“The View” co-host Meghan McCain got into a debate with Whoopi Goldberg on Monday when she called on President Biden to fire Dr. Anthony Fauci — and replace the top infectious disease expert with someone who “understands science.”
McCain, who is the daughter of late Sen. John McCain, set off the dispute when she shared a clip of Fauci declining to recommend that vaccinated elderly people can visit with their unvaccinated grandchildren.
“So I was very frustrated when I saw this clip,” McCain said, adding that she wasn’t trying to “downplay” an earlier clip about how the virus has killed nearly 500,000 Americans.
“That being said, next week it will be a year since we left the studio and I have been very responsible in many different ways as so many Americans have been. And the fact that Dr. Fauci is going on CNN and he can’t tell me that if I get the vaccine, if I’ll be able to have dinner with my family.. or older people”
She then pointed to Israel’s vaccination campaign, where they have signs advocating for people to “Get a shot, take a shot.”
“Meaning if I get the vaccine then I can go out and have shots with my friends. Is the science in Israel different than the science in the United States of America?” she said.
McCain then continued to criticize the “disaster” federal vaccine rollout and expressed frustration that how she still doesn’t know when she will be able to get the vaccine.
“So I’m over Dr. Fauci,” the 36-year-old said. “I think we need to have more people giving more opinions and honestly quite frankly, I think the Biden administration should remove him and put someone in place that does understand science or can talk like these other countries about how we can be more like these other places that are doing this successfully.”
Responding to McCain’s point about Israel, Goldberg interjected to explain that it is a “smaller country” and “didn’t have a lot of issues with people not wearing their masks” — and also noted that scientists are still trying to figure out whether the vaccine stops people from spreading the virus.
“Yeah, you probably could get your shot but you’re going to go out and be surrounded by people who have not gotten their shot yet and they don’t know yet how protected you’re going to be,” Goldberg said.
McCain tried to respond that she knows what she’s saying is “controversial,” Goldberg spoke over her and threw to a commercial break.
“We’ll be right back. We’ll be right back,” Goldberg said.
In the clip of Fauci on CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday, host Dana Bash asked him to say whether it was OK for her vaccinated parents to spend time with her unvaccinated kids.
“There will be recommendations coming out. I don’t want to be making a recommendation now on public TV,” he said. “I would want to sit down with the team and take a look at that.”
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