Brooklyn-born immunologist and leading member of Donald Trump’s coronavirus task force Dr. Anthony Fauci went on CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday to perform his usual magic: speak medical truth without offending Trump, who doesn’t want to hear it. When Jake Tapper peppered him with hypotheticals, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases shrugged and (perhaps inadvertently) quoted the catch-all phrase from Martin Scorsese’s Oscar-nominated mob epic The Irishman: “It is what it is.”

Tapper’s questioning stemmed from recent reports that he and others in Trump’s administration were recommending social distancing guidelines for weeks before the president finally relented. Fauci neither confirmed nor denied the report, and, through tone and body language, expressed what it can be like working in the Trump White House. “We look at it from a pure health standpoint. We make a recommendation. Often, the recommendation is taken. Sometimes, it’s not.”

As Tapper pressed on, asking if quicker action could have saved lives, Fauci managed to refrain from shouting “no duh!” and ultimately replied, with supreme diplomacy, “I mean, obviously, if we had, right from the very beginning, shut everything down, it may have been a little bit different. But there was a lot of pushback about shutting things down back then.”

Dr. Fauci’s media appearances have been an informative blast of toxin-free air during this crisis. The 79-year-old with a 52-year career in public health has an uncanny ability to both offer criticism but also yuk it up with the boss to stay on his good side. One could even watch his now-legendary facepalm on a Zapruder-esque loop and wonder if he was shielding himself from cameras during an anti-Trump cringe, or was he actually laughing along with the president during his Deep State dig? We’ll never really know, and we’ll just have to live with that.

To quote The Irishman, it is what it is.

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