Trump news – live: Fauci says he would quit if ex-president re-elected

Dr Anthony Fauci, the senior public health adviser who became a national figure during the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic, has confirmed that he would not want to serve in another Trump administration. “Would you have confidence in his ability to deal with a pandemic of this nature?” he was asked by CNN’s Jim Acosta yesterday. “Would you want to stay on at your post?”

“Well, no to the second question,” he laughed. “The first question… if you look at the history of what the response was during the administration, I think, you know, at best you could say it wasn’t optimal. And I think just history will speak for itself.”

Pressed to say he would not serve with Mr Trump again, he was clearer: “Right. For sure.”

In a separate interview, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi mused on the perverse impact Mr Trump has had on the judiciary. “Who would have ever suspected that a creature like Donald Trump would become president of the United States,” she said, “waving a list of judges that he would appoint, therefore getting the support of the far-right and appointing those anti-freedom justices to the court?”

Key points

Nancy Pelosi calls Trump “creature”

11:25 , Andrew Naughtie

Nancy Pelosi yesterday vented her disgust at the conservative Supreme Court justices who are poised to vote to overturn Roe v Wade, describing Donald Trump’s three appointees as “dangerous to the freedoms” of the US.

“Who would have ever suspected that a creature like Donald Trump would become president of the United States, waving a list of judges that he would appoint, therefore getting the support of the far-right and appointing those anti-freedom justices to the court,” she said in an interview on CNN’s State of the Union.

Read more from Sravasti Dasgupta:

Pelosi calls Trump a ‘creature’ as she dubs Supreme Court ‘dangerous to US freedoms’

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Watch: Fauci confirms he wouldn’t serve Trump again

11:02 , Andrew Naughtie

Dr Anthony Fauci appeared on CNN yesterday and confirmed he would not serve under another Trump administration should the ex-president be re-elected in 2024.

While Mr Trump did not fire Dr Fauci or fully exclude him from the administration’s Covid-19 response, he repeatedly undermined and contradicted him in public, and helped make him a hate figure among right-wing supporters who resented mask mandates, social distancing orders, and vaccine mandates.

Good morning

10:52 , Andrew Naughtie

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