Rush Limbaugh claims health experts like Dr Fauci are 'Hillary sympathizers' conspiring to hurt Trump
Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh claimed that Dr Anthony Fauci and the medical experts currently spearheading the country's response to the novel coronavirus pandemic are "Hillary Clinton sympathizers" with an ulterior motive to damage Donald Trump's reelection efforts.
Close to 400,000 Americans have been infected by the novel coronavirus, according to the John Hopkins University live-tracking dashboard, with over 12,900 deaths reported from the illness so far.
The scale of the outbreak has seen health experts repeatedly call for widespread lockdown measures implemented across the country and social distancing to become the new norm in a bid to "flatten the curve" and slow the spread of the virus.
Fauci, who has 36 years of experience as an infectious disease expert and served as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases under six different administrations, has echoed these sentiments, often while standing by Trump's side during his daily White House press conferences about the pandemic.
However, Limbaugh suggested that these measures were designed to hurt the economy, and ultimately, Trump's chances at a second stint in the Oval Office.
"It’s just, you know, we’ve got all of these Hillary Clinton sympathizers still in the medical expert team here," he said, according to the Huffington Post. "And we know that one thing has not changed, and that is these people’s desire, above everything else, to get rid of Donald Trump."
The 69-year-old went on to propose that the "elderly and the susceptible" should stay at home but that the government should "let the young and healthy out, let them get back to work" to preserve the economy.
Limbaugh is not the first to make such a proposal either.
MEA WorldWide (MEAWW) had previously reported how Texas Lt Gov Dan Patrick claimed he was "not living in fear" and claimed he and other older people like him would be willing to risk their health and lives so that the US could "get back to work". "My message is that let's get back to work, let's get back to living," he had said. "Let's be smart about it and those of us who are 70+, we'll take care of ourselves. But don't sacrifice the country."
Limbaugh similarly criticized the lockdown and said it was a "subtle effort" to undermine Trump and called for the restrictions to be lifted.
"Now, I understand this virus is a deadly thing. I understand it’s very serious. I understand all of that, please do not get confused here. But motivation is a key element to anything," he said. "Desire is a key element to accomplishment. It always has been. And we keep hearing, 'No, we’ve got to maintain this shutdown. In fact, we need to even intensify the shutdown. We need to keep people staying at home.'"
"I'm just telling you that there is an all-out subtle effort for the status quo because it’s going to hurt Donald Trump. That is the objective. That is the only thing at the forefront of some of these people’s minds while they portray themselves as being primarily concerned with public health."