Over on Fox News, Dr Fauci's Departure Becomes Spasm of Hate, Conspiracy
Republicans warn public health expert that he should expect to "testify pretty much, you know, full-time"
Dr Anthony Fauci, the preeminent federal public health expert who advised two US presidents through the COVID-19 pandemic, announced Monday that he was stepping down from government service — a statement almost immediately met by paroxysms of hatred among those on the political right.
Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984, maintained a rocky relationship with President Donald Trump, as Fauci tried to advise Trump through the darkest days of the COVID pandemic, as hundreds of thousands of Americans were falling desperately ill — and dying — of the disease.
After Trump left office, Fauci stayed on as the chief medical advisor to President Biden.
However, Fauci's been the target of hate and bizarre conspiracy theories from among Trump's supporters and those on the political right.
And word of his departure triggered a massive new wave of both Monday on Fox News and other right-wing media.
“Tony Fauci, who apparently engineered the single most devastating event in modern American history, and then lied about it, gets to retire as a hero. Again, just like the bureaucratic Pentagon who – destroying withdrawals in Afghanistan that got American killed. No punishment,” diatribed Tucker Carlson, somehow inferring that the pandemic was Fauci's own doing. “Tony Fauci gets to elect his enormous government retirement to lecture you from this stage on CNN very soon. What will the Republicans do about this when and if they take power in January?”
Dr Jonathan Reiner, board-certified in internal medicine, cardiovascular disease, and interventional cardiology and also professor with The George Washington School of Medicine & Health Sciences in Washington DC, wished Fauci well in his future endeavors and lamented that right-wing political figures obsess over him.
“Well, maybe this will get him more time to be a mentor. I hope it gives him more time to write and to be an inspiration to young physicians and kids in high school. I would say that I would hope that this president would give Dr. Fauci the Presidential Medal of Freedom, but he has already received the Presidential Medal of Freedom,” Reiner said Monday in an interview with CNN, referring to Republican George W Bush awarding Fauci the nation's highest civilian award in 2008 for his work on HIV/AIDS. “I think he's probably frustrated with how much politics has polluted the work that he has to do. He is not just a scientist and chief medical adviser to the president, but the world in which he lives has been incredibly politicized.
“You know, just last week there were members of Congress telling him to clear his calendar when the House changes majorities so that he could testify pretty much, you know, full-time. The concept of doing that has to be very, very unappealing for him,” Reiner added.
And, sure enough, that's just what Republican Sen John Kennedy, of Louisiana, said will happen if Republicans take back control of Congress in the November midterm elections.
“It’s not about Republicans or Democrats, and it’s not about Dr. Fauci. It’s about the American people. They have been through hell in part on the advice of Dr. Fauci. Maybe he was right. But maybe he was wrong. The last conversation I had with Dr. Fauci, he was in front of a committee. They only gave me five minutes. I asked him a simple question, what did we learn from the pandemic. I got a felonious amount of BS,” Kennedy claimed. “The Democrats will press but if we take back control of this Congress, we will. Retirement or not, he will be subject to a congressional subpoena. The American people deserve answers. They have been through hell. To say nothing of the fact that we may have to go through this sometime again soon. We want to be ready.”
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