'F*** you, Fauci!' Megyn Kelly deconstructs every one of Dr. Anthony Fauci's lies in brutal takedown



Megyn Kelly ripped White House chief medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci on her podcast Wednesday, reacting to Fauci's announcement that he will step down from his government role before the end of the year.

The former Fox News anchor blasted Fauci, who told CNN earlier this week he will "certainly consider" testifying before Congress after he steps down from his role at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Republicans have promised to call Fauci, the chief government spokesman during the COVID-19 pandemic, to testify on his recommendations and oversight of funding for coronavirus research in Wuhan, China.

"He sounds like he's been invited to afternoon tea at one of our houses," Kelly said on SiriusXM's "The Megyn Kelly Show" podcast. "F*** you, Fauci! You don't get to say whether you go. You get a congressional subpoena, you show up, or you get the Steve Bannon treatment."

Steve Bannon, the former chief strategist to President Donald Trump and a media personality, was found guilty of criminal contempt of Congress for refusing to answer a subpoena to testify on the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.

\u201cDr. Fauci says he'll "consider" appearing before Congress next year. @MegynKelly: "You don't get to say whether you go. You get a congressional subpoena, you show up, or you get the Steve Bannon treatment..."\n\nWatch her FULL monologue on Fauci's lies here: https://t.co/3fC9p5r9t2\u201d
— The Megyn Kelly Show (@The Megyn Kelly Show) 1661390232

In a monologue on Wednesday's podcast, Kelly savaged Fauci, accusing him of lying repeatedly to the American people and of encouraging policies that failed to slow the spread of COVID-19 but succeeded in tearing the country apart.

“The truth is that Dr. Fauci, who had a greater hand than anyone in causing Americans to lose their jobs, years of learning, and even their lives — thanks to the social and economic upheaval he helped foist upon us during the pandemic — ought to be ashamed to show his face in polite society,” Kelly said. “Instead the man is self-congratulatory.”

Kelly tore into Fauci's record, blaming his COVID-19 pandemic recommendations for encouraging politicians to enact lockdown policies that she said killed jobs, kept children out of school, and tanked the economy. She accused him of lying about his views on masks and misleading the public by shifting goalposts to get people to accept harsh pandemic restrictions. Kelly said Fauci and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ignored evidence that contradicted their COVID-19 guidance and arrogantly declared that anyone who disagreed with their positions was criticizing "science."

“He mocked the idea of natural immunity, eliminating the need for his mandatory, beloved vaccines, despite admitting years earlier that natural immunity is in fact the gold standard,” Kelly said. “His unexplained reversal cost millions their livelihoods. As of October of 2021, 5% of unvaccinated adults said they had lost a job due to a vaccine mandate, according to the Kaiser Foundation.”

She reviewed how truckers, health care workers, police officers, and military members have been forced out of their jobs because of their convictions about the COVID-19 vaccines.

“But Fauci’s biggest lie was told under oath, when he testified before Congress that his group at the [National Institutes of Health] never funded gain-of-function research in Wuhan, China,” Kelly said. “The kind that experiments on bat coronavirus to try to make them more lethal or more transmissible in humans.”

Fauci has repeatedly denied lying about NIH support for gain-of-function research in high-profile clashes with Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) during multiple congressional testimonies. Kelly noted that the NIH contradicted Fauci by appearing to admit in writing that the nonprofit group EcoHealth Alliance violated the terms of an NIH grant by funding gain-of-function experiments.

She condemned Fauci for being unapologetic for his handling of the pandemic and "indifferent to the harm he has caused." She expressed particular scorn for his recent comments on Fox News saying that he does not think that COVID-19 lockdowns have "irreparably damaged anyone."

\u201cCavuto: "Do you think shutdowns particularly for kids who couldn't go to school that it's forever damaged them?"\n\nFauci: "I don't think it's irreparably damaged anyone."\u201d
— Greg Price (@Greg Price) 1661286701

“We should pray this guy never gets near another grant or health group again in his life,” Kelly said. “He has destroyed the trust in public health. His decisions have hurt countless numbers of people. He did it all while posing on magazine covers and celebrating himself and his outsized ego, while our kids were muzzled and missed years of school as we all missed funerals and weddings and the chance to say goodbye to loved ones on their deathbeds.

"And we did indeed suffer irreparable harm, sir, whether you care to admit it or not," she concluded. "Good riddance, Dr. Fauci. You are not truth and you will not be missed.”

Watch:

Megyn Kelly SLAMS Dr. Fauci and Reveals the Truth About His Lies: "GOOD RIDDANCE!" youtu.be

DeSantis on Fauci: 'He's done a lot of damage ... he should have been gone long ago'



Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) took shots at White House chief medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci on Tuesday, saying that Fauci has "done a lot of damage" as the government's leading spokesman on the COVID-19 pandemic and has never apologized for being wrong.

“I think he’s done a lot of damage,” DeSantis said during an interview on “Fox & Friends.” “I think he should have been gone long ago. And if you think about what he’s done with his arrogance, that’s part of the reason why he’s advocated policies that have been so destructive. He thinks people that disagree with him are somehow beneath him.”

DeSantis said Fauci's recommendations were the "driving force" behind policies he has opposed as governor of Florida, including shutting down schools, masking children, and closing businesses to slow the spread of the virus.

"He cost people jobs. He destroyed people's businesses with his policies — and he was never willing to admit he was wrong when it was clear those policies don't work," DeSantis said.

\u201cFlorida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Fauci's retirement: "I think he's done a lot of damage. He should've been gone long ago ... He thinks people who disagree with him are somehow beneath him ... was never willing to admit he was wrong when it was clear that those policies don't work."\u201d
— Scott Morefield (@Scott Morefield) 1661257563

The governor's jabs come a day after Fauci announced he will be leaving his government job at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for other career opportunities.

Fauci has served in various public health roles for more than five decades, becoming the chief spokesman for the government's COVID-19 pandemic response over the last two years. His ubiquitous appearances on cable television and in news media during the pandemic made him a household name, but also brought intense scrutiny from those, like DeSantis, who opposed his policy recommendations.

DeSantis gained popularity in Florida and among Republican voters by setting himself up as a foil to "Faucism," a word the governor uses to describe divisive lockdowns, social-distancing, and mandatory mask policies.

Public health officials, including Fauci, insist those drastic measures taken to slow the spread of COVID-19 early in the pandemic were necessary to save lives. Their critics have argued lockdowns and similar measures failed to deliver on promises to mitigate virus spread and imposed grave socioeconomic costs including, but not limited to, a recession, inflation, an exacerbated mental health crisis, and children falling behind in school.

Though Fauci is set to leave office by the end of the year, DeSantis told "Fox & Friends" that Republicans should attempt to hold him accountable for his handling of the pandemic if they reclaim majorities in Congress after the upcoming November election.

"I hope if Republicans take control that they will get to the bottom of everything from the origins of COVID to all the manifest failures of the public health establishment, particularly Dr. Anthony Fauci."

As Republicans prepare to launch investigations, Fauci says he will retire before end of Biden's current term



Dr. Anthony Fauci, the chief medical advisor to the White House and leading spokesman for the government on the COVID-19 pandemic, says he will retire before the end of President Joe Biden's first term.

Fauci, 81, is the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infections Diseases, a position he has held since 1984. In an interview published Monday, he told Politico he is planning to step down after more than five decades of public service under seven presidents.

He announced his plan to retire shortly after congressional Republicans, emboldened by widespread expectations they will reclaim a majority in the House of Representatives after the election in November, have declared their intention to investigate his actions at NIAID leading up to and during the coronavirus pandemic. Republicans want to determine what role Fauci played in downplaying the lab-leak origins theory of the virus and whether his agency within the National Institute of Health funded controversial gain-of-function research.

Fauci became the face of the federal government's COVID-19 response after President Donald Trump appointed him to the White House coronavirus task force in 2020. He has served on both Trump and Biden's pandemic response teams, making regular appearances on cable news, talk shows, and podcasts to promote the government's recommendations on mask wearing and vaccination.

In these media appearances, Fauci has been a proponent of politically divisive lockdowns and mask and vaccine mandates. His critics have accused him of making contradictory statements — such as initially saying masks were useless before reversing his position — and shifting goal posts on when the country would reach herd immunity from COVID-19.

Fauci in turn has accused his critics of refusing to "follow the science." He has also strongly dismissed the hypothesis that COVID-19 leaked from a lab in Wuhan, China — calling it a "conspiracy theory" — though international investigators have since determined the lab-leak theory is a plausible hypothesis for the origins of the coronavirus.

His reasons for downplaying the lab-leak theory would be the subject of congressional investigations should Republicans gain control of Congress. Emails unearthed by GOP lawmakers revealed that in early 2020, Fauci had conferred with scientists studying the emerging coronavirus who believed it was possible the virus was "engineered." Despite those private admissions, Fauci and other top health officials went on to publicly denounce the lab-leak theory.

Republicans have accused Fauci of a "cover up" — asserting that the NIAID director intentionally cast doubts on the lab-leak theory because his agency had funded research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology through awards to the non-profit group EcoHealth Alliance. EcoHealth has been accused of funding gain-of-function experiments at the Wuhan lab — risky research that involves artificially manipulating pathogens — which some have suggested could be a possible origin for the virus that causes COVID-19.

Fauci told Politico he is preparing for inquiries from Republicans challenging his record but that they aren't a factor in his plans for retirement.

“They’re going to try and come after me, anyway. I mean, probably less so if I’m not in the job,” he said, speaking from his NIH office in Bethesda, Maryland. “I don’t make that a consideration in my career decision.”