(BLUE ISLAND, Ill.) — Three people were injured after multiple gunmen in a vehicle opened fire on a community center that was hosting a funeral reception in the Chicago suburbs, officials said.
The shooting occurred around 3:30 p.m. local time Friday in the city of Blue Island, Illinois, located about 16 miles south of the Chicago Loop. The Salvation Army community center was being rented for a repast funeral service at the time, according to Blue Island City Administrator Tom Wogan.
“The vehicle containing multiple gunmen opened fire on the front of the building,” Wogan said during a press briefing Friday evening.
A person with a concealed carry permit who was attending the service came out of the building and returned fire, Wogan said, describing the scene as “very chaotic.”
The three victims were inside the building when the shooting began, according to Wogan. They were brought to local hospitals, one with potentially life-threatening injuries and two with minor injuries, he said.
One person has been taken into custody for questioning in connection with the shooting, the Blue Island Police Department said Friday night.
Police said they are working to identify the suspect vehicle and “remaining offenders.”
It is unclear if this was a “retaliatory incident,” Wogan said.
Several law enforcement agencies, including state police and the FBI, are assisting, the Blue Island Police Department said.
(BERKELEY, Calif.) — A California jury has found David DePape guilty on all charges in the state trial over the hammer attack against Paul Pelosi, following his federal conviction for the 2022 assault, prosecutors said.
The jury began deliberations Tuesday afternoon in San Francisco, with the court dark on Wednesday, before reaching a verdict Friday afternoon.
DePape, 44, was charged with false imprisonment of an elder by violence or menace, residential burglary, threatening a family member of a public official, dissuading a witness by force or threat and aggravated kidnapping, which carries a life sentence without the possibility of parole.
The sentencing will be scheduled at a later date.
San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said the conviction ensures that DePape “will face consequences for his heinous crimes against the Pelosi family and our democracy.”
“I would like to thank all of the law enforcement agencies that collaborated with us to ensure that justice was done,” Jenkins said in a statement Friday. “I would also like to thank the family for their courage and resilience. I hope that this verdict brings them ameasure of closure as they continue to heal from this tragic ordeal.”
DePape’s public defender, Adam Lipson, said they were disappointed by the verdict.
“I don’t believe that this was a kidnapping for ransom, I think that it’s really unfortunate that he was charged this way,” Lipson told reporters, adding that his client had lived a “very isolated” life and had gotten “wrapped up in a lot of conspiracy theory-type situations.”
DePape did not testify during the three-week state trial. He had pleaded not guilty to the charges.
During the trial, the judge dismissed three other charges DePape initially faced — attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon, and elder abuse — after the defense argued that the counts fell under double jeopardy following the defendant’s conviction in the federal trial over the attack against former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband, according to the AP.
His public defender had argued there was not enough evidence to convict DePape of threatening a family member of a public official and aggravated kidnapping, according to the AP.
“There is not much of a dispute to the facts of the case, but there is a tremendous dispute as to what charges apply and what don’t,” Lipson told the jury during his closing argument, according to the AP.
Assistant District Attorney Phoebe Maffei told jurors during her closing argument that the “plain facts of this case are terrifying by themselves without embellishment,” the AP said.
“David DePape broke into the home of an 82-year-old man while he slept, entered his bedroom, held him hostage with a hammer, threatened him, threatened his wife, and attempted to kill him,” Maffei said, according to the AP.
Paul Pelosi testified during the state trial that on the night of the attack, DePape woke him by asking, “Are you Paul Pelosi?” and had a hammer and zip ties, according to KGO.
“He seemed very intent on what he was going to do,” Paul Pelosi said, according to KGO.
On the impact of the attack, Paul Pelosi said he has had two falls since the incident and that it is better for his mental health not to discuss it, according to KGO.
The verdict in the state trial follows DePape’s sentencing in May in the federal case, when he was convicted of seeking to hold former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi hostage and attacking her husband with a hammer.
A judge sentenced DePape to 30 years in federal prison on May 17. However, the sentencing was reopened after prosecutors noted that the defendant was never formally given the opportunity to address the court during his sentencing. He was again sentenced to 30 years in prison at a hearing two weeks later, during which he apologized for the attack.
“I’m sorry for what I did, especially what I did to Paul Pelosi,” he said during the resentencing hearing, according to KGO. “I should have just left the house when I realized Nancy Pelosi wasn’t home.”
DePape’s attorneys filed a brief notice of appeal following his initial sentencing in the federal case.
A federal jury found DePape guilty in November 2023 of attempted kidnapping of a federal officer or employee, and assault of an immediate family member of a federal official.
DePape admitted during the federal trial that he was looking for Nancy Pelosi to question her about Russian influence on the 2016 election and planned to hold her hostage, but only Paul Pelosi was at their San Francisco home when he broke in on Oct. 28, 2022.
Paul Pelosi said on the stand during the federal trial that DePape repeatedly asked him, “Where is Nancy?”
DePape hit Paul Pelosi, then 82 years old, with a hammer, causing major injuries, including a skull fracture, but told the court that Paul Pelosi was “never my target.”
“I’m sorry that he got hurt,” DePape said during the federal trial. “I reacted because my plan was basically ruined.”
The incident was captured on police body camera video by officers who responded to the scene.
Paul Pelosi was hospitalized for six days following the attack and underwent surgery to repair a skull fracture and serious injuries to his right arm and hands.
(TUSCON, Ariz.) — A housing assistance agency in one of the hottest regions in the country has found a sustainable way to provide relief from scorching temperatures.
Two shipping containers that used to sit on the U.S.-Mexico border have been repurposed into cooling stations for residents in Tucson, Arizona, who may not have access to air conditioning – especially homeless communities, ABC Tucson affiliate KGUN reported.
Dubbed ‘COOLtainers’ and located on northern Tucson’s so-called ‘Miracle Mile’ commercial corridor, the air-conditioned stations are solar-powered. One is equipped with cots for napping, while the other has tables and chairs, and also offers snacks and hygiene items, according to officials from Tucson Housing First Program, a city-run program that assists individuals and families facing homelessness.
“Having something like this would have been a game changer,” Erica Dallo, an employee with the Tucson Housing First Program who once was homeless herself, told KGUN. “…There is no relief when you’re out on the streets like that.”
Being able to provide such a critical service to those in need has led to a full-circle moment for Jeannette Garment, another Tucson Housing First Program employee who was formerly homeless, she told KGUN.
“I hope that people take advantage of it and that they can come down here and take a couple of hours off their feet,” she said. “Try to get some rest and see how better their life can be one day.”
The new cooling station joins six that the city already has in operation throughout the city, according to the City of Tucson.
Temperatures in Tucson over the next week are forecast to be in the triple digits, with lows in the 80s. Any prolonged exposure to that kind of heat could induce heat-related illness, especially for medically vulnerable populations, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Extreme heat affects disadvantaged communities disproportionately, research shows, due primarily to lack of access to air conditioning or funds to pay the increased utility bills.
Many in the Tucson area don’t have anywhere to go to escape the sweltering temperatures and intense sun, Dallo said. In triple-digit temperatures, cooling centers could be very helpful in preventing heat-illness and fatalities.
“We are aware that there’s a need, especially with this extreme heat we’re supposed to have today,” Allison Chappell, community services manager for housing operations at the Tucson Housing First Program, told KGUN.
The cooling centers are scheduled to operate through Aug. 31, but are not open on Sundays and Mondays due to lack of funding, according to the housing program.
(WASHINGTON) — The Republican National Committee is launching a nationwide recruitment effort for poll workers ahead of November’s election as former President Donald Trump continues to spread doubts about election security.
The RNC says it has promised Trump it will enlist at least 100,000 people to serve as poll watchers, poll workers, and poll judges — and have kicked off what they are calling the “Protect Your Vote” tour, holding in-person and virtual training sessions in battleground states such as Michigan, Georgia, and Pennsylvania.
On Friday, RNC Chairman Michael Whatley emphasized the committee’s commitment to the effort above nearly all others, stressing a refocus of priorities at a stop on New York’s Long Island.
“We cannot be all things to all people. We are going to do two things, and we are going to do only two things. We are going to get out the vote, and we are going to protect the ballot — that’s it,” Whatley told a packed room of volunteers in Westbury Friday morning, flanked by top local Republican brass. “The most important thing we can do is get back to basics.”
(New York, notably, has been a reliably Democratic haven for decades, though Trump now says he believes a major flip is within his grasp, following a string of down-ballot GOP wins in The Empire State’s “purple” suburbs during the midterm elections.)
Part of Whatley’s retooled approach at the RNC is an emphasis on early, mail-in voting, a practice Trump once called “corrupt.” Trump has now shifted his stance, and Whatley hopes voters will follow suit. To this end, the committee has launched “Swamp the Vote USA,” a website that instructs supporters how to submit their ballots before Election Day, featuring a video of Trump endorsing those various methods.
Whatley told ABC News after Friday’s event he sees no indication that supporters are being sheepish about early voting. In fact, he expects nearly half of all votes to be cast before Election Day.
“We want to make sure that everybody understands on the Republican side, as the president has said, multiple times, it’s great to vote early. It’s great to vote by mail. It’s great to vote on Election Day,” Whatley said.
He’s also directing resources to ensure the “right rules of the road” are in place, meaning interfacing with various boards of elections, secretaries of state, governors, and local and state parties to alter or add laws that align with their efforts to monitor voting.
The goal is to have volunteers supervise polling sites in order to monitor early and Election Day voting in order to ensure that elections are “secure and transparent and inspire voter confidence.”
“You have to be in the room,” stressed Whatley. “We need Republican attorneys and Republican volunteers serving as poll workers and poll judges and poll observers in any room where voting is taking place or votes or being counted. It’s absolutely critical for us to be in the room.”
In these training sessions, volunteers learn about how to monitor polling sites in accordance with state law and interact with Whatley and RNC Co-Chair Lara Trump, the president’s daughter-in-law, as well as other local GOP officials, to increase engagement.
The committee has also set up an “election integrity” department with staff deployed across the nation to keep in constant contact with the trained volunteers.
“No one can sit idly by during this election, and we are excited to help every patriot play a role in the most important election of our lifetime,” Lara Trump said in a press release announcing the Protect the Vote tour.
Whatley denied criticism that he, and the Republican Party broadly, are participating in election denialism.
“I’m not an election denier, I’m an election winner,” said Whatley. “Republicans, Independents, and Democrats want to know that the sanctity of their ballot is going to allow their vote to count.”
Even still the initiative comes as Trump and his Republican allies have continued to spread unfounded claims about prior and forthcoming elections.
“We need to watch the vote. We need to guard the vote,” Lara Trump said while speaking at Turning Point’s “The People Convention” in Michigan last weekend. “It’s so corrupt, the whole election process.”
(NEW YORK) — Facing 16 felony charges in federal court, New Jersey Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez launched a long-shot bid for reelection earlier this month as an independent, but he appears to have held no campaign events, raised almost no money through the first quarter of this year, reportedly has no paid staff and — by siphoning votes from the Democratic Party’s Senate nominee, Rep. Andy Kim, could hand a safe-blue seat to Republicans.
New Jersey Democrats ABC News spoke with are split over Menendez’s motivation.
Some — including Kim — speculate his independent campaign could help him fundraise to cover mounting legal costs. Others said they believe he could be seeking leverage with the Democratic Party. And some state Democrats can’t even agree on whether Menendez will go through with the race at all.
“It’s unfathomable to think I’m running for reelection for any reason other than to continue to uphold my oath of office to help and protect New Jerseyans,” Menendez said to ABC News in an emailed statement. “My candidacy is not, and never was, about leveraging my fellow Democrats.”
Many of those fellow Democrats disagree.
Kim, who won the New Jersey Democratic Senate primary earlier this month, said in an interview with ABC News that he assumed Menendez was running as an independent because he needed money to pay legal fees — incurred in his ongoing trial.
Menendez is charged with allegedly accepting cash, gold bars, luxury wristwatches and other perks from a New Jersey businessmen in exchange for official favors to benefit the businessmen and the governments of Egypt and Qatar.
He has pleaded not guilty and denied all wrongdoing.
“Depending on what happens with this trial, there could be a long appeals process or other things, so he may have to fundraise for a while,” Kim said.
Julie Roginsky, a veteran New Jersey Democratic political strategist, said she agreed.
“Bob Menendez is staring down millions and millions of dollars in legal fees” and, not being independently wealthy, he has to raise funds to cover them, Roginsky said.
Campaign funds can be used to cover some legal expenses under Federal Election Commission rules, according to former FEC Chairman Michael Toner.
In New Jersey, independent candidates can remove their names from the ballot up until Aug.16. Even if Menendez were to withdraw before that deadline, lobbyists and supporters who might be unwilling or unable to contribute to Menendez’s legal defense fund could donate until then to his campaign instead, Roginsky said.
Toner confirmed that a candidate cannot raise funds for a campaign once they fail to qualify for the ballot in an upcoming cycle. By qualifying for the ballot as an independent, Menendez can therefore continue to raise funds.
Two Democratic operatives close to New Jersey Democratic leadership have a different theory.
New Jersey is a reliably blue seat, and if Menendez pulls votes from Kim, it could imperil that standing — and potentially the U.S. Senate majority in Washington.
Democrats currently hold a narrow 51-seat majority in the Senate but are facing long odds to keep it, with Cook Political Report rating one currently Democratic seat as solid for Republicans and a three others as toss-ups.
Roginsky said she thinks Menendez would not want to cost Democrats the Senate majority.
Knowing that, Menendez could be looking for leverage to extract concessions in exchange for dropping out of the race before late summer, the operatives said. Concessions Menendez might seek, the operatives speculated, could range from financial support to even a pardon from President Joe Biden — as politically improbable as that might be — especially in an election year.
But for many of the state Democrats ABC News interviewed, the question is not why, but whether Menendez will go through with the reelection bid.
“He’s not running again,” said David Wildstein, the editor-in-chief of the New Jersey Globe and a longtime observer of New Jersey politics who says he has known Menendez for 35 years. “I just don’t believe that he’ll want to suffer the indignity of a defeat.”
Kim, for his part, said he isn’t listening to the speculation surrounding Menendez.
“My working assumption right now is that he will be on the ballot,” said Kim, who previously told ABC News “everyone knows Bob Menendez isn’t running for the people of New Jersey, he’s doing it for himself.”
And, Kim said, he will have the support of national Democrats in the event that Menendez does go through with the reelection bid.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer drew criticism for declining to immediately endorse Kim after his primary victory — and still has not done so. But Kim said that he spoke with Schumer after his victory last Tuesday and that they have been “talking more and more” since.
“I’ve certainly felt like we’re getting the support that we need,” Kim said. “And if there are things that we need going forward, I think that we’ll certainly be able to have that kind of coordination.”
(FRESNO, Calif.) — A 4-year-old boy was found safe after going missing overnight at a campground in California, authorities said.
Christian Ramirez’s family reported him missing Thursday shortly before 11 a.m. PT at the Rancheria Campground near Huntington Lake, according to the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office.
More than 50 sheriff’s deputies and volunteers joined in a search for the child that continued overnight. Christian was ultimately found around 8 a.m. PT Friday outside the campground, about a quarter-mile from where he went missing, by members of the Tulare County Search and Rescue Team, authorities said.
“He’s tired, he’s hungry, but he’s alive and he’s healthy,” Lt. Brandon Pursell with the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office told ABC Fresno affiliate KFSN. “This is overall just a great victory for the sheriff’s office, for the kid’s family and for our searchers that … spent all night last night out working tirelessly to find this boy.”
The search effort included helicopters, drones, dog teams, boats and a ground search through rough terrain, according to Pursell.
The Fresno County Sheriff’s Office released footage and photos of the child after he was found and reunited with his parents. He was shown wrapped in a coat and eating a sandwich upon his rescue in a wooded area.
Pursell told KFSN it was fortunate the boy was found unharmed, given the location where he went missing. Bears, snakes, waterways and “slip and fall hazards” posed potential dangers, he told the station. The child was also wearing only a T-shirt and shorts overnight in the cold, though he was cleared by medical staff to be released to his family and was in “decent spirits,” Pursell told the station.
“There’s a lot of things that could have gone really, really wrong with this one,” he told KFSN. “We got lucky, the family got lucky.”
Pursell told KFSN they were still working to determine exactly what happened but that it appears the child wandered off while the family was camping.
“We believe that it was just an unfortunate event,” he told the station, adding that no criminality is suspected.
Pursell reminded parents to be “extra diligent” this summer.
“Kids wander, and especially when you’re in wooded areas, near water, we want to remind parents, you have to stay incredibly diligent and watch your children at all times,” he told KFSN.
(LAS VEGAS) — A Clark County, Nevada, judge on Friday dismissed the charges filed by Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford against six so-called “alternate electors” related to their alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election in favor of former President Donald Trump.
The move makes the Nevada case the first one among the five state-level 2020 fake elector cases to be dismissed.
Judge Mary Kay Holthus ruled during a hearing Friday that she is not convinced that Clark County is the appropriate jurisdiction for the case, given the allegedly fake elector documents were originally mailed from Douglas County and the so-called false signing ceremony took place in Carson City — both in western Nevada.
The defendants’ attorneys had argued that Carson City or Douglas County would be a more appropriate jurisdiction for the case.
“We disagree with the judge’s decision and will be appealing immediately,” a spokesperson for the Nevada attorney general’s office told ABC News.
According to the Nevada Independent, the attorney general is unable to re-file the case in Carson City or Douglas County because a three-year statute of limitations expired in December.
The six so-called “alternate electors” were indicted last December on charges of falsely portraying themselves as Nevada’s presidential electors after the last presidential election — each charged with felonies including offering a false instrument for filing, offering a forged instrument, and offering a false instrument titled “Certificate of the Votes of the 2020 Electors from Nevada” to the state and federal governments.
Those charged were some of Nevada Republican Party’s top officials, as well as Trump’s key allies in the state, including Nevada Republican Party Chairman Michael McDonald, Nevada Republican Party National Committeeman Jim DeGraffenreid, Nevada Republican Party Vice Chairman Jim Hindle, Clark County Republican Party Chairman Jesse Law, and Republican operatives Shawn Meehan and Eileen Rice.
Trump and 18 others pleaded not guilty last August to all charges in a sweeping racketeering indictment for alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in the state of Georgia.
In Arizona, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, several Trump allies and several alleged fake electors pleaded not guilty in May for their alleged efforts to overturn that state’s 2020 election results.
In Michigan, Attorney General Dana Nessel charged 16 “alternate electors” last July for conspiracy to commit forgery, among other charges.
Three Trump associates allegedly tied to the former president’s efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election were also charged with forgery earlier this month in Wisconsin.
(NEW YORK) — Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, in a court filing Friday, opposed lifting the limited gag order on Donald Trump as the former president awaits sentencing in his criminal hush money case.
The limited gag order prevents Trump from targeting witnesses, jurors and others associated with the case.
Trump’s lawyers have argued that Trump’s “political opponents” — including President Joe Biden, Robert DeNiro, Michael Cohen, and Stormy Daniels — are using the gag order as a “sword” to attack the former president.
Trump last month was found guilty on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to a 2016 hush money payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels in order to boost his electoral prospects in the 2016 presidential election.
With the trial over, Trump’s attorneys asked the judge overseeing the case, Juan Merchan, to lift the limited gag order as Trump awaits his sentencing on July 11, arguing that the court’s concerns no longer apply.
But Bragg’s office said the protections should remain in effect at least through sentencing.
“Defendant’s demand that this Court precipitously end these protections, even before the sentencing hearing on July 11, is overstated and largely unfounded,” prosecutors said in Friday’s filing.
Prosecutors argued that the gag order was necessary to protect staff and lawyers with the Manhattan district attorney’s office from Trump’s “dangerous attacks.”
According to an affidavit filed Friday, the New York Police Department’s Threat Assessment and Protection Unit identified 61 actionable threats against Bragg, his family and staff in 2024, including 56 threats during the last three months when the trial was active. Threats included bomb threats, doxing, and online threats, such as messages including “Your life is done” and “we will kill you all.”
“The Court’s orders as to prosecutors, court staff, and their families continue to strike the appropriate balance under the Constitution to mitigate the threat to the judicial process posed by defendant’s dangerous attacks,” the DA’s filing argued.
Prosecutors also accused defense attorneys for including “a number of categorically false accusations” in their recent filings, including suggesting that Bragg was coordinating with a “cast of associates” to limit Trump’s speech ahead of this month’s upcoming presidential debate.
“Defendant offers no factual basis for this assertion, and there is none: the claim is a lie,” the filing said. “These knowing falsehoods are just the latest examples of defendant’s patent disrespect for the rule of law and the impartial administration of justice.”
While prosecutors argued that the gag order should remain in place to protect jurors, court staff, prosecutors, and their families, they conceded that the provisions of the gag order prohibiting Trump’s statements about witnesses no longer need to be enforced.
“Now that the jury has delivered a verdict, however, the compelling interest in protecting the witnesses’ ability to testify without interference is no longer present,” the DA’s filing said.
On Tuesday, the New York Court of Appeals declined to take up Trump’s challenge to the limited gag order, saying their rejection is based “upon the ground that no substantial constitutional question is directly involved.”
(FORDYCE, Ark.) — Three people were killed and 10 were injured in a mass shooting at a grocery store in Arkansas on Friday, authorities said.
The suspect, who was shot by law enforcement, will be charged with capital murder, Arkansas State Police said.
Police responded to the shooting at the Mad Butcher grocery store in Fordyce, about 70 miles south of Little Rock, at about 11:30 a.m., police said.
Three civilians were killed and eight civilians were hurt, and some are in extremely critical condition, police said.
Two law enforcement officers were also shot and suffered non-life-threatening injuries, police said.
In addition to the 13 people killed or injured, the lone suspect was shot by law enforcement and treated for non-life-threatening injuries, police said.
The suspect — identified by Arkansas State Police as 44-year-old Travis Eugene Posey, of New Edinburg — is being held at the Ouachita County Detention Center. He will be charged with three counts of capital murder, with additional charges pending, police said.
The situation is contained, police said.
Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders said she’s been briefed on the shooting.
I have been briefed on the tragic shooting in Fordyce, and I’m in constant contact with State Police at the scene. I am thankful to law enforcement and first responders for their quick and heroic action to save lives. My prayers are with the victims and all those impacted by this…
— Sarah Huckabee Sanders (@SarahHuckabee) June 21, 2024
The FBI said it is sending personnel to the scene to help state and local police.
The White House said President Joe Biden has been briefed on the shooting and his team will continue to keep him updated.
(NEW YORK) — Dr. Anthony Fauci sat down with the co-hosts of “The View” to discuss advising Former President Donald Trump during the pandemic’s peak, serving under seven presidents as NIAID director and the Latin phrase that has guided his work.
Fauci was the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases from 1984 to 2022. During the pandemic, he was a key White House Coronavirus Task Force member and initially had a good working relationship with Trump.
However, the dynamics of their relationship shifted when Trump began say things that were “not true,” according to Fauci. Fauci, driven by what he said is a strong sense of personal and professional integrity, found himself at odds with the former president, a situation he says was not easy for him to navigate.
As Fauci attempted to implement policies recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, he claimed that Trump and his supporters opposed him.
ABC News sat down with Fauci to talk about his deteriorating working relationship with Donald Trump during the COVID-19 pandemic.
ABC NEWS: So before we start, people are so glad to see you. They are so glad to see you.
FAUCI: Thank you.
ABC NEWS: So thank you for coming on the show and for everything. Everything you’ve done from the very beginning. It’s extraordinary. And you’re no worse for the wear. You look good.
FAUCI: Thank you.
ABC NEWS: You say empathy has always guided you as a physician and a public servant, but there’s also a Latin phrase that has consistently come up for you and I’d love you to share it and tell everybody what it means.
FAUCI: Well, when I was getting my education in high school, Latin and Greek was an important part of our classical training. It was actually at Regis High School, a few blocks from here, a Jesuit school. And one of the things that they mentioned to us when things got down and you felt the world was caving in on you was Illegitimi non carborundum, which means ‘Don’t let the bastards wear you down.’ Boy did that hold true.
ABC NEWS: You know, you look, you are probably one of the classiest people I’ve ever watched move around in Washington, D.C.
FAUCI: Thank you
ABC NEWS: So and — you know, I just want to raise my dreads to you. But I don’t want to take up too much time, Alyssa.
ABC NEWS: Well, Dr. Fauci, it’s so good to see you. Before retiring from government in 2022, you served under seven presidents and bipartisan administrations. Fighting diseases like AIDS, Ebola, and, of course, COVID-19, where you and I got to know each other. You had addressed so many of these ailments before and never faced the backlash that you did from part of the country when you were working on COVID. Did you see that coming? We watched it in real time.
FAUCI: No, it was really unexpected. Because, as Alyssa said, I served and advised seven presidents, Democrat and Republican, both sides of the aisle. There are always disagreements, of course. But that’s why we have a great country because you have people with different ideological views.
But the disagreements were always associated with civility, with respect for each other and respect for institutions in the government. So you could have a disagreement, but at the end you try and compromise. What happened with COVID, as I think was represented by the hearing a few weeks ago, was just pure ad hominem and vitriol. And that really took me by surprise. I thought there would be the give and take and respect each other’s disagreements.
That’s the thing that worries me not only about what I have to face, but also about the direction of the country and the social order of the democracy. It’s very threatening I think.
ABC NEWS: It’s in jeopardy. It’s in jeopardy, I think. So you dedicate a chapter of your book to your dealings with Trump, the chapter is called “He loves me, he loves me not” and you describe some angry ranting expletive-filled phone calls. He would berate you and flatter you in the same breath. I’m wondering: you said you worked with seven other presidents. Did any one of them ever speak to you the way he does or did?
FAUCI: No, of course not. Not even close. What I meant by loves me, loves me not. Early on in the beginning — he is an engaging character and we had a certain rapport with each other. I was trying to figure out what it was. I think it was two guys from New York City. He was from Queens, I was from the Bronx and we kind of had that New York — he calls it swagger — with each other, that was fine.
And all that was really good in the beginning. Until you know, he wished and hoped that the outbreak would disappear because it clearly was getting in the way of both the economy and then, as a result of that, into the election cycle. So he started to say things that actually were not true. And I just felt that I had a responsibility for my own personal and professional integrity, but also my responsibility to you, the American public, so had to contradict him.
It was very difficult for me to do that. Once I did that, then things got really dicey. Because I don’t think he went away from the fact that we did have a good relationship, but he was really very upset about the fact I had to get up and say, no, it’s not going to disappear like magic and no, hydroxychloroquine doesn’t work no matter what Laura Ingram is telling you. I mean that’s the problem.
ABC NEWS: He doesn’t like when people disagree with him. That’s why cohorts in the Republican Party are kowtowing to him because they know it displeases him.
ABC NEWS: Well, speaking of hydroxychloroquine, countless of Americans lost loved ones to COVID. My husband lost both of his parents, two doctors, within three days of each other from the pandemic.
We remember those pandemic briefings. I remember the injection of bleach, perhaps. The hydroxychloroquine. Dangerous recommendations. You were particularly disturbed, I read, by his refusal to wear a mask.
What was this time like for you having to contradict the president of the United States? And what should everyone know about how he handled the crisis? Because I blame him for my in-laws’ death.
FAUCI: Well, the people who became very angry with me, people on his staff like Peter Navarro and Mark Meadows, and others thought that I was doing that because I had some sort of antipathy to the president and I did not. It was very painful for me. I have a great deal of respect for the presidency of the United States of America. I served seven presidents; it wasn’t like ‘wow, isn’t this cool I’m contradicting the president.’ It was very very painful, but I had to do it.
With regard to the masks, the thing that was a problem, is that when the CDC came out and made the recommendations — indoors we should be wearing masks. That was at a time when the infections were going like that. And what he got up and said it’s recommendation but I’m not going to do it; I choose not to do it. I consider that a missed opportunity to use the bully pulpit of the presidency to get people to do things that was for their own safety.
He has millions and millions of followers who are very loyal to him. All he had to do is say the CDC is recommending masks; we know it’s going to save lives, do it. He missed an opportunity.
ABC NEWS: I remember telling him he looked cool in the masks because I thought that might be like, ‘Fine. I’ll wear it.’ Didn’t work.
