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Former President Donald Trump pleaded ignorance to journalist Megyn Kelly when asked about his elevation of Dr. Anthony Fauci during the COVID-19 pandemic — insisting he had no idea who was responsible for awarding the doctor a presidential commendation signed by Trump before he departed the White House.
“Not only did you not fire Fauci, who is loathed by many — millions of Republicans in particular, but also some Democrats — you made him a star,” Kelly said during an interview that aired Thursday on SiriusXM.
“This is the criticism of you, that you made him the face of the White House Coronavirus Task Force — he was out at every presser — that he was running herd for the administration on COVID, and that you actually gave him a presidential commendation before you left office. Wouldn’t you like a do-over on that?” she asked.
“Ah … I don’t know who have him the commendation,” Trump, 77, responded. “I really don’t know who gave him the commendation.”
“It’s a presidential commendation,” Kelly cut him off.
“I know,” Trump responded.
“One went out to Mark Milley, too,” Kelly said, referring to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, whom Trump has also criticized.
“Somebody probably handed him a commendation,” said Trump of the honor, which was awarded to Fauci during Trump’s last full day in office, Jan. 19, 2021 — and bore his signature.
“I overrode many of the things he did. He was much less important to me,” Trump went on. “Now, with that all being said, he’s been there for years. He was respected. He lost a lot of the respect because of COVID.”
“On COVID, if you know what I did, I let the governors run their states and many of the governors opened up their states. Some of them didn’t,” he continued.
Last week, the campaign of Trump’s main GOP rival in the 2024 primary, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, released a letter from the Trump administration urging him to enact mask mandates and other stringent measures in January 2021.
DeSantis in particular has hammered Trump for his handling of the pandemic, accusing him of letting Fauci and fanatical public health officers run the show.
Trump has countered that DeSantis himself briefly imposed some stringent measures to curb the spread of the highly contagious respiratory illness.
The 77-year-old former president went on to distance himself from Fauci, whom he previously argued he couldn’t fire.
“I was not a big fan of Fauci,” Trump continued to Kelly. “If you look at Ron DeSanctimonious — this guy said the greatest things. I can give you articles. ‘That Fauci is great. He’s wonderful. We love him. We don’t do anything without Fauci.’ This went on for months.”
Trump later moaned that he hadn’t gotten enough credit from conservatives for his pandemic response.
“We did a tremendous job,” Trump said. “They appreciated what I did with the economy. I got a lot of good marks on economy, got a lot of good marks [on] rebuilding the military, getting rid of ISIS, the biggest tax cuts in history.”
“I never got I think the credit that I deserved on COVID.”
Another grievance among conservatives has been the development on Trump’s watch of the COVID-19 vaccine, which has limited serious illness but has not been effective at stopping transmission of the virus.
“I never gave mandates and people have to make up their own, you know, make their own decision, as far as I’m concerned,” Trump said of the vaccines.
Kelly and Trump famously clashed during the first Republican debate of the 2016 campaign, during which the then-Fox News star took him to task over past disparaging remarks about women.
Aghast at the question, Trump raged against her for months and skipped a subsequent Fox News debate co-hosted by Kelly.
The two say they have since mended fences. Kelly’s interview with Trump, which dropped Wednesday, marks the first time in seven years that he’s done a sit-down with her.
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