USA Today Slaps Fact-Check Editor's Note on Navarro Op-ed

White House trade and manufacturing adviser Peter Navarro's scathing rebuke of Dr. Anthony Fauci has received more than just a rejection from critics and a disavowal from President Donald Trump.

It has now been appended with an editor's note by USA Today, similar to unprecedented steps taken with the Trump administration by Twitter fact-checkers and editors of The New York Times.

In summation, Dr. Anthony Fauci is a "national treasure" and Navarro's criticism was "misleading or lacked context" so it "did not meet USA TODAY's fact-checking standards."

USA TODAY editorial page editor Bill Sternberg's note reads:

"Tuesday evening online and Wednesday morning in print, the Editorial Board published an Our View editorial that praised Dr. Anthony Fauci as a 'national treasure' and sharply criticized recent White House efforts to undermine or sideline him.

As is our longstanding tradition, to give our readers another point of view, we reached out to White House trade adviser Peter Navarro, who has been critical of Fauci. Navarro provided a response that was published as an Opposing View paired with our editorial. We dealt directly with Navarro and do not know whether he spoke to anyone else at the White House about his statement.

Navarro's response echoed comments made to other news outlets in recent days. We felt it was newsworthy because it expanded on those comments, put an on-the-record name to the attacks on Fauci, and contradicted White House denials of an anti-Fauci campaign.

However, several of Navarro's criticisms of Fauci — on the China travel restrictions, the risk from the coronavirus and falling mortality rates — were misleading or lacked context. As such, Navarro's op-ed did not meet USA TODAY's fact-checking standards."

Navarro's criticism of Fauci began: "Dr. Anthony Fauci has a good bedside manner with the public, but he has been wrong about everything I have interacted with him on."

Trump has since come out and publicly admonished Navarro because "he made a statement representing himself; he shouldn't be doing that."

• Trump Says Navarro Was Wrong to Write Op-ed Criticizing Fauci
• Fauci Would Resign From Coronavirus Task Force If Asked