary” conversations with members of the Biden-Harris transition team and that he looks forward to having more “substantive discussions.”
He was previously barred from meeting with Biden’s team until President Donald Trump’s administration allowed the delayed transfer of power process to move forward.
Emily Murphy, head of the General Services Administration, on Monday formally recognized Biden as the apparent winner of the presidential election — giving his team access to briefings from current government officials, government office space and funding that is usually available to the president-elect.
Her recognition came weeks after Biden was projected the winner of the presidential election by The Associated Press and other major media outlets on Nov. 7. Biden has 306 Electoral College votes to Trump’s 232, according to The AP. A candidate needs 270 to win.
Fauci had previously stressed the importance of meeting with Biden’s team before the president-elect takes office on Jan. 20, 2021, telling CNN earlier this month that the transition process is “really important in a smooth handing over of the information.”
“It’s almost like passing a baton in a race,” he told CNN. ”You don’t want to stop and then give it to somebody, you want to just essentially keep going and that’s what transition is.”
Biden had also emphasized the importance of a smooth transition in continuing the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic and preparing to distribute a future coronavirus vaccine, saying last week that “more people may die” without coordination from the outgoing Trump administration.
“If we have to wait until January 20 to start that planning, it puts us behind over a month and a half,” the former vice president said last week. “So it’s important that there be coordination now — now or as rapidly as we can get that done.”
Fauci and Trump have had a contentious relationship throughout the pandemic.
The president has repeatedly undermined Fauci’s advice for controlling the spread of the virus and suggested he would fire him, despite not having the authority to do so, The Associated Press reports.
On a campaign call before the election, Trump called Fauci a “disaster” but said it would be a “bomb if you fire him.”
In October, Fauci said during a “60 Minutes” interview that he was “absolutely not” surprised that Trump caught the coronavirus and said he was “really ticked off” after the Trump campaign released a television ad that appeared to show the infectious diseases expert praising the Trump administration’s handling of the coronavirus.
“I do not and nor will I ever, publicly endorse any political candidate. And here I am, they’re sticking me right in the middle of a campaign ad,” Fauci said. “Which I thought was outrageous. I was referring to something entirely different. I was referring to the grueling work of the task force that, ‘God, we were knocking ourselves out seven days a week. I don’t think we could have possibly have done any more than that.’”
Fauci, who has served six presidents over 36 years as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has said he hopes to stay on with the Biden administration and continue working on the pandemic response.
This story was originally published November 25, 2020 at 6:32 AM with the headline "‘He’s been very, very helpful.’ Biden says his staff is now communicating with Fauci."
