Birx says she thought about quitting Trump administration ‘always’

Under Donald Trump, public health officials were often frustrated with a president who contradicted the guidelines and research of his own health experts on the virus. Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease expert and one of the frontier members of the White House Covid response team, said he felt liberated after the president took office Joe Biden.

During her interview with Brennan, Birx admitted that the Covid government’s message was tainted by the 2020 election policy under Trump, but she denied ever withholding any information from the public.

Birx joined the Trump administration’s Covid response team after serving as the U.S. leader in the fight against HIV and AIDS around the world under President Barack Obama. Her time working with Trump’s White House made her a household name as the administration’s public face on the crisis, alongside Fauci.

Birx announced last month that she would be retiring from her post after helping with Biden’s administration transition to the White House. During her interview with Brennan, Birx clarified that her retirement would likely be in the next four to six weeks.

The announcement of her retirement last month appeared to be linked to a public outcry after The Associated Press reported that she had visited family-owned Delaware properties with three generations of parents during the Thanksgiving season. Although Birx said everyone was in her immediate home and the trip was for property maintenance and not to celebrate the holidays, she was criticized for appearing to display the Covid distancing guidelines as millions Americans have skipped celebrations due to the pandemic.

Birx said at the time that the experience was “a little overwhelming” and “difficult” for her family.

“You know, they didn’t choose this for me. You know, they tried to support them. But to get my family into this, when my daughter hasn’t left this house for 10 months, my parents were isolated for 10 months, ”Birx said in an interview with Newsy last month. “They got deeply depressed.”