Fox News’s Neil Cavuto defends Dr. Fauci after blow-up with Sen. Paul: 'A good doctor'

Fox News anchor Neil Cavuto defended Dr. Anthony Fauci Tuesday after Republican Senator Rand Paul attacked him at a contentious hearing earlier in the day. Paul implied that funding from the National Institutes of Health to the Wuhan lab in China contributed to the creation of COVID-19, and accused Facui of lying about it, at which Fauci grew heated. Fauci also repeatedly attempted to explain that Paul’s implication that the research funded by the NIH contributed to the coronavirus is “molecularly impossible.”

Fauci has long been a target of right-wing attacks, including from some at Fox News, and Cavuto believes the vilification stems from Fauci’s willingness to publicly contradict former President Trump on the coronavirus.

“He has been vilified to the point that you’d think he was Lex Luther, and I don’t know how productive that is,” Cavuto said. “What might have been missed, and the source of all of this, I get that. But to make him the target of attacks, I think that a lot of this has to go back to his departure from the former president, Donald Trump, at the time. But whatever is behind it, I don’t see it being constructive.”

Video Transcript

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NEIL CAVUTO: He has been vilified to the point that you'd think he was you know, Lex Luthor, and I don't know how productive that is. What might have been missed, and the source of all of this, I get that.

KYLIE MAER: "On Your World with Neil Cavuto" Tuesday, Cavuto came to the defense of Dr. Anthony Fauci after he got into it with Republican Senator Rand Paul at a contentious senate hearing earlier in the day. Things got heated when Paul implied that NIH funding helped create COVID-19 and accused Fauci of lying about it.

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI: Senator Paul, you do not know what you are talking about quite frankly. And I want to say that officially, you do not know what you are talking about. And if anybody is lying here Senator, it is you.

KYLIE MAER: Fauci has long been the target of right-wing attacks. And Cavuto believes it may have to do with the fact that he was one of the few who dared to contradict former President Trump on the coronavirus.

NEIL CAVUTO: To make him the target of attacks, I think that a lot of this has to go back to you know, his departure from the former president, Donald Trump, at the time. But whatever is behind it, I don't see it being constructive.

KYLIE MAER: And Cavuto wasn't alone, Fox News medical contributor Dr. Bob Lahita joined the Your World hosts in his defense of Fauci.

DR. BOB LAHITA: I think it's unfortunate that we have to attack an individual who has such an important role in our society.

NEIL CAVUTO: All right. Yeah, just odd to mean but I, you know, Anthony is a good man, a good doctor. We all got to just step back, take, take the chill down.

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