Perisent Donald Trump tries to distance himself from adviser's Fauci attack

The White House nixed a planned cable news appearance for economic adviser Peter Navarro after he wrote an op-ed against Dr. Anthony Fauci.

Navarro was pulled from a scheduled appearance on CNN host Wolf Blitzer’s Wednesday show a day after taking out an opinion piece in USA Today criticizing Fauci and titling his article, “Anthony Fauci has been wrong about everything I have interacted with him on.”

“I should point out that Peter Navarro was booked to join me this hour here in The Situation Room, but earlier this morning, all of a sudden, the White House told us he was no longer available,” Wolf Blitzer said on-air after CNN White House correspondent Jim Acosta gave a report on the controversy.

Fauci, in his most forceful pushback to date against White House attempts to discredit him, warned his fellow administration officials a day later that they were harming the President's credibility. Speaking to The Atlantic, Fauci called White House attacks on him "bizarre" and said they ultimately damaged Trump.

"I cannot figure out in my wildest dreams why they would want to do that," he said. "I think they realize now that that was not a prudent thing to do, because it's only reflecting negatively on them."

He was speaking as the White House worked to distance itself from Navarro's opinion piece, which contained viewpoints similar to opinions voiced by Trump himself and distributed by the White House over the weekend.

The White House communications office insisted Navarro did not clear his article through them before it was published in USA Today. Trump himself called the piece a mistake.

But the sentiment Navarro expressed -- that Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease specialist, had been wrong on multiple occasions during the pandemic -- was the same one White House officials espoused over the weekend when they questioned his record to reporters.

Trump on Wednesday brushed off the episode in the Oval Office before taking a more forceful stance as he departed the White House for Atlanta.

"He made a statement representing himself," Trump said when questioned about the article. "He shouldn't be doing that. I have a very good relationship with Anthony."

"We're all on the same team," Trump said, "including Dr. Fauci."

Trump said this afternoon that Navarro shouldn’t have written the op-ed:

Before departing the White House, President Trump was asked what he thought of trade adviser Peter Navarro’s op-ed where he attacked Dr. Anthoney Fauci. President Trump said, “he made a statement representing himself, he shouldn’t be doing that.”

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— Heidi Heitkamp (@HeitkampHeidi) July 16, 2020

I know some are wondering if Trump is really giving Navarro a wink and a nod behind the scenes regarding his op-ed, but it seems more to me like Navarro is in the doghouse now. Otherwise I’d think the White House would let him go on CNN and continue to criticize Fauci, with the caveat that these are his views and his views only.

But then again maybe that would be too obvious. It just looks to me like they are doing everything they can to shut this down instead of letting it continue to fester.