‘I Screwed Up’: Longtime CNN Personality Admits He Was Badly Wrong About Fauci
Chris Cillizza, a former CNN editor-at-large, recently admitted he made significant mistakes in how he assessed Anthony Fauci’s credibility during the pandemic. In a series of tweets, Cillizza acknowledged he was wrong to dismiss conservative voices — including President Donald Trump — who questioned Fauci’s narrative.
In his reflection, Cillizza confessed that his biases against Trump and his trust in Fauci’s expertise led him to overlook alternative perspectives, particularly on the origins of COVID-19. “If this was a debate between Donald Trump and Anthony Fauci on the origins of a pandemic-level virus, I was going to go with the guy who spent his entire career studying this stuff, not the reality TV-star-turned-president,” Cillizza wrote.
However, as more evidence has emerged supporting the lab-leak theory — a hypothesis Trump and many conservatives championed early on — Cillizza admitted he failed to remain skeptical of official narratives. “The lesson: Be skeptical — of experts or anyone else — when dealing with a rapidly-developing and changing situation where no one has the ability to see a 360-degree view,” he added.
Cillizza’s mea culpa comes at a time when public trust in health officials has sharply declined, exacerbated by shifting guidance, controversies over lockdown policies, and the politicization of COVID-19 origins. For many, Fauci became a polarizing figure, hailed by some as a steady hand during the crisis but criticized by many others for missteps and inconsistencies in his messaging.
Political commentator Michael Cillizza
The timing of Cillizza’s comments is noteworthy. President Trump recently revoked Fauci’s federal security detail, citing the former official’s ability to afford private protection. Trump justified this decision by saying that former officials should not rely indefinitely on government-funded security and suggested that individuals like Fauci could afford private protection.
This, along with preemptive pardons issued by former President Joe Biden for Fauci and others, shows the contentious legacy of the pandemic response and the political battles it ignited.
Cillizza didn’t hold back in his self-criticism, noting that his personal distrust of Trump clouded his judgment. “My belief at the time was that Trump was just making it up. Like, he wanted to blame China for the virus. And it having leaked from an infectious disease lab — whether accidentally or intentionally — made that case much easier to make,” he admitted.
“Do I think that’s what happened?” he asked. “That Trump knew — like, really knew — way back then that Covid had come from a lab? Or was he just saying stuff — and that stuff wound up being proven correct in the long run? Honestly, I am not sure we will ever know.”
“It never entered my mind that, as president, it was possible that Trump had been privy to information not publicly available on the virus,” Cillizza wrote.
In closing his thread, Cillizza offered a piece of advice: “Just because Trump talks out of his ass a fair amount doesn’t mean everything he says is him talking out of his ass. Don’t disqualify the possibility of Trump telling the truth solely because he is a decidedly inconsistent messenger when it comes to truth.”