Fox News host Greg Gutfeld fired back at co-host Juan Williams with a video fact check after Williams downplayed the effect of an anti-malaria drug on treating the coronavirus.
“This is all risk, no benefits,” Williams told Gutfeld in response to the news that President Trump is taking the controversial anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine as a preventative measure against the coronavirus.
“Why do I say that? Because guess what. That is exactly what the FDA said on April 24, which I got here,” he said. “It said that they were worried about the side effects, and there was no proven benefit from taking this drug.”
Williams then tried to bring up the Department of Veterans Affairs, and Gutfeld intervened, arguing that point has been “discredited.”
“That was discredited,” Gutfeld said. “That’s been discredited. You bring up the VA, Juan. You bring up the VA. Let’s hear from the head of the VA. Exactly what you just said, let’s show that tape because it’s an important point that Juan brought up.”
Gutfeld then played a video of Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie saying that his department uses 42,000 doses of the drug on “any given day.”
After the video finished playing, Williams tried to continue with his point, to which Gutfeld responded: “You just got blown out of the water!”
Hydroxychloroquine has been shown to be an effective treatment for the coronavirus in some situations, but many Democrats have criticized President Trump for touting the drug.
MSNBC host Joe Scarborough accused the president of lying about taking the drug.
“But when the president of the United States actually says he’s doing something which, let me assure you, he is not doing — let me assure you, the president of the United States is not taking hydroxychloroquine,” Scarborough said. “In all the time that I knew him, I only sat for one meal with him,” he explained. “Before that meal, he had wipes like this high and would go through the wipes, compulsively, and wipe his hands, sanitize his hands before eating anything.”
“So, he is not taking something that his own administration has said will kill you,” Scarborough continued before citing the same claim as Williams that the VA has said the drug “will kill you.”
