It looks like Dr. Anthony Fauci’s media blitz has paid off in big ways. Now, instead of just being the resident COVID-19 expert, “The View” co-host Joy Behar advised that he simply quit the White House coronavirus task force and become a cable news “media darling.”
During Monday’s show, Behar commented on the Trump supporters shouting “fire Fauci” at a campaign rally over the weekend, prompting the president to say he would hold off on that action until after the election.
“First off, these people chant more than a swami I used to date,” Behar said, as reported by The Hill. “Here’s the thing with Fauci and the tone-deafness and stupidity of Trump. Number one, I was a civil servant, OK. You can’t fire a civil servant so easily. It’s impossible.”
“But I would say he would be doing Fauci a favor if he could fire him. Fauci needs to quit. Get off of Trump’s bandwagon altogether and go on television and become the media darling at CNN, MSNBC, and I bet they’ll put you on at Fox,” she added.
TRUMP SUGGESTS HE’LL FIRE FAUCI AFTER ELECTION: Pres. Trump told supporters at a late-night rally in Florida that he would “wait till a little bit after the election” before possibly firing top infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci. https://t.co/SYVTPFBpqI pic.twitter.com/9aMwoVkgDa
— The View (@TheView) November 2, 2020
As The Daily Wire reported, Trump blasted the mainstream media for pushing panic and fear 24/7 about the COVID-19 pandemic.
“You turn on the news, ‘COVID, COVID, COVID, COVID. We’d like to talk about COVID,’ and then next story. Here’s what happens Nov. 4 – you won’t hear too much about it. You won’t hear too much about it,” Trump said.
As people in the crowd began to chant “fire Fauci, fire Fauci,” the president responded, “Don’t tell anybody, but let me wait until a little bit after the election. I appreciate the advice. I appreciate it. Nah, he’s been wrong on a lot. He’s a nice man, though. He’s been wrong on a lot.”
In line with Joe Biden, Dr. Fauci has also warned of a “dark winter” ahead for the United States, telling The Washington Post over the weekend that the U.S. “could not possibly be positioned more poorly” as the coming months approach.
“We’re in for a whole lot of hurt,” Fauci told the Post. “It’s not a good situation. All the stars are aligned in the wrong place as you go into the fall and winter season, with people congregating at home indoors. You could not possibly be positioned more poorly.”
Fauci has also said that social distancing measures could last into 2022.
“It’s not going to be the way it was with polio and measles, where you get a vaccine, case closed, it’s done,” Fauci said while speaking to Philadelphia’s Thomas Jefferson University via Zoom in October. “It’s going to be public-health measures that linger for months and months.”
“You’re not going to have a profound degree of herd immunity for a considerable period of time, maybe toward the end of 2021, into 2022,” he continued. “I feel very strongly that we’re going to need to have some degree of public-health measures to continue. Maybe not as stringent as they are right now.”
Related: Trump: A Vote For Biden Is A ‘Vote For Lockdowns, Layoffs, Misery’