Ex-Trump Official Alyssa Farah Griffin Claims Credit for ‘Convincing’ President Not to Fire Fauci

The View’s Alyssa Farah Griffin took credit for convincing President Donald Trump to keep Dr. Anthony Fauci in his job during her time in his first administration.

Griffin sat down with View producer Brian Teta on the Behind the Table podcast on Tuesday where she discussed what she described as a “prisoner’s dilemma” for Republican politicians when it comes to Trump.

Griffin argued many Republicans are more frustrated behind the scenes than they let on in public, because they know they need to keep the president on their side to push forward legislation and avoid him backing a primary opponent against them, as he’s done with others.

The talk led Griffin to discuss her time in the White House and times she felt she pushed back against Trump. Griffin served as White House Director of Strategic Communications and Assistant to the President from April to December in 2020 when she resigned.

“I think about it with my own time in the White House. I mean, I could point to very specific things, like convincing the former president — er, the current president — to not fire Tony Fauci. That’s a reason it was important for me to be in the room. I can think of different things, but you can always wrestle with there’s only two choices you could have made and I never know what the right choice is,” Griffin said.

Fauci was the longtime head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and he served in that role during the Covid-19 pandemic when lockdown measures and Fauci’s talk of the disease’s origins brought about outrage from Republicans. Trump has bragged about not listening to Fauci’s advice and said he couldn’t have “won that one” if he attempted to remove him from his position.

“Hindsight is 20/20, but I tried to learn from decisions and move forward accordingly,” Griffin said about her time in the White House discussing Fauci with Trump.

“And you have to imagine who else would have been in those rooms if you weren’t there,” Teta replied.

“Well, I think we’re seeing it this term,” Griffin said.

Watch above via Behind the Table.

Jason Cohen contributed to this report.

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!