Former President Barack Obama privately criticized President Donald Trump and Donald Trump Jr. during a 2021 phone call with Dr. Anthony Fauci, according to diary entries released by Senate Republicans.
The remarks appear in a November 2021 entry contained in more than 1,000 pages of Fauci’s personal pandemic diaries, which were recently released by Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul (R).
According to Fauci’s account, Obama called to express support as Fauci faced intense criticism from Republicans over his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Fauci wrote that he told Obama about attacks from Trump supporters, including merchandise sold by Donald Trump Jr. bearing the slogan “Fauci Kills Puppies.”
The slogan stemmed from allegations that the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases funded research involving beagle puppies. The controversy centered on a study published in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, which was later corrected by the journal in October 2021.
According to Fauci’s diary, Obama responded by calling Donald Trump Jr. “a f*cking moron.”
Fauci wrote that Obama apologized for using profanity before continuing his criticism of the president.
According to the diary entry, Obama then described Donald Trump as “a hopeless idiot who was a pathologic liar.”
Fauci also wrote that Obama expressed frustration that moderate Republicans were not publicly defending him against what the former president viewed as false accusations.
“He was very upset that none of the moderate Republicans were actually speaking out on my behalf and were distancing themselves from all of this terrible slanderous behavior against me,” Fauci wrote.
Fauci described the discussion as lasting approximately 25 minutes and called it “an incredibly memorable phone call.”
The diaries, which span the years 2019 through 2022, were discovered on government servers by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. before being turned over to Senate Republicans.
The documents have renewed scrutiny of Fauci’s actions and private views during the pandemic.
Among other entries, Fauci reportedly described Trump as an “obnoxious adolescent” in a March 2021 diary entry while documenting what he viewed as an increasingly strained relationship with the president during the federal COVID-19 response.
Following the release of the diaries, Fauci appeared before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
During the hearing, Fauci invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination 111 times and accused Sen. Paul of attempting to build a criminal case against him.
Asked about the newly released diary entries, White House spokesperson Davis Ingle criticized the former president.
“Barack Hussein Obama will go down as one of the most dishonest, divisive, and destructive Presidents in history,” Ingle told The Independent.
The Independent reported that it contacted the Office of Barack Obama for comment. No response had been reported at the time of publication.
