Trump Holds Briefing without Fauci for Third Day
BLITZER: President Trump just held another coronavirus briefing for a third straight day without Dr. Anthony Fauci at his side, or even in the room, for that matter. I want to bring in CNN Senior Political Commentator David Axelrod, who just interviewed Dr. Fauci. David, Dr. Fauci, once again, not at the briefing today, but you spoke to him one-on-one. I want you and our viewers to listen to what he told you about his current relationship with the president. Listen to this.</s>DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: The one thing that's interesting that I think people don't appreciate is that I do have a very good relationship with the president in the sense of no animosity at all. In fact, it's quite a good relationship.</s>DAVID AXELROD, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes. Did you mention to him that maybe it isn't helpful when the White House sends out opposition research documents to try and besmirch you or the trade adviser writes op-eds talking about trying to besmirch you?</s>FAUCI: Yes. Well, I don't like that. If I said here and tell you that's okay, it's not okay. I think that's really bad news to do that.</s>AXELROD: And have you mentioned that to the president?</s>FAUCI: I think it's pretty clear around the White House that that's the situation. I don't think in some respects the president is not happy about that either. I can tell you, he's not happy personally about that.</s>BLITZER: So what was your reaction, David, when you heard his answer about that, his relationship with the White House and the president?</s>AXELROD: Well, my sense was, Wolf, that he is trying mightily to stay in the game here so he can do his work. And he knows that frontal assaults on the White House are not necessarily helpful. But it was interesting during the course of this conversation, there were numerous places, including whether the health professionals should be doing the briefing, on which Dr. Fauci separated himself from the president. On schools, he urged a more nuanced approach to schools. On testing, he said, if we don't invest more in testing, we've got a big problem because tests where you have to wait seven days become irrelevant. And he said in the hotspots, in particular, we're facing those circumstances. And then in terms of the vaccine, on which he's very active, he's very optimistic or cautiously optimistic, I would say, that there will be a vaccine by the end of the year. But the president keeps holding this out as the end of the story. And what Fauci was very clear about is we're a year away from any kind of return to semi-normalcy, because it's going to take that long to vaccinate most of the country. So, you know, Fauci is very -- he's survived in Washington for 40 years by knowing how to navigate difficult situations, and he's trying to navigate this one, giving the information that he thinks people need at the same time that he tries mightily not to frontally assault the president.</s>BLITZER: And we're totally grateful that he's still there in the mix because he's doing really important work.</s>AXELROD: Absolutely.</s>BLITZER: In response to your excellent questions, David, he did open up about, this is so worrisome to me, serious, disturbing threats he's been receiving out there. How concerning is it to see a public servant like this dedicating his whole adult life to helping not only people in the U.S. but around the world receive this kind of backlash?</s>AXELROD: He was really passionate on this, Wolf. And he recalled, and you will recall, that back in the '80s, he was very controversial when he was working on HIV/AIDS and was a target of protests. And so he said it was nothing like this where he's getting really vile, vile threats and dangerous threats, not just to himself but to his family. And that has now required him to have security. And he said, this is the reality of where we are in America, and he was very disturbed about it.</s>BLITZER: Yes. It's an awful, awful situation. David, thank you so much for doing this. And I want our viewers to know, if they want to hear David's interview with Dr. Fauci, they can. It's very easy. Simply go to cnn.com/axefiles. You'll be able to watch and it learn in the process. David, thank you so much, once again.</s>AXELROD: Thanks.</s>BLITZER: Also, Major League Baseball resumes amid the pandemic raging across so much of the United States. CNN's Brian Todd is working that part of the story for us. Brian, fans are thrilled to see the return of baseball, but it's coming under extraordinary circumstances as dozens of players have already tested positive for coronavirus. Tell our viewers where you are and what a high wire act this has all become.</s>BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is a huge high wire act, Wolf. We are at Nats Park, in the southeast entrance of the park. And I'm going to show you how surreal this is. Normally in this entrance, thousands of fans would be streaming up this walkway, going to the gate over there. But here, look at this, you see nobody here. Of course, we know no fans are going to be in the stands. All you have are media positions for reporters and producers and photographers like us, but still an exciting night. Because, look, this is the first event of the big four major sports leagues returning to action, in about 20 minutes it's all going to start again. You're talking the NFL, Major League Baseball, the NBA and the National Hockey League. This is the first event of any of those four leagues to start back, this event tonight with the Yankees playing the Nationals. Part of the excitement, the fact that Dr. Anthony Fauci is throwing out the first pitch in a very short time from now. He had a funny exchange with Nationals star Ryan Zimmerman a short time ago, where Zimmerman was kind of prepping him for that first pitch. Take a listen to what they talked about.</s>RYAN ZIMMERMAN, WASHINGTON NATIONALS FIRST BASEMAN: Have you thrown a first pitch out before at a big league stadium?</s>FAUCI: I have not, Zimmerman. And I'm nervous about it.</s>ZIMMERMAN: Okay. Well, don't worry about it. If you bounce (ph) it, there's nobody there to boo you, so you'll be good to go. You're fine.</s>TODD: So, no one to boo Dr. Fauci tonight, but there will be a pretty large television audience. We mentioned the number of baseball players testing positive, more than 80 baseball players have tested positive, more than a dozen staffers tested positive. Among the players testing positive, Nationals slugger Juan Soto just found out today he has tested positive for COVID-19. He's out indefinitely. He's got to test positive twice in the span of 24 hours to be back in action. That's a big blow for the Nats tonight. But, look, Wolf, the good part is sports is returning about 20 minutes from now. It's all going to get under way. It's an exciting time.</s>BLITZER: Normally, it would be a packed Nats Park. Unfortunately, no fans in the stadium right now. I'll leave you with these words, go Nats. Much more news right after this.