FAUCI: You know, I don't think so, John. I don't recall anything different than in our discussions that we had with the president that he said things quite similar publicly. I didn't read the book. I didn't really go over any of the text since it just came out, but you know, in my discussions and the discussions of other task force members with the president, we're talking about the reality of what was going on and then when we would get up in front of the press conferences, which were very, very common after our discussions with the president, he really didn't say anything different than we discussed when we were with him. I may not be tuned in to the right thing they're talking about. I didn't really see any discrepancies between what he told us and what we told him and what he ultimately came out publicly and said.
ROBERTS: So did you get a sense that he was or wasn't playing this down?
FAUCI: No, no, I didn't. I didn't get any sense that he was distorting anything. In my discussions with him, they were always straightforward about the concerns that we had. We related that to him. When he would go out, I'd hear him discussing the same sort of things. He would often say we just got through with a briefing with the group from the task force and we would talk about it. So it may have happened, but I have not seen that kind of distortion.
