Fauci says DeSantis comments trigger ‘crazy’ people: ‘reason why I have to have security’

Former White House pandemic chief Anthony Fauci has been forced to elaborate on national security as presidential candidate Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-Florida) has his life threatened by disparaging comments like He said there is.

Mr. DeSantis and other Republicans have repeatedly attacked Mr. Fauci, who served in the Trump and Biden administrations, over pandemic policies such as mask mandates and coronavirus vaccines.

“I am one of those who had to come to terms with the President of the United States…in an uncomfortable way. It was very painful for me…but maintaining my own personal professional integrity and responsibility to the American people.” In order to do that, we had to say it like it was, and we felt we had to do it publicly,” Fauci said. Thursday’s MSNBC interview.

“That caused a certain amount of negative feeling towards me on the far right side,” he said.

Host Mehdi Hasan played footage of DeSantis at last year’s rally, in which he cited Fauci and said, “Someone needs to grab that little elf and throw him across the Potomac River.” It has said.

Such attacks encourage actual acts of violence, Fauci said.

“When some crazy person who doesn’t know anything about me says, ‘Wow, I’m going to go get that person,’ that person should be killed or prosecuted. That’s me. That’s why we have to stay safe,” he said.

“Governor. DeSantis doesn’t want to hurt me personally. He’s causing bad people to really try to hurt people. That’s the problem,” Fauci added.

Criticism of the Trump and Biden administrations’ responses to the coronavirus, including criticism of Fauci, has been a large part of DeSantis’ presidential campaign. The governor and presidential candidate frequently claims, in one of his campaign taglines, that Florida has chosen “freedom over Fauciism.”

The Hill has reached out to DeSantis’ campaign for comment.