White House chief medical adviser Anthony Fauci held his last White House press conference Tuesday, before his impending retirement concluded 50 years in the federal government, The Hill reported.
The longtime official, who guided America through the COVID-19 pandemic, served under seven presidents, headed the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease for 38 years, and oversaw U.S. responses to several health scares.
"I'll let other people judge the value or not of my accomplishments, but what I would like people to remember about what I've done is that every day, for all of those years, I've given it everything that I have, and I've never left anything on the field," said Fauci.
"So, if they want to remember me, whether they judge rightly or wrongly what I've done, I gave it all I got for many decades," Fauci added.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre praised Fauci for his decades of service before inviting him to speak for one last time, calling him "a source of information and facts" for millions of Americans.
"Whether it be HIV AIDS, Ebola, or COVID-19, for close to four decades, and under seven Republican and Democratic presidents, Dr. Fauci has always led with the science, and our country is stronger and healthier because of his leadership," Jean-Pierre stated.
Fauci had revealed his departure earlier this year in the wake of Republican criticism to his coordination of the nation's COVID response, which included frequent changes to guidance on masking and vaccination.
"If you help me win, I promise to subpoena every last document of Dr. Fauci's unprecedented coverup," Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., reportedly promised fundraisers in an October email touting his reelection campaign.
That distrust manifested Tuesday when Jean-Pierre stepped in to defend Fauci from a question asked by Daily Caller reporter Diana Glebova on the origins of the COVID virus, in which a recent study deduced could have been the result of a lab leak.
"You're being disruptive," Jean-Pierre reportedly said, before blocking the lab leak question, a notion for which Fauci and the Biden administration still reject.
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