Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Dr. Anthony Fauci speaks during a coronavirus task force briefing at the White House, Friday, March 20, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Media can’t impugn what Dr. Anthony Fauci, the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, says. So they have to try to draw daylight between him and President Donald Trump if they’re going to disparage the Trump administration’s response to fighting the Wuhan coronavirus.

For example, you go this lie from NBC’s Kelly O’Donnell the other day.

The president’s apparent anger on display as he used the derogatory term “Deep State Department” and Dr Fauci reacted by putting his hand over his face. Watch. pic.twitter.com/Ks7j4WciVt

— Kelly O'Donnell (@KellyO) March 20, 2020

O’Donnell claimed that Trump’s “apparent anger on display” and Fauci “putting his hand over his face.”

As we reported, there was no “anger,” Trump was clearly joking and smiling. Completely false description of the event. Trump told a joke and Fauci was cracking up, as were others who were smiling in response, such as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. It’s even more clear here in the unclipped version.

But that then spawned gifs and claims that Fauci did a face palm at Trump, just one more lie out into the firmament.

But when Fauci appeared on CBS’s Face the Nation and the host appeared to try to divide him and Trump, he was having none of it.

DR. FAUCI: “The President was trying to bring hope to the people. I think there's this issue of [the media] trying to separate the two of us. There isn't fundamentally a difference there." pic.twitter.com/lSygidey2a

— Ken Farnaso (@KLF) March 22, 2020

From Townhall:

“You said this week that you differed from the president in an assessment that a combination of two drugs, Hydroxychloroquine and Azithromycin, combined, could have an outcome that he described to the public,” Margaret Brennan said. “Who is the president listening to and do you see a concern here that those drugs could become, basically oversubscribed, and there could be a shortage that could impact people who have persistent medical issues, like Lupus, and need those?”

First, listen to the hysteria there. Trump said there was a promise of hope showed from the trials of the drugs. Doctors aren’t going to be prescribing them unless they are already properly required. So the hysteria is misplaced. But how dare Trump mention something potentially hopeful!

Fauci made that point.

“There’s an issue here of where we’re coming from. The president has heard, as we all have heard, are what I call ‘anecdotal reports’ that certain drugs work. So, what he was trying to do and express, was the hope that it might work, let’s try and push their usage,” Fauci explained. “I, on the other hand, am not disagreeing with the fact that, anecdotally, they might work. But my job is to prove definitively, from a scientific standpoint, that they do work. So I was taking a purely medical, scientific standpoint and the president was trying to bring hope to the people.”

But there is no real difference and you’re not going to separate us, Fauci made it clear.

“I think there’s this issue of trying to separate the two of us,” he said, clearly calling out the media. “There isn’t fundamentally a difference there. He’s coming from a hope, layperson’s standpoint. I’m coming from it from a scientific standpoint.”

Good for Fauci! This also shows that Fauci is wise to the ways of the media and isn’t going to let them get away with such nonsense to try to attack Trump and hurt the effort.

What does it serve for the media to do this? They’re not helping the public or informing the public in so doing.

How do we know the motive is not pure?

As our friends at Townhall observed, when Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that New York has acquired 70,000 units of hydroxychloroquine and 750,000 units of chloroquine, the media hail the governor for his leadership and said he was “providing hope but not false hope.”

It’s not false hope or even criticized when Cuomo does it, indeed he’s lauded for his response.