Rick Scott breaks with Donald Trump’s ‘Fire Fauci’ call

Anthony Fauci says the U.S. could be in a 'world of hurt.'

U.S. Senator Rick Scott broke with President Donald Trump on the future of Dr. Anthony Fauci on Monday.

The President, in response to a “Fire Fauci” chant at his rally in Opa-locka Sunday night, hinted at an imminent dismissal of the federal government’s infectious disease specialist.

“Don’t tell anybody,” the President said to the South Florida crowd, “but let me wait until a little bit after  the election.”

Whether that was a serious call or just a joke from the chief executive is unknown, but Scott took pains to distance himself from the President’s desire to undermine the doctor Monday on CNN.

“I have a very good working relationship with Dr. Fauci,” Scott told host John King. “I know he’s been working hard.”

Scott said the FDA is “working hard” on therapeutics and that he is “hopeful” on a vaccine for the novel coronavirus, but clearly is not betting all of his chips on it.

“COVID’s out there,” Scott added. “We’ve got to wear a mask, we’ve got to socially distance.”

“We have not beaten this. Everybody’s got to keep taking it seriously,” Scott added.

Fauci elicited the President’s ire anew on Friday, when he made public his differences with the President’s approach to coronavirus mitigation.

“We’re in for a whole lot of hurt. It’s not a good situation,” Fauci told The Washington Post on Friday. “All the stars are aligned in the wrong place as you go into the fall and winter season, with people congregating indoors. You could not possibly be positioned more poorly.”

Fauci also irked Trump by saying that he was not surprised that the President’s rallies led to him getting the novel coronavirus.

“I was worried that he was going to get sick when I saw him in a completely precarious situation of crowded, no separation between people, and almost nobody wearing a mask,” Fauci said last month.