Lots of reporters tried to talk to Birx while she was there. She was not interested. And when she spoke publicly early on, she appeared in lockstep with a president whose questioning of the science was true beginning in March 2020. https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1353345373461426176

Here’s an example https://www.vox.com/2020/3/27/21197074/deborah-birx-praised-trump-scientific-literature-coronavirus

Given the rationales defenders of Birx and Fauci offered for their public statements being that they thought it was better for them to stay inside the government, it would be good for an interviewer to ask them what are concrete examples where their staying made a difference.

Did they prevent him from pushing chloroquines? Did they get him favor mask-wearing publicly? One real argument could be that folks like Scott Atlas didn’t then take over. But even then, there were other health officials involved.