White House coronavirus response team member Dr. Anthony Fauci says he isn’t bothered by the criticism he’s received from Fox News host Tucker Carlson, but he said it might inspire threats from the “crazies.”
“He’s the guy that really loves me, right?” Fauci told the Washington Post when asked if he watches Carlson’s show, where he has been consistently criticized. “I’m not concerned about what he says. It’s a little bit — I think you could say that when he does that, it triggers some of the crazies in society to start threatening me, actually threatening, which actually happens.”
Fauci continued, “I mean, who would have guessed when I was in medical school doing things to save people’s lives, I’d have to be going around with a security detail? That’s really ridiculous.”
It was reported in early April that Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, was given a security detail based on threats he has been receiving online.
“He doesn’t need security. Everybody loves him,” President Trump said about the decision. “Besides that, they’d be in big trouble if they ever attacked him.”
Fauci has been widely criticized by political pundits and social media users for perceived inconsistencies with his coronavirus recommendations, supporting strict lockdown measures, and for appearing to ignore his own social distancing guidelines at a Washington Nationals baseball game.
Carlson has referred to Fauci as a “fraud” and a “chief buffoon of the professional class.”
“There is nothing Dr. Anthony Fauci won’t opine on as long as it doesn’t offend the popular and fashionable left,” Carlson said about Fauci following the doctor’s most recent testimony on Capitol Hill.
