Brian Williams Calls Out Geraldo Rivera for Suggesting COVID-19 Vaccine Be Named After Trump

Fox News correspondent-at-large Geraldo Rivera has an idea for what to name the COVID-19 vaccine once it’s ready for distribution, and it’s after outgoing President Trump himself. However, that suggestion did not sit well with MSNBC chief anchor and “The 11th Hour” host Brian Williams on Friday, who in response skewered the correspondent’s remarks with a sleight of visual irony. Watch below.

Juxtaposed against images of President Trump golfing and not wearing a mask, among other things, Williams said solemnly, “It’s possible we just don’t give the president enough credit for his FDR-like devotion to tackling this virus. His laser-like focus, his daily devotion, the sympathy he’s forever expressing to the families of the quarter million dead. Even the way the president lectures us in that way to please wear a mask and stop the spread. And he’s always advocated injections. Geraldo may be on to something.”

On the episode of “Fox and Friends” on Friday, Rivera suggested naming the vaccine after the president would be “a nice gesture to him and years from now it would become kind of a generic name,” he said. “’Have you got your Trump yet?’ ‘I got my Trump, I’m fine.’ I wish we could honor him in that way.”

Williams continued, “What Trump Steaks did for the hungry, what Trump Water did for the thirsty in our nation, what Trump University did to lift up the uneducated in our country, well along comes Trump: The Vaccine. Possibilities, I think you’ll agree, are endless. That is our broadcast for this Friday night.”

Williams also said earlier on the program, “We are all painfully aware life in America will not feel anything close to normal until the coronavirus vaccine has been perfected and really distributed.

“The 11th Hour with Brian Williams” is currently in its fifth season.

More from IndieWire

• Theaters Will Survive COVID-19 Despite Exhibition's Dire Present, Says Producer Ira Deutchman

• Warner Bros. 'Wonder Woman 1984' Strategy Is a Kick in the Teeth to Exhibitors

Best of IndieWire

• HBO Max: The Under-the-Radar TV Shows You Should Add to Your Queue

• The Best TV Series of 2020

• 'The Last of Us': Everything You Need to Know About HBO's Adaptation

Sign up for Indiewire's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.