KEY POINTS

  • The Woolery tweets were shared as the White House mounted a campaign against the nation's top infectious disease expert
  • Woolery also pushed for reopening schools fully in the fall
  • The tweets come as the death toll from COVID-19 topped 135,200

As the White House moved to discredit the nation’s top infectious disease expert, President Trump on Monday shared a tweet from a game show host who alleged the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was lying about the coronavirus pandemic to dim the president’s reelection chances.

“The most outrageous lies are the ones about COVID-19. Everyone is lying. The CDC, media, Democrats, our doctors, not all but most, that we are told to trust. I think it's all about the election and keeping the economy from coming back, which is about the election. I'm sick of it,” the tweet from Chuck Woolery reads and comes as cases are soaring around the United States, especially in the South and West.

In other tweets shared by Trump, Woolery, who hosted “Wheel of Fortune” and “Love Connection,” pushes for schools to reopen and praises a follower for saying Democrats are losing their base and spewing “hate and vile rhetoric” against the president.

As of midmorning Monday, more than 3.3 million Americans had tested positive for the coronavirus and more than 135,200 had died from COVID-19.

Trump has downplayed the severity of the pandemic from the outset and until Saturday, refused to wear a face mask in public. Last week, in pushing for schools to reopen fully for the fall term, he called the CDC safety guidelines too tough and expensive on Wednesday. CDC Director Robert Redfield told CNN Thursday, however, there are no plans to revise the guidelines.

The flurry of activity comes as White House officials reportedly began smearing Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases, who has been stepping up his rhetoric on the dangers posed by the pandemic.

Fauci told the Financial Times he had not briefed Trump for at least two months and in Senate testimony called the pandemic serious, saying it still is in its first wave. He also said he disagreed with Trump’s assessment that the U.S. is in a good place.

Trump said in a Fox News interview last week that Fauci is a “nice man” but had “made mistakes.” And Adm. Brett Giroir, who is in charge of the nation’s testing program, accused Fauci of looking at the pandemic strictly from a “public health point of view” in an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday.

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