"The View's" Meghan McCain confessed that she has "turned" on Dr. Anthony Fauci.
During Thursday's show, the co-hosts addressed the new InStyle profile on Fauci, who has been barred from appearing on TV. Joy Behar loved the photo because it showed off his Italian heritage and how tough he is.
"I thank god every day that there are some adults left who are looking out for us," she said. "So, I thank Fauci. I thank even Mitt Romney for standing up when every coward in that Republican leadership has said nothing. Radio silence about every sin committed by [Trump]. I thank Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi. I'm so happy there are a few adults left, and Fauci is one of them, and I want him to speak out more. Let's not — this is worth repeating: Are you going to trust an ivy league educated epidemiologist like Fauci or somebody who tells you to drink bleach and face the sunlight to kill the virus? I mean, really."
But McCain took issue with that, confessing that she's "turned" on the NIH doctor.
"I think he has every right to whatever interview he wants and defend himself. InStyle magazine, a fashion magazine sitting by his pool dressed like, you know, somebody in a Brad Pitt movie would not be the choice I would make just because I think it's a dangerous territory when anyone in politics," she said, noting that public servants have a huge role to fill during a global pandemic.
"I just think the thing about the cult of personality around Dr. Fauci now is he gets all the glory when things are going well, and none of the responsibility when things aren't going well," McCain continued. "I have friends in California, and California is shut down right now. Some of my friends work in the beauty industry and they cannot go back to work because it's been shut down again. I have friends in the service industry, and they can't go back to work, and our country is not doing well. We're not winning this battle like a lot of other countries are, and is all the blame just simply president Trump? And everything good gets given to Dr. Fauci and everything bad gets given to President Trump?"
She said that it isn't a thought that "flies" with "a lot of people" in her circle, even if the reason Fauci isn't the face of the pandemic anymore is due to Trump.
"I have turned on him more than I think the women on the rest of the show have because again, I think there has to be some responsibility for why we're still in the position that we are right now, and, you know, I don't think he's a bad man," she said. "He's credited with helping us through the AIDS crisis, but I don't think of him in the same way that the rest of the show does."
Whoopi Goldberg disagreed that the responsibility for the failures of the pandemic should be attributed to Fauci because there is some responsibility for conservative people who boycott wearing masks.
"This is personal responsibility of people deciding not to wear masks and not to social distance because they're concerned about their personal rights. I don't put that on Fauci. I don't put that on you-know-who, but I am mad at you-know-who because he hasn't helped it. He just put on a mask, finally. So, I think that a lot of that — and different counties in California where people just said, 'No, no! It's against my — you're infringing on my rights! I'm not going to do it!' This is what happens when some say, you're infringing on my rights and others say, I'm going to keep the mask on because we're in a pandemic. That's some of the craziness that's going on."
Fauci doesn't have any authority to make decisions about the country's mask or ventilator stockpile, nor does he have the power to mandate masks, close schools or close communities the way that Trump could.
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