Fauci: The death threats started early

Anthony Fauci on working in the Trump administration:

When did the death threats start?

Wow. Many, many months ago. In the spring. Hold on — just bear with me. [He consults someone who answers “March 28,” 2020] So there — you got it from the head of my Secret Service detail. That’s when I got protection, so maybe two weeks prior to that.

It was the harassment of my wife, and particularly my children, that upset me more than anything else. They knew where my kids work, where they live. The threats would come directly to my children’s phones, directly to my children’s homes. How the hell did whoever these assholes were get that information? 

And there was chatter on the internet, people talking to each other, threatening, saying, “Hey, we got to get rid of this guy. What are we going to do about him? He’s hurting the president’s chances.” You know, that kind of right-wing craziness.

Were you ever shot at or confronted?

No, but one day I got a letter in the mail, I opened it up and a puff of powder came all over my face and my chest.

That was very, very disturbing to me and my wife because it was in my office. So I just looked at it all over me and said, “What do I do?” The security detail was there, and they’re very experienced in that. They said, “Don’t move, stay in the room.” And they got the hazmat people. So they came, they sprayed me down and all that.

Did they test the powder?

Yeah. It was a benign nothing. But it was frightening. My wife and my children were more disturbed than I was. I looked at it somewhat fatalistically. It had to be one of three things: A hoax. Or anthrax, which meant I’d have to go on Cipro for a month. Or if it was ricin, I was dead, so bye-bye. 

(Fauci on What Working for Trump Was Really Like}