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Scarborough Calls Fauci Hearing a ‘Clown Show’

Joe Scarborough was not impressed with how Republicans behaved at Dr. Anthony Fauci’s hearing Wednesday, calling it a “clown show.” Scarborough, “host of Morning Joe,” said GOP senators engaged “sheer political theater”…

Sandra RhodesJul 30, 20262 min read

Anthony Fauci COVID Hearing Politics Rand Paul U.S. News

Joe Scarborough was not impressed withhow Republicans behaved at Dr. Anthony Fauci’s Hearing Wednesday, calling it a “clown show.”

Scarborough, “host of Morning Joe,” said GOP senators engaged “sheer political theater” with their “embarrassing” bouts of cursing.

Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, appeared before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee to discuss how the government handled the COVID-19 pandemic.

Fauci invoked his Fifth Amendment rights more than 100 times and declined to answer lawmakers’ questions.

Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio) dropped the f-bomb in a tirade towards Fauci. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) asked mundane questions to try to break the Fauci’s refusal to answer questions.

Scarborough, who admitted he hadn’t watched the entire

Hearing

, said Thursday morning what happened Wednesday was a “show trial.”

“I mean, the Fauci thing, just sheer political theater. They shamed themselves. We Americans needed answers yesterday, we needed answers on the origins of this, the best information they had, the thinking about closing down schools, the thinking about all these other things,” Scarborough said.

He said the Hearing was a chance for an “open conversation” but it did not go that way.

“You start with your chairman [Sen. Rand Paul] saying, ‘I’m going to put him behind bars,’” Scarborough said. “Yeah, what you’re doing is you’re staging nothing but a show trial. And so [Fauci] didn’t play along.”

He also noted “some embarrassing performances.”

“Guys swearing – ‘blah, blah, what the F!’ – and then you had other people you know ‘What’s the color of your tie? What’s the color of the carpet?’”he said.

“It was such a clown show!” he added.

Rounding on what he believed should have been asked, Scarborough added: “But we still, here are still open questions on the origins of this virus.”

In the end, the public didn't get the information it deserved, the host said.

For example, he said, questions about what informed the decision to “close down schools” might have enlightened the public but that “we didn’t get a chance to hear that yesterday.”

“The entire Hearing was framed with ‘I’m going to put the guy who’s testifying here behind bars,’” Scarborough said.