Fauci tells Maddow he was ‘blocked’ from going on show under Trump admin

The nation’s top infectious diseases expert, Anthony Fauci, told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow on Friday that he had wanted to appear on her show for “months” but was blocked by the Trump administration.

“I’ve been wanting to come on your show for months and months. You’ve been asking me to come on your show for months and months,” Fauci said during an appearance on “The Rachel Maddow Show” on Friday night.

“And it’s just gotten 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,” he added.

Fauci to @Maddow: “I’ve been wanting to come on your show for months and months. You’ve been asking me to come on your show for months and months… It just got blocked, because they didn’t like the way you handled things.” He says things are better now. pic.twitter.com/ZHEYBzlBjk

— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) January 23, 2021

Fauci explained that he received opposition from the former administration when the opportunity to appear on Maddow’s show arose. He said that he doesn’t foresee those same roadblocks under the new Biden administration.

“Why would you want to go on Rachel Maddow’s show? Well, because I like her and she’s really good,” he said, portraying an exchange during the previous administration.

“I don’t think you’re going to see that now,” Fauci continued, referring to the new administration. “You’re not going to see deliberate holding back of good people when the press asks for them.”

Friday was reportedly Fauci’s first appearance on Maddow’s show, though he previously sat down with MSNBC’s Chuck Todd last year. Fauci was a leading figure on the White House coronavirus task force during the Trump administration and regularly appeared for media interviews to tout the task force’s efforts.

On Thursday, Fauci declared that working under President Biden has been “liberating” compared with his experience working under former President Trump.

“I can tell you I take no pleasure at all in being in a situation of contradicting the president, so it was really something that you didn’t feel you could actually say something and there wouldn’t be any repercussions about it,” he said at the time. “The idea that you can get up here and talk about what you know, what the evidence and science is, and know that’s it — let the science speak — it is somewhat of a liberating feeling.”