President Trump said he will allow Dr. Anthony Fauci to testify to the GOP-led Senate, but not the House because the Democrats are in control.
He was asked about it Tuesday morning after Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, was blocked from testifying before the committee which the House created to conduct oversight of the administration’s coronavirus response to the outbreak.
“Because the House is a set-up,” Trump told reporters outside the White House before departing to Arizona. “The House is a bunch of Trump haters. They’ve put every Trump-hater on the committee. The same old stuff. They, frankly, want our situation to be unsuccessful, which means death, which means death, and our situation is going to be very successful. The House has put on a committee, an oversight committee of Maxine Waters and [Chairwoman Carolyn] Maloney and the same people, and it’s just a set-up.”
The president then said Fauci “looks forward” to testifying in front of the Senate, which lawmakers said could happen next week.
A memo from the White House, which was reported on Monday, said members of the coronavirus task force would not be allowed to testify on Capitol Hill, despite calls by lawmakers, because it would divert resources from the pandemic response. The memo noted the guidance could change.
