During a campaign conference call on Monday, Trump called Dr. Anthony Fauci "a disaster" and other top infectious-disease scientists "idiots." The president blamed them for what he argued was the nation's mismanagement of the coronavirus pandemic.

Biden, the Democratic presidential nominee, did not answer questions on Trump's comments as he left the taping of a television interview in Delaware on Monday. But his campaign released a statement noting that the pandemic has now killed nearly 220,000 Americans, seen more than 8 million confirmed coronavirus cases nationwide and cost millions of jobs.

"Trump's closing message in the final days of the 2020 race is to publicly mock Joe Biden for trusting science," Biden's campaign said in statement. "Trump is mocking Biden for listening to science. Science. The best tool we have to keep Americans safe, while Trump's reckless and negligent leadership threatens to put more lives at risk.".