Trump mocks Anthony Fauci with infamous first-pitch clip ahead of Senate testimony: 'Worst throw'

WASHINGTON, DC: President Trump revived one of Dr Anthony Fauci's most-mocked public moments on the eve of Fauci's Wednesday, July 29, testimony before the Senate Homeland Security Committee, sharing a clip of Fauci's widely panned ceremonial first pitch at Nationals Park in 2020.

Trump followed up with a broader assessment of his working relationship with Fauci, who served as the government's top infectious disease official across four presidential administrations dating back to the 1980s.

Testimony comes amid a fresh diary controversy

"Fauci told everyone he was a great basketball player, so I assumed that he would be easily able to throw a ball to Home Plate," Trump wrote on Truth Social.

"It turned out that he was a phony on that, just like he was on everything else. He was a terrible 'athlete,' and this is, by far, the worst throw I have ever seen in years of watching first pitches!"

"But I inherited him. He's been there since the 1980s," Trump said.

"I mean he was a guy that was there that I inherited. And with time, I didn't mind him, I didn't find him to be bad personally as a person. But I didn't agree with what he was saying or what he was doing." Trump also took aim at the Biden administration's treatment of Fauci after leaving office.

"And Biden came in, he inherited him and he gave him a tremendously high position. And then he gave him a pardon!" Trump said, referring to Fauci's role advising Biden and the preemptive pardon Biden issued him before leaving office.

Fauci finds himself under the microscope again

Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Rand Paul, a Republican from Kentucky, has released Fauci’s personal diary after years spent digging into Covid-19’s origins and the role of gain-of-function research.

This diary, over 1,100 pages, captures Fauci’s daily thoughts as the pandemic unraveled. It traces everything from his early references to the “Wuhan virus” to his dismissal of the lab-leak theory, insisting instead that the virus jumped from animals to people.

The pages also reveal how caught up he was in his own celebrity. In a May 2020 entry, Fauci admits his “national and international fame is explosive and really unimaginable,” going so far as to call himself “the most famous and talked about person in the country.”

A rivalry years in the making

Trump openly criticizing Fauci right before his subpoenaed testimony isn’t anything new, it’s just the latest chapter in their long-running feud that started back when COVID first hit.

Back then, they clashed on everything: lockdowns, masks, how to talk to the public.

Trump likes to remind people that he let governors choose their own pandemic policies instead of forcing a single national plan. He brought that up again this week, insisting he respected local control more than critics give him credit for.