Dr. Anthony Fauci Reveals He Was 'Blocked' By Trump Administration From Going on Rachel Maddow's Show

Dr. Anthony Fauci is opening up about his experience with the Trump Administration and revealed that he was pressured into saying things about the COVID-19 pandemic that didn’t line up with the proven science.

Speaking with MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, the longtime director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases also revealed that he was actually blocked from coming on her show to speak with her.

“I’ve been wanting to come on your show for months and months,” Dr. Fauci shared with her. “You’ve been asking me to come on your show for months and months and it just got blocked. Let’s call it what it is. It just got blocked because they didn’t like the way you handle things and they didn’t want me on.”

In a separate interview with the New York Times, Dr. Fauci also recalled the tense relationship he had with Donald Trump, who claimed the virus would just go away.

“It isn’t like I took any pleasure in contradicting the president of the United States,” Dr. Fauci shared. “I have a great deal of respect for the office. But I made a decision that I just had to. Otherwise I would be compromising my own integrity, and be giving a false message to the world. If I didn’t speak up, it would be almost tacit approval that what he was saying was OK.”

He added that doing that is also “when I started to get into some trouble.”

“The people around him, his inner circle, were quite upset that I would dare publicly contradict the president.”

Dr. Fauci, who was sworn in as President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser earlier in the week, was also one of the many familiar faces who have gotten the COVID-19 vaccine.