Biden asked Fauci to be his chief medical adviser — and he said yes ‘right on the spot’

President-elect Joe Biden said he asked Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious diseases expert, to be his chief medical adviser in the incoming administration.

Biden told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Thursday that he also asked Fauci to stay on as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, a role he’s held for 36 years through six presidential administrations.

“I asked him to stay on in the exact same role he’s had for the past several presidents, and I asked him to be a chief medical adviser for me as well, and be part of the Covid team,” Biden said on CNN.

Fauci said on NBC’s “Today” on Friday that he “absolutely” will accept the offer and said yes “right on the spot.”

Fauci and members of Biden’s transition team met Thursday in their first “substantive” conversation of the pandemic, McClatchy News reported.

Fauci told CBS News’s Major Garrett that he’s meeting Biden’s “entire landing team” via Zoom to discuss priorities of the administration and plans for the vaccine.

The news comes after a record high of 100,667 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 on Thursday, according to the COVID Tracking Project. Overall, more than 14 million cases of the highly infectious disease were reported in the U.S. as of Dec. 4, according to Johns Hopkins, and more than 276,000 deaths have been reported nationwide.

Fauci and President Donald Trump have had a contentious relationship during the pandemic, with Trump suggesting during a Florida rally before the election that he might fire him.

After the crowd broke out in a “Fire Fauci” chant, Trump responded: “Don’t tell anybody, but let me wait until a little bit after the election. I appreciate the advice.”

Trump also warned his supporters in Arizona during an October rally that Biden “wants to listen to Dr. Fauci.”

“Biden wants to lock you down, he wants to listen to Dr. Fauci,” Trump said, according to Spectrum News.

Biden responded on Twitter, confirming that he “wants to listen to Dr. Fauci” with a “yes.”

Also in October, Fauci said during a “60 Minutes” interview that he was “absolutely not” surprised that Trump caught the coronavirus and said he was “really ticked off” after the Trump campaign released a television ad that appeared to show the infectious diseases expert praising the Trump administration’s handling of the coronavirus.

“I do not and nor will I ever, publicly endorse any political candidate. And here I am, they’re sticking me right in the middle of a campaign ad,” Fauci said. “Which I thought was outrageous. I was referring to something entirely different. I was referring to the grueling work of the task force that, ‘God, we were knocking ourselves out seven days a week. I don’t think we could have possibly have done any more than that.’”

A Morning Consult poll in October showed a majority of respondents said Fauci was doing a “good or excellent job of handling the pandemic.”

Thirty-two percent of registered voters said Fauci’s handling of the pandemic has been “excellent” while 20% said the same thing about Trump. Democrats are more likely to have favorable views of Fauci, with 79% saying he was doing a “good or excellent job” compared with 56% of independents and 54% of Republicans.

The poll was conducted Oct. 9-11 and has a sample size of 1,986 registered voters and a margin of error of 2 points.

This story was originally published December 4, 2020 at 8:41 AM with the headline "Biden asked Fauci to be his chief medical adviser — and he said yes ‘right on the spot’."