Former CNN editor-at-large, Chris Cillizza, admitted he made significant mistakes in assessing Anthony Fauci’s credibility during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Cillizza acknowledged he was wrong, dismissing President Donald Trump and others who questioned Fauci’s narrative.
The reporter even confessed that his trust in Fauci’s and Trump’s bias led him to overlook alternative perspectives.
“If this was a debate between Donald Trump and Anthony Fauci on the origins of a pandemic-level virus, I was going to go with the guy who spent his entire career studying this stuff, not the reality TV-star-turned-president,” Cillizza wrote.
As evidence supports the lab-leak theory, something which Trump and many conservatives said from the beginning, Cillizza admitted he was wrong.
“The lesson: Be skeptical — of experts or anyone else — when dealing with a rapidly developing and changing situation where no one has the ability to see a 360-degree view,” he added.
Fauci is quickly becoming less credible in the mainstream due to his shifting guidance, missteps, and inconsistencies in his messaging.
President Trump revoked Fauci’s federal security detail last week, justifying the s decision by saying that former officials should not rely indefinitely on government-funded security
This came days after Joe Biden issued preemptive pardons to Fauci and others.
Cillizza then went on to criticize himself for clouding his judgment.
“My belief at the time was that Trump was just making it up. Like, he wanted to blame China for the virus. And it having leaked from an infectious disease lab — whether accidentally or intentionally — made that case much easier to make,” he admitted.
“Do I think that’s what happened?” he asked.
“That Trump knew — like, really knew — way back then that Covid had come from a lab? Or was he just saying stuff — and that stuff wound up being proven correct in the long run? Honestly, I am not sure we will ever know.”
“It never entered my mind that, as president, it was possible that Trump had been privy to information not publicly available on the virus,” Cillizza wrote.
Cillizza concluded: “Just because Trump talks out of his ass a fair amount doesn’t mean everything he says is him talking out of his ass. Don’t disqualify the possibility of Trump telling the truth solely because he is a decidedly inconsistent messenger when it comes to truth.”
