'The guy should be fired on the spot': Fauci rebukes Fox News host over violent rhetoric - POLITICO
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'The guy should be fired on the spot': Fauci rebukes Fox News host over violent rhetoric
Jesse Watters encouraged attendees at a conservative conference to rhetorically "ambush" the president's chief medical adviser.
Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, on Tuesday called on Fox News to fire host Jesse Watters for targeting him with violent rhetoric at a conservative conference earlier this week.
"That's awful that he said that. And he's going to go, very likely, unaccountable," Fauci told CNN of Watters' remarks. "I mean, whatever network he's on is not going to do anything for him. I mean, that's crazy. The guy should be fired on the spot."
Speaking on Monday at Turning Point USA's AmericaFest conference, Watters encouraged attendees to rhetorically "ambush" Fauci with dubious questions about the National Institutes of Health allegedly funding "gain-of-function" research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
"Now you go in for the kill shot. The kill shot? With an ambush? Deadly. Because he doesn't see it coming," Watters said.
Fauci — who is President Joe Biden's chief medical adviser and has served for 37 years as director of NIH's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases — on Tuesday described Watters' remarks as "horrible."
"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," Fauci said. "And for that, you have some guy out there saying that people should be giving me a kill shot to ambush me? I mean, what kind of craziness is there in society these days?"
Fox News defended Watters in a statement, saying: "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."
Watters is a co-host of the Fox News weekday show "The Five" and the host of his own weekend show, "Watters' World."
Fox News hosts, as well as Republican congressional lawmakers, have repeatedly targeted Fauci throughout the coronavirus pandemic with inflammatory and personal rhetoric. He began receiving armed security protection last April amid online attacks by supporters of former President Donald Trump, and he has spoken publicly about threats to his family.
Earlier this month, Lara Logan, a Fox News personality and host on its streaming service, compared Fauci to the infamous Nazi doctor Josef Mengele — prompting Fauci to rebuke the network for not taking disciplinary action against Logan.
"What I find striking … is how she gets no discipline whatsoever from the Fox network — how they can let her say that with no comment and no disciplinary action," Fauci told MSNBC. "I'm astounded by that."
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Here is a link to Watters’ remarks . He’s lost his mind or something.
Watters and many others at Fox have spent the last few years condemning Maxine Waters for encouraging people to harass Trump supporters. They went on and on about how she was inciting violence.
But here, Watters’ words are far worse on their face. And this is ok? The network is defending him. Do any of these people care about their hypocrisy?
Wouldn't they have to know the meaning of hypocrisy first?
They would also have to understand the meaning of the word rhetorical and not just hear the word attack.
Fox is getting worse. It's more opinion than news... As is most of where the US gets it's information. I don't know where we can reverse this trend? Maybe someone really does have to be killed by a psyco before they understand? Even then I doubt it. I mean, it wasn't all that long ago someone tried to shoot up US Senators at a baseball game.
Nope. It seems the only thing that matters is the amount of viewers, ad revenue and "owning" the other side. I'm tired of it and have been for a long time.
Hasn't that already happened?
probably...
Wasn't pizza-gate close enough?
Pizzagate, the fake news conspiracy theory that led a gunman to DC’s Comet Ping Pong
Apparently not.
This has increased the death threats against Dr. Fauci and the harassment of him and his family - like all this ignorance and lies about the gain of function research in Wuhan and all the ignorance and lies directed against Dr. Fauci.
Fauci told Yahoo News that such statements are often followed by death threats.
“It even gets accelerated when you have the inflammatory statements that are made, [by] people like RFK Jr. and some of the Fox media personalities,” Fauci said, adding that he finds it “strange that they go unchecked with no consequences for people to say that.”
“And when they do that publicly, that’s when I get more death threats and people harass me, my wife and my children,” he added.
“The only thing I’ve ever said or done is to encourage people to get vaccinated, to wear a mask and to do things that would be good for their health, the health of their family and the health of the community,” he said. “So to get villainized because of that is a sad testimony on our society.”
Did he ever have one in the first place?
As Paul Harvey used to say "And now, the REST of the story.............
As stated in the seeded article...................
" Fox News defended Watters in a statement, saying: "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."
And there you have it. Confirmation of yet another nothing burger. Perhaps more research into the actual transcript of the remarks would have been in order eh Politico?
SMH Context is everything.....................................
He is science. He’s not to be questioned.
The maniacs of the world don't do that.
I think we all know what a metaphor is and it's not really in dispute that he using one. But does it need to be this violent? And why would any regular person - who probably doesn't know anything about gain of function research, government funding, or really anything Dr. Fauci actually does for a living - need to be harassing Dr. Fauci about anything? He is plenty accountable to the media, Congress, and the Justice system.
Context is important. But just saying "Jesse used a metaphor" is not the whole context. We live in a world of nutjobs who hang on words like this and take action in response. Jesse used to have no problem with this concept. That's why he's a hypocrite.
Here is Jesse eager to talk about how liberal rhetoric contributed to the shooting of Steve Scalise. And here are some e xcerpts from Jesse's own comments:
More recently , he was prepared to blame Democrats for any violent act committed in response to their rhetoric.
So today, Jesse Watters doesn't get to hide behind "it's just a metaphor."
You're forgetting about all the death wishing and calls for violence, subtle or otherwise, directed against Trump, other Republicans, and their supporters by many on the left...including some here.
I'm not forgetting it. I'm actually remembering it and also the condemnation of that speech by people like Jesse Watters.
I fully endorse every thing he said in full in the context in which he said it. Fauci is the face of evil in this country and needs to be publicly questioned and guilt shamed on a daily basis.
Of course maniacs only listen to conservatives. They don't listen to the President calling Rittenhouse a racist; and then his administration walking back his comments after the trial was over to try and say "justice wasn't served".
They never, ever listen to Democrats comments, or take them out of context.
Fauci is plenty accountable to the media, Congress, and the Justice System? What planet are you living on? Most of the media are his lap dogs. He is a shill for the Democrats, they aren't going to do anything to him- so strike Congress. Fauci right now is in great standing with this administration; so cancel the DOJ and our two tier justice system. The left wasn't concerned at all when it was their loons getting in the face of anyone working for the Trump administration. Which they literally did. Nor are they concerned with their nut jobs stalking Manchin. In fact they have ratcheted up their hate speech against him since he told them flat out no on BBB.
Tell you what. Get Biden and every last damn Democrat and left wing pundit that has used inciteful rhetoric to step down; and then you can call for Jesse to be fired.
Who said that? Why are you replying to me with things I didn’t say? If you just want to make up your own fantasy conversation, leave me out of it.
CNN and Fauci are the ones who took it out of context and presented a distorted summary of what what was said. If anyone is to blame for inspiring "maniacs" it would be those that distorted the message.
The real irony is that you believe that only because trump said so and trump is worthless fucking liar.
Aha!
The evil "Whaddaboudism" strikes again!
It is interesting to see the media make a huge deal where none exists. I think Waters is an arrogant idiot but it was obvious to anyone watching the whole speech what he meant. If the press did not grab onto it, twist it and make it a physical threat against King Fauci few would have even known it happened. If Fauci is so smart he would have seen that and called it out for what it was and not twisted it to promote the false narrative of physical violence against him and his family.
Too you, yes, but you seem to be smarter than the average bear. You know there are dumb asses out there who don't know what Watters was referring to about "drowning him with questions" (paraphrasing here). They only heard the words like "ambush", "kill shot", etc and they run with it
I agree, you will always find people that will interpret things to reinforce their own world view. The press (MSNBC, Fox opinion and CNN) do it on a daily basis. At least Waters did it at a venue and not on the air, that is on the media. The fact that people that know better (like Fauci) are buying into the misinterpretation only adds to the problem. To paraphrase Nancy "A wackadoo is gonna do what a wackadoo is gonna do".
This may sound bad but the only news I listen to is my local news in the morning. I get the national news that matters plus I get the weather and traffic reports. I can't stand cable news at all because I know what they're doing is trying to brainwash me. Besides..it takes a lot of effort to filter out all the grainy bits of crap
I don't do cable news either. Right now I have U-verse and there is about eight or so news channels. I skip over all of them.
Same here for the most part. I have a flash briefing set up on alexa that includes local as well as Reuters, BBC and a few others. I also use the smart news app some to see what both sides of the are are thinking about but I do that with a huge block of salt and do it more for entertainment than news. Full disclosure (
) I do watch the five on fox sometimes. I like Dana and Greg, if they are not on I don't bother. Also skip it if waters is on. Also watch Gutfeld sometimes because he is a wise ass and I can relate to that.
I use the news app on my phone. It gives a variety of outlets.
I have insomnia so I will watch the "Insomniacs News Show" which is ABC Overnight. The 2 main anchors are very entertaining. But I do get some good stuff from watching them
I have seen them before. They are always laughing about something.
My Mother loves that David Muir. So if she is around she watches the, I guess ABC nightly news.
I have seen that. Smart news is similar.
Not familiar with them. Have you tried Melatonin? It works pretty well for me but I think I may also have some weird dreams sometimes when I use it. I also use some sound apps, I find waves and slow moving streams to be the best.
I take trazadone. sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't.
I have tried Melatonin but all it did with a single dose was get me TO sleep faster. Didn't help with the tenure. Then I doubled up and took two. Helped but felt like I was stoned the next morning and it took awhile to wear down.
My script calls for 2-3 a night. When I have to work the next day I take two. Like you it gets me there pretty fast but then I will wake up at insane times like 0130. Last night I woke up at 2330 and I had just gone to bed 3 hours before. I went back to sleep but woke at 0200 and said eff it I'm up
That sucks......................
Not bad at all TG. I do the same thing. Only tune in to local news before work for traffic and weather
Some of my fans might say I get my news from certain well known comedians like Stephen Colbert, and they'd be wrong, as usual
I use it also when I fall asleep to early and need to go back to sleep.
Exactly!
I'm most people (or at least their cohorts) knew what he actually meant.
But here's the problem-- there a a small group of people who are pretty nutty. And thwey would take it literally (remeber, not everyone is as smart as the typical NT user!)
LMAO. You know as well as the rest of us that the left won't do any research at all. They'll parrot what ever nonsense CNN tells them. When you question their information and/or source they don't handle it very well. Question Dr. Mengele (Fauci) or der Fuhrer ? You can almost guarantee there will be threats. They won't even try to hid them any longer.
Well, at least there's one thing we have to be grateful for-- unlike "the left", at least those on the right would never do that-- they would never, ever parrot whatever nonsense Fox News tells them!
Question for ya Jeremy-- how come everyone on the left is so stupid, evil-- and gullible...while everyone on the right are critical thinkers extraordinaire, highly intelligent, not at all gullible...in short, those of the right are all (to a person!) brilliant thinks and truly wonderful human being...while those on the left are the opposite???
{Curious minds want to know
}
I'm not going to assist you in fixing your problems but, shouldn't you be asking that amongst yourselves?
‘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?’
This is the question that has incited the panic. The horror!
And then Flip-Flop Fauci needs to explain his involvement with the Beagle research.
The tempo of the delivery allows some of the slower thinkers time to dwell on baser words without linking them for a complete metaphor so yea, the delivery was poor. The concept remains - questioning Grouchy's culpability in doling out research money and expertise is a big deal.
The father of Covid 19????
He paid for it to be created using US Government funds... Why does he still have a frigging job?
The father of Covid 19????????????????????????????????????????????
WTF is that supposed to mean?
He Fckd That bitch, COVID s mom
He most certainly did... {chuckle}
Gain of function research is bad … until not doing it results in us not being prepared - then these same morons calling for “kill shots” over performing it will call for kill shots over not doing it and leaving us unprepared. See how this works?