WASHINGTON-- The White House said Monday that President Donald Trump is not firing the nation's top infectious diseases expert Anthony Fauci.
"This media chatter is ridiculous," White House deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley said in a statement. "Dr. Fauci has been and remains a trusted advisor to President Trump."
The statement came after Trump retweeted a post on Sunday night containing the hashtag "#FireFauci."
Fauci, who has been the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984, is facing criticism from conservatives after he said in an interview with CNN on Sunday morning that more lives could have been saved if stay-at-home measures were implemented earlier.
A key member of the administration' coronavirus task force, Fauci told reporters in the White House briefing room on Monday that he was responding to a "hypothetical question" during the CNN interview.
The expert claimed his response "was taken as a way that maybe somehow something was at fault here," and said his remark about "pushback" inside the administration to some of his recommendations on shutting the nation down at the end of February was a "poor choice of words."
Trump, shrugging off the retweet on Monday, said in the briefing he "retweeted somebody," adding "it doesn't matter."
As the administration has been scrutinized for downplaying the threat from the virus early on and faulted for delays in testing, Trump and his allies are mounting an aggressive defense.
During Monday's briefing, Trump aired a campaign-style clip that highlighted measures he has taken to combat the virus and governors' praise for his actions.
The United States has reported over 581,000 confirmed cases and over 23,000 deaths, according to a tally from Johns Hopkins University on Monday.
