Former White House chief medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci has pushed back through his lawyer after Aaron Rodgers sharply criticized him during an on-air appearance.
Rodgers, a longtime vaccine skeptic who frequently spoke out during the Covid-19 pandemic, took aim at Fauci after the doctor repeatedly invoked the Fifth Amendment during a contentious Senate hearing.
During a Monday appearance on ESPN, Rodgers delivered a 13-minute monologue in which he called the 85-year-old Fauci an “absolute criminal” and an “absolute coward.”
Fauci’s attorney, David Schertler, answered the remarks on Tuesday, issuing a blunt rebuke of the veteran quarterback’s attack.
“Aaron Rodgers doesn’t know what he’s talking about,” Schertler told The Athletic on Fauci’s behalf. “He should stick to football.”
The exchange followed Fauci’s decision to invoke his constitutional right against self-incrimination more than 100 times while facing forceful questioning from lawmakers.
Aaron Rodgers sharply criticized Anthony Fauci on ESPN on Monday, calling the 85-year-old an “absolute criminal” and an “absolute coward” during a blistering on-air attack
Fauci invoked the Fifth Amendment more than 100 times during his appearance before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee
Days later, Rodgers appeared on ESPN and gave a scathing assessment on Fauci.
As he arrived on set, Rodgers appeared to ask how long the broadcast had left on ESPN, with McAfee responding that they had ‘a hard out’ after just eight minutes.
That, seemingly, was all the fuel Rodgers needed as he answered a football-related question by claiming ‘I’m going to plead the fifth… like that absolute coward Tony Fauci.’
From there, he went on a 13-minute monologue, barely interrupted by McAfee or any of his four co-hosts, who were broadcasting live from the Steelers training camp.
‘Absolute coward,’ he continued of Fauci. ‘Are you kidding me? You got a pardon and you pleaded over 100 times? What are you scared of, Tony? I thought you were the science?
‘You get up there and you can’t answer a question? And how much time did the network spend on that? How much time did they spend on my responses every week? On my vaccination status? On Taylor and Travis’ wedding? Did they do even a minute on Tony Fauci? No, I bet they didn’t.
‘Go back to the coward Tony Fauci, who’s spending the entire time writing in his diary about how fun it is to be famous? What are you going to say about me now? What are you going to say about me now?
‘No, seriously, now that you can’t talk about the Covid stuff, because obviously that was made in a lab in China… that’s not even questionable any more. Tony Fauci is an absolute criminal, I’m on good terms with my family, what are you going to say now?
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At points, McAfee covered his eyes as Rodgers got everything off his chest live on ESPN
‘I thought you had a pardon there, Tony. Why couldn’t you answer one question? We got four more minutes, let’s keep this s*** going.’
Rodgers’ furious tirade comes after he was widely criticized in the media and by fans throughout the Covid pandemic due to his skepticism over the vaccine rollout.
He told reporters he was ‘immunized’, leading to question marks over whether he had received the jabs, and he openly criticized the NFL’s protocol to deal with the virus.
Last week, Fauci had been called in front of the committee to be questioned on the origins of Covid, including whether a lab leak from the Wuhan Institute of Virology was more likely than previously acknowledged.
Rodgers, in his appearance on ESPN, claimed that was ‘obviously’ the origin, though the truth is far more unclear and investigations are still ongoing.
‘I’ve got to give flowers to Stephen A. Smith, my old friend Stephen A,’ Rodgers continued on McAfee’s show. ‘Because he was man enough to actually admit and apologize to Kyrie Irving. So I gotta give a shoutout to my guy Stephen A, you are not a coward. I appreciate you.
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‘Other than that, there’s been a lot of silence… 19 seconds on one subject, oh no don’t talk about that. We can talk about Rex Ryan’s foot fetish, but please don’t talk about anything else right now, any scandals. Talk about Taylor and Travis’ wedding, yeah what do insiders know about that?
‘I was endangering my teammates? Now look what happened. They suppressed early treatments, they lied about where it came from. Tony Fauci is writing in his journal, “I don’t want to create any vaccine hesitancy if I tell them what the actual stats are.”
‘Tony Fauci pushing his medicine, just like he did back in the 80s, and now he has an autopen pardon and you can’t answer one question? Not even your name?
‘I told you I’d be on the right side of history.’
