Getty "The View" co-hosts Meghan McCain and Whoopi Goldberg fought over Dr. Anthony Fauci's response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Meghan McCain and Whoopi Goldberg fought on Wednesday’s edition of ABC’s The View while discussing Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, during Hot Topics.
Joy Behar started the topic, where she slammed how Republicans were handling the coronavirus pandemic. Sunny Hostin agreed, saying Fox News glossed over the pandemic. As noted by Mediaite, she referenced Laura Ingraham calling Fauci “Dr. Doom.”
At the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, Fauci warned coronavirus cases could increase to up to 100,000 per day if people did not start wearing masks.
“We’re not going to say blame, but I’d like to get a message to the country in general. When you have an outbreak of infectious disease, it’s a dynamic process that is global. We can’t get away from that,” he said at a June 26 press conference. “You have a societal responsibility. If we want to end this outbreak, we have got to realize we are part of the process.”
“We are either be part of the solution or part of the problem,” Fauci continued. “We are interconnected.”
A video from the Wednesday episode of The View has been shared below. Their discussion starts around the 5-minute mark:
McCain Said Fauci’s Response to BLM Protests Confused Her
McCain, the only Republican on the panel, said she had faith in Dr. Fauci until the Black Lives Matter activists took to the streets in May to protest the death of George Floyd and police brutality. The host argued that people were not social distancing during the protests, yet Fauci did not condemn them.
“I have a lot of questions for Dr. Fauci,” she said. “I’m 100 percent willing to say I don’t have faith and trust in Dr. Fauci in the way that I did.”
McCain argued that Republicans are always made out to be the villains. “The narrative continues to confuse me. Republicans are the devil. Fox News is the devil, but protesters for pride and protesters for Black Lives Matter, it’s fine and the pandemic doesn’t exist,” she said.
Goldberg Denied That The Coronavirus Was a Political Issue
Their faces when Meghan speaks is me! #TheView
Goldberg, however, didn’t agree, saying the pandemic had nothing to do with politics. “People who are conservative, people who are Republican, people who are Democrat, they’re all getting hit the same way. People are dying, and so for me, I don’t see where the question is,” she said. “It’s not about your rights.”
One of the popular Republican narratives is that they don’t want to be forced to wear a mask, claiming it’s an infringement on their rights. Although Vice President Mike Pence has started to wear a mask, President Donald Trump refuses to wear one. As noted but the Associated Press, wearing a mask (or not wearing one) has become a political statement.
Goldberg argued that remaining safe during the pandemic–being socially distant and wearing masks–applies to everyone, not just Republicans. “There’s a poison in the country, and all we need to try to do, and we’ve said it to everybody,” she said.
“We have talked about the fact that everybody has to get on board to stop the spread of this thing. We said it to the marchers. We said it to everybody,” Goldberg continued. “Nobody is making a distinction.”
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