) – Twitter CEO Elon Musk called on Sunday to prosecute Anthony Fauci, President Biden’s top medical adviser who has led the US response.
“My pronouns are Prosecute/Fauci,” Musk said in Twitter. She later shared a memes edited to show Fauci telling Biden “Just one more lockdown, my king…”
Lawmakers and other officials have jumped to Fauci’s defense online.
“I am a huge admirer of Dr. Fauci and how he has calmly guided our country through the crisis. Retweet from Musk? Courting vaccine deniers doesn’t seem like a smart business strategy, but the problem is this: could she leave a nice man alone on his seemingly endless attention-seeking? Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) said On twitter.
Representative Dean Phillips (D-Minn.) wrote, “It’s America. You can select any pronoun you like. But Anthony Fauci has likely saved more human lives than any person alive in the world. What a shame.”
Former CIA director John Brennan called Fauci a “national hero” and accused Musk of stoking hatred.
“Dr. Fauci is a national hero who will be remembered for generations to come for his innate goodness and his many contributions to public health. Despite his commercial success, he will be remembered primarily for fueling public hatred and divisions. You may have money, but you don’t have class,” Brennan said on an answer musky.
Rep. Ritchie Torres (DN.Y.) said Musk “wants to criminalize Anthony Fauci because he disagrees with him” and criticized the Twitter CEO for hypocrisy in his free speech claims.
Since Musk’s controversial acquisition of the social media platform, concerns have been raised about the moderation of content on the view with reports of an increase in racist and anti-Semitic posts on the site.
Musk has tried to position himself as a defender of free speech and a spokesman for the public, using the Latin slogan “Vox Populi, Vox Dei,” which means “the voice of the people is the voice of God.” He also polled users about reinstating former President Trump’s banned Twitter account and whether banned users should get “amnesty.”
Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, Musk called concerns about the virus “silly” and, after he took over the company in late October of this year, removed Twitter’s policies on misinformation about COVID-19.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) answered to Trump’s comment on Fauci on Sunday, writing “I affirm your pronouns Elon.”
Greene’s personal Twitter account was banned in January for violating COVID-19 misinformation policies, but Musk reinstated it last month in his amnesty move.
“Fauci’s resignation should not prevent a full investigation into the origins of the pandemic. He should be required to testify under oath about any discussion in which he participated in relation to the Wuhan lab leak. His policies destroyed lives ”, wrote Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) in response to Musk’s post.
Fauci is preparing to leave his government duties at the end of the year and has long said he is unconcerned by growing calls from Republicans to investigate him over America’s handling of the pandemic.
“I have nothing to hide at all, despite accusations that I am hiding something. I have nothing that I can’t clearly explain to the country and justify,” Fauci told The Hill’s “In The Know” last month.
In his last appearance in the White House briefing room a few weeks ago, Fauci lamented the partisan divide that has complicated the country’s response to the COVID-19 virus.
“As a doctor, it hurts me, because I don’t want anyone to get infected. I don’t want to see anyone hospitalized. And I don’t want to see anyone die of COVID. Whether you’re a far-right Republican or a far-left Democrat, it makes no difference to me,” Fauci said.