Dr. Anthony Fauci is calling for FOX News’ Jesse Watters to be “fired on the spot” following comments Watters made at the right-wing Turning Point USA conference Monday. Urging attendees to “ambush” the nation’s leading infectious disease doctor with a “kill shot.”
“I mean, that’s crazy,” Fauci told CNN’s New Day host. “The guy should be fired on the spot.”
“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,” Fauci continued, “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?”
Watters, a longtime conservative FOX News personality and the current co-host of The Five, encouraged attendees to confront President Joe Biden’s chief medical advisor if they see him in public.
“The kill shot, with an ambush—deadly, ’cause he doesn’t see it coming. 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!” Watters told the crowd, referencing some inane conspiracy that the virus was “engineered” by a lab funded by Fauci.
Watters told event-goers to “be respectful” before ambushing Fauci, urging them to record any confrontations and send the footage to FOX or other leading right-wing outlets.
“That just is such a reflection of the craziness that goes on in society,” Fauci said. “And he’s gonna go, very likely, unaccountable ... 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.”
Fauci has been at the center of the eye of the FOX storm since the start of the pandemic, subjected to death threats and forced to have a 24/7 security detail.
“So it’s easy to criticize, but they’re really criticizing science because I represent science,” Fauci told The Hill earlier this year. “That’s dangerous. To me, that’s more dangerous than the slings and the arrows that get thrown at me. I’m not going to be around here forever, but science is going to be here forever. And if you damage science, you are doing something very detrimental to society long after I leave. And that’s what I worry about.”
Fox News has not commented to any outlet on whether it endorses Watters’ remarks or if it plans to take any disciplinary action against him.