Dr. Anthony Fauci probably – almost surely – faced the press in the White House Press Room for the last time in a long career yesterday. He acted like the old pro that he is, proving he isn’t just one of the world’s most elite physicians, but pretty media savvy himself.
Fauci was on his way out the door when NBC’s White House correspondent Mike Memoli managed to get Fauci to turn around and answer a question about the coming House investigations. Fauci might have been showing off a bit, humiliating Republicans, when he promised to fully cooperate with any investigations, something as foreign to Republicans as a three-toed woman from Northwest Georgia (the country, the area with beaches – 3 toes, on the Black Sea). Someone voluntarily cooperating?
After Fauci had been lured back for that one answer, Peter Doocey thought it would be just as easy, and yet, Peter didn’t do as well. The entire transcript from Mediaite [1]:
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: All right. Thank you, Dr. Fauci. Thank you.
MR. MEMOLI: Dr. Fauci, related to that, how are you preparing for the likely aggressive oversight from House Republicans, the new majority, next year that they’ve been promising on some of these very questions?
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: So, hold on one second. Dr. Jha is going to stay to take a couple more questions, but Dr. Fauci actually has to go.
So, thank you so much, Dr. Fauci.
DR. FAUCI: I can answer his question.
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: You want to — you want to answer it?
DR. FAUCI: Yeah. Yeah.
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: Okay. He — he says he’ll answer it.
Okay, go ahead. Go ahead.
Q Dr. Fauci, can you also answer why there are millions more dollars going to the (inaudible)?
Q You got to answer the (inaudible).
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: I’m just trying to keep him on time.
DR. FAUCI: All right. The answer is: If there are oversight hearings, I absolutely will cooperate fully and testify before the Congress, if asked.
You may not know, but I’ve testified before the Congress a few hundred times — (laughter) — okay? — over the last 40 years or so. So I have no trouble testifying. We can defend and explain and stand by everything that we’ve said. So I have nothing to hide.
MR. DOOCY: Just a quick follow-up on that, Dr. Fauci. How much do you think —
Q (Inaudible.)
MR. DOOCY: Dr. Fauci, how much — no, just a follow-up on the oversight, Dr. Fauci.
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: All right. Thank you, Dr. Fauci.
Poor Peter. He thought he had the chance to ask Fauci his last ever question in the briefing room, only to be ignored. As Fauci noted, he’s been down this road a few times and knows what he’s doing. Ignoring Doocy doesn’t require forty years of experience, but it doesn’t hurt, either.
'I Can Answer His Question!' Fauci Comes Back To Give One Last Answer About House Republican Probes — Then Blows Off Fox's Doocy https://t.co/BOpZu3bz84 [2] via @mediaite [3] pic.twitter.com/9LMlKcDt70 [4]
— Tommy moderna-vaX-Topher (@tommyxtopher) November 23, 2022 [5]
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[email protected], @JasonMiciak, with Nicole Hickman