Dr. Anthony Fauci on Tuesday called out the “crazy” threats made against him by Fox News Channel’s Jesse Watters, saying the conservative provocateur should “be fired on the spot.”
The nation’s top infectious disease doctor, appearing on CNN’s “New Day,” was responding to comments Watters made over the weekend to the conservative, pro-Trump youth group Turning Point USA.
Watters told the group to “ambush” Fauci in the streets and to record a rhetorical “kill shot.”
“That’s horrible. I mean that is such a reflection of the craziness that goes on in society,” Fauci said. “The only thing that I have ever done throughout these two years is to encourage people to practice good public health practices, to get vaccinated, to be careful in public settings, to wear a mask and for that you have some guy out there saying that people should be giving me a kill shot to ambush me?”
In his remarks to the far-right youth group, Watters appeared to link Fauci to wild conspiracy theories that connect the respected researcher to alleged biowarfare.
“Now you’re going for the kill shot. The kill shot with an ambush (is) deadly because he doesn’t see it coming,†Watters told the crowd.
“This is when you say, ‘Dr. Fauci, you funded risky research at a sloppy Chinese lab. The same lab that sprung this pandemic on the world. You know why people don’t trust you, don’t you?’ Boom, he is dead! He is dead! He’s done!â€
The CNN interviewer declined to play Watters’ comments, fearing it could incite violence.
“I mean what kind of craziness is there in society these days? That’s awful that he said that. And he’s going to go, very likely, unaccountable,” Fauci said. “I mean whatever network he’s on is not going to do anything … I mean that’s crazy. The guy should be fired on the spot.â€
And a Fox News Channel representative made good on Fauci’s prediction, as the network backed Watters’ incendiary language.
“Based on watching the full clip and reading the entire transcript, it’s more than clear that Jesse Watters was using a metaphor for asking hard-hitting questions to Dr. Fauci about gain-of-function research and his words have been twisted completely out of context,” according to an FNC statement to NBC News on Tuesday.
Fauci has become a reviled figure among far-right activists who view him as a symbol of federal efforts to control the Covid-19 pandemic which has killed more than 810,000 Americans.
