Dr. Fauci calls for FOX News’ Jesse Watters to be fired after ‘killshot’ comments

Chief Medical Advisor to the President, Dr. Anthony Fauci, says FOX News’ Jesse Watters should be fired after Watters made comments about setting Fauci up for an ‘ambush’ interview and alluded to a ‘kill shot’ during a political conference on Monday.

Watters, on stage at the conservative activism group Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest conference, suggested a hypothetical ‘ambush’ of Dr. Fauci, and going “in for the kill shot” with a barrage of interview questions for the leading infectious disease expert in the country.

Watters saying, “Now you go in for the kill shot. The kill shot? With an ambush? Deadly. Because he doesn’t see it coming.” He added later, “Boom! He is dead! He is dead! He’s done!” The crowd responded with laughter and applause.

While Watters appears to be creating a violent metaphor for a surprise interview of Dr. Fauci regarding claims that Fauci helped fund controversial gain-of-function research in Wuhan and lead to the COVID outbreak.

Some of the rhetoric he used has sparked a reaction from Dr. Fauci himself. In an interview on Tuesday morning with CNN’s John Berman, Fauci told CNN in regard to Watters’ comments, “That’s horrible. That just is such a reflection of the craziness that goes on in society.”

Fauci added, “The only thing that I have ever done, throughout these two years, is to encourage people to practice good public health practices. … And, for that, you have some guy out there saying that people should be giving me a ‘kill shot’? To ‘ambush’ me? I mean, what kind of craziness is there in society these days?”

Fauci also called for Watters to be “fired on the spot” by Fox News, but acknowledged the conservative host would “go, very likely, unaccountable.”

Fox said in a press statement, saying, “Based on watching the full clip and reading the entire transcript, it’s more than clear that Jesse Watters was using a metaphor for asking hard-hitting questions to Dr. Fauci about gain-of-function research and his words have been twisted completely out of context.”