Biden ‘very confident’ in Fauci amid conservative attacks

President Biden wants to make it very clear he still has confidence in Anthony Fauci amid conservative attacks: He had left the room after an appearance but came back to answer a question.

“Yes, I’m very confident in Dr. Fauci,” he said.

Fauci has reemerged as a punching bag for conservatives over his explanations for the origins of the coronavirus. Trump and other conservatives have argued the virus came from a lab in Wuhan, China, and suggested Fauci was not forthcoming about the evidence for that theory.

Republican critics of Fauci have pointed to newly released emails from 2020, published by The Washington Post, that show correspondence early in the pandemic about the possibility the virus came from a lab. While Fauci cast doubt on that prospect publicly, the emails do not clearly show him outright rejecting it.

Not the first time Fauci targeted: Fauci has been a target for some Republicans dating back to last year, when he evolved his guidance on masking and distancing as more information about the pandemic emerged. Former President Trump turned Fauci into a consistent foil at campaign rallies as he and other Republicans held the doctor up as an example of an overcautious approach to the pandemic that had shut down the economy. Fauci required a security detail as he and his family faced threats.