Andrea Mitchell Asks Fauci If He Ever Found Out Why Trump Pushed False Covid-19 Cure: ‘Was There A Financial Interest In It?’

Story by Tommy Christopher • Yesterday 

MSNBC anchor Andrea Mitchell asked retiring infectious disease honcho Dr. Anthony Fauci if he ever found out why then-President Donald Trump pushed false Covid-19 “cure” hydroxychloroquine, asking “was there a financial interest?”

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Fauci has been on something of a weird bookless-book-tour lately, hitting all sorts of media outlets to reminisce about his decades of public service, his years as a reluctant member of the Trump Covid Improv Troupe, his current effort to ignore Elon Musk, and his future getting yelled at by Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) and his friends.

On Tuesday’s edition of MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell Reports, the veteran NBC News journalist found some different ground to go over, asking Fauci if he thought Trump pimped a fake cure because of a financial stake, and if misinformation cost lives:

ANDREA MITCHELL: So when you hear the president of the United States promoting hydroxychloroquine for COVID.

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI: Right.

ANDREA MITCHELL: And listening to advisors like a doctor from California and his trade advisor, and the government, the federal government spending, according to some reports, $20 million to buy that, stockpile other for COVID. What– what can you do in your role?

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI: Speak up like I did. And it didn’t help much, because he just kept on doing what he wanted to do. But it had the result of creating a phenomenal amount of hostility against me among the people around him, which has spilled over into the people who are very much listening to everything that he has said. And that has made it very uncomfortable, the reason why I’m getting so many threats against me.

ANDREA MITCHELL: Did you ever figure out why they were pushing that hydroxychloroquine?

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI: You know–

ANDREA MITCHELL: Was there a financial interest in it?

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI: No. I don’t think it had anything to do with financial, it had to do with just listening to some friend of yours that tells you something, which is completely out of the line of the normal scientific process. The normal scientific process, you look at the data and the data will tell you that either something works or it doesn’t work. And because somebody whispers in your ear– “You know, I gave it to somebody and they did well.” You know, N equals one. It doesn’t– that’s not a scientific study.

ANDREA MITCHELL: Do you think that lives were lost because of the way all of this became so polarized?

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI: Well, if– you know, I– when I say things like that, it gets thrown out of proportion in sound bites. The but fact is vaccines save lives. If you say something or do something to dissuade people from getting vaccinated, then lives will unnecessarily be lost. That’s just a fact.

ANDREA MITCHELL: And masks.

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI: Same thing. You know, masks, physical distancing, all the things that are good public health principles.

Watch above via MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell Reports.The post Andrea Mitchell Asks Fauci If He Ever Found Out Why Trump Pushed False Covid-19 Cure: ‘Was There A Financial Interest In It?’ first appeared on Mediaite.