Dr. Anthony Fauci told CNN’s “New Day” Tuesday that Fox News Channel personality Jesse Watters “should be fired on the spot” for using words like “ambush” and “kill shot” while speaking about the infectious-disease doctor at Monday’s “AmericaFest 2021.”
“That’s horrible. That’s just such a reflection of the craziness that goes on in society,” Dr. 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 ‘killshot,’ to ‘ambush’ me. 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. Whatever network he’s on, is not going to do anything to him. I mean, that’s crazy, the guy should be fired on the spot.”
“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,” a Fox News spokesperson told TheWrap.
Watters is the host of Fox News’ “Watter’s World.”
Watch Fauci’s “New Day” appearance below.
Readers can watch the “AmericaFest 2021” moment in question via the video at the top of this post. Watters’ part begins at the 2-hour, 13-minute mark and the Fauci stuff starts 11 minutes later.
While the language Watters uses — words like “ambush” and “kill shot” — is certainly inflammatory and arguably purposeful, he is referring to a guerrilla cell-phone interview and not actual physical violence. Watters is imploring the college student attendees to ask Fauci about funding gain-of-function research in overseas labs, including in Wuhan, China.
Watters added: “You get that footage to us, you get it to Fox, you get it to Human Events, you get it to Brietbart, you get it to Daily Caller, you get it to the Turning Point pipeline … Get us that! That’s what we want! That changes the whole conversation of the country. I’ve authorized it, just make sure it’s legal.”
He then goes into a hypothetical “kill shot” for Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
Find more about the Turning Point USA event here. Charlie Kirk is the founder of Turning Point USA. Other speakers at the event include Donald Trump Jr. and Tucker Carlson.