Two Republican lawmakers wrote an op-ed for the Washington Examiner on Saturday asserting that Fauci was guilty of “a special degree of tone deafness” in the way he spoke about the economic toll of the lockdown that has affected the nation.

The lawmakers, Rep. Andy Biggs (Ariz.) and Rep. Ken Buck (Colo.), also wrote that Fauci “can no longer be one of the primary voices in this crisis, especially not after his assertion that the economic effects and devastation from this shutdown are merely inconvenient.”

Deepening the palace intrigue around their move, both Biggs and Buck are viewed as close to Mark Meadows, the former North Carolina congressman who has just taken over as White House chief of staff.

The op-ed intensified whispers of in-fighting within the administration between those who are pushing for a return to something like normalcy as soon as possible and those who favor a more cautious approach.