Montage: Media gushes over Dr. Fauci after WH chief medical adviser announces he will step down
Dr. Anthony Fauci announced Monday he will step down as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and as Biden’s medical adviser.
Left-leaning media outlets responded to Dr. Anthony Fauci’s announcement that he will step down from his current positions in government by showering the infectious disease expert with admiration.
Fauci revealed Monday he will step down from his roles as Director at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and President Biden's chief medical adviser at year's end.
Liberal media outlets MSNBC and CNN reacted to the news by painting the doctor’s legacy with little room for scrutiny over his coronavirus response, and gushing over his lengthy commitment to government work.
During Monday’s installment of the "The 11th Hour" on MSNBC, stand-in host Alicia Menendez closed out the show by telling the audience "in Fauci we trust" and running a nearly 3-minute-long recap of some of the infectious disease expert's most memorable moments navigating the pandemic.
FAUCI VENTS ABOUT AMERICANS' OPPOSITION TO FORCED MASKING: 'IT'S ALMOST INEXPLICABLE'
Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, attends a meeting with members of the White House Covid-19 Response Team at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Tuesday, Jan. 4, 2022. (Ting Shen/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
In an extensive retrospective on Fauci, Menendez noted he became a "target" for those on the right.
"The verbal attacks and the death threats, they did not stop the good doctor," she added.
Meanwhile, MSNBC's Rachel Maddow hit on a similar note when she asked Fauci during an interview whether the kind of criticism he faced in the past few years has become "more dangerous" than past years working in government.
"You’re a visible and singular leader on infectious disease issues over all these years, you’ve faced sharp criticism before. It does feel a little different. There is a weird, obsessive, violent, ongoing demonization of you by the right that is hinged on COVID," Maddow said.
But, perhaps no one on the channel was more animated about Fauci’s legacy than senior contributor and veteran columnist Mike Barnicle, during an appearance on "Morning Joe."
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, speaks during a Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee hearing on Capitol Hill, Thursday, Nov. 4, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Describing Fauci as a "career government employee," Barnicle praised Fauci for committing himself to public service, rather than becoming motivated solely by money.
"He didn’t leave to private industry for a drug company to make millions in stock and income, he committed himself to AIDS, and he committed himself to every unique virus and plague that has come along across those 40 years," Barnicle said. "And his reward for announcing his retirement was a list of threats issued by Republicans in the U.S. Senate and House."
He characterized a hypothetical Republican-led initiative to have Fauci testify before Congress as "prosecution" for "using his life and his skill" and being successful in "eradicating disease."
Fauci also garnered praise from CNN’s chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta and medical analyst Dr. Jonathan Reiner.
Reiner, for his part, called Fauci the "tip of our medical spear" when responding to crises, and congratulated him on a career "without a comparison."
PANDEMIC POLITICS: FAUCI PRAISED, PUMMELED AS HE ANNOUNCES HIS EXIT
Dr. Sanjay Gupta attends the CNN Worldwide All-Star Party At TCA at Langham Hotel on January 10, 2014 in Pasadena, California. (Photo by Michael Kovac/WireImage) (WireImage)
Gupta, when asked to discuss Fauci leaving the NIAID, said he hoped the agency would be able to find the level of "wisdom and experience," perhaps among multiple people, that could measure up to what Fauci was able to do there.
"It’d be hard to replace a career like that," CNN's John Berman replied.
In print, the reviews of Fauci’s legacy in government was similarly filled with acclamation.
A New York Times guest essay by Dr. Gregg Gonsalves of Yale School of Public Health, deemed Fauci’s career as "assuredly great," and urged others to have the same "resolve and commitment" as the man himself.
"If he weren’t retiring in December, I’d imagine him working to his very last breath until there was a cure for AIDS," Gonsalves noted.
Chief Medical Advisor to the president Anthony Fauci speaks during a briefing on the Omicron Covid-19 variant, watched by US Vice President Kamala Harris (L) and President Joe Biden (C), in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, DC on November 29, 2021. (Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)
An NPR article by Richard Harris and Carmel Wroth, announcing the news of Fauci’s soon-to-come departure, labeled the foremost infectious disease expert as a "gifted communicator" with a "tell-it-like-it-is philosophy."
Fauci has served as NIAID director for the past 38 years and has served under seven presidents, beginning with Ronald Reagan "on newly emerging and re-emerging infectious disease threats including HIV/AIDS, West Nile virus, the anthrax attacks, pandemic influenza, various bird influenza threats, Ebola and Zika, among others, and, of course, most recently the COVID-19 pandemic."
In interviews with Fox News Digital, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., expressed no surprise at Fauci's Monday announcement that he would retire in December, and argued he was making the intentional decision to leave after the November midterm elections in which Republicans hope to win control of Congress. Republicans have vowed if they take Congress to investigate the doctor’s handling of the coronavirus and the unresolved question of the virus' origins; Fauci believes it began naturally, but other scientists have pointed to the Wuhan Institute of Virology and possible "gain of function" research there indirectly funded by Fauci's agency.
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On Tuesday, Fauci said on CNN that he would consider testifying before Congress, but said that Republicans had up to this point been engaged in "character assassination" rather than legitimate government oversight.
Fox News’ Brooke Singman and Brandon Gillespie contributed to this report.
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