Trump Retweets Call for Dr. Fauci to Be Fired Over Coronavirus Comments

Leading infectious-diseases official said on CNN that the U.S. ‘could have saved more lives’ if it had moved faster

President Trump stoked questions about the fate of Dr. Anthony Fauci after retweeting a critic who called for the member of the White House’s coronavirus task force to be fired after he said lives could have been saved if the government had acted more quickly.

Dr. Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has drawn denunciations from some on the right who have questioned his advice and whether it helped contribute to the economy’s free fall.

Appearing on CNN on Sunday morning, Dr. Fauci said that the government “could have saved more lives” if it had moved sooner to impose social-distancing restrictions.

On Sunday evening, Mr. Trump retweeted a message from a former Republican congressional candidate attacking that comment. “Fauci is now saying that had Trump listened to the medical experts earlier he could’ve saved more lives,” wrote DeAnna Lorraine, who challenged House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) in her San Francisco-area district.

Her message went on: “Fauci was telling people on February 29th that there was nothing to worry about and it posed no threat to the US public at large. Time to #FireFauci…”

Mr. Trump didn’t repeat those words directly himself but shared the message with his nearly 77 million followers. The retweet was one of several postings on Easter Sunday in which Mr. Trump pushed back on criticism he has faced over his handling of the crisis.