Scarborough slams Jordan for spreading ‘lies’ about Fauci: ‘It’s sheer idiocy’

MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” co-host Joe Scarborough on Friday slammed Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) for spreading “lies” about the nation’s top infectious diseases expert, Anthony Fauci.

Scarborough weighed in on Jordan’s latest attack against Fauci during a House hearing on the pandemic after the network aired a clip of the heated exchange from the day before.

“It’s so personal and it’s really personal. They have lied about Dr. Fauci. They have spread conspiracy theories about Dr. Fauci. They have said the most preposterous things. It is personal,” Scarborough said of the incident.

“They’re trying to attack the messenger, who has been warning them, while they’ve been lying through their teeth to the American people, who has been warning that a lot of people could die,” he continued. “And a year ago, they kept saying, ‘Open things up,’ ‘Everything’s fine,’ ‘What is this? No worse than the flu.’ No worse — over 550,000 people are dead. And the lies continue. The scapegoating still continues.”

The former GOP lawmaker from Florida also pushed back against Jordan’s assertion that the American people had their civil liberties revoked as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

“No personal liberties were taken away,” Scarborough said. “The Supreme Court has reviewed the cases. The courts have reviewed cases. It’s sheer idiocy playing for the lowest common denominator.”

He was then asked by co-host Mika Brzezinski if the “lies” have had a positive effect on “clicks” for news websites.

“Lies about Anthony Fauci have always gotten clicks. Conspiracy theories have always gotten clicks,” Scarborough responded.

“You have to be a moron to believe it, but there are, I guess, a lot of morons out there,” he added, before explaining the concept of a “plandemmic,” where he said “they get somebody to come in just makes things up whole cloth, suggesting he killed people during the AIDS epidemic. It’s all filled with lies, and yet people are stupid enough to believe it. And so, Jim Jordan peddles those lies. And peddles the suggest that Anthony Fauci somehow is the problem instead of a coronavirus that’s spread across America and killed 550,000 people.”

During multiple rounds of questioning at a House Oversight and Reform coronavirus subcommittee hearing Thursday, Jordan pressed Fauci on the idea of herd immunity and when Americans can expect to go back to normal.

“When do Americans get their freedom back?” Jordan asked. “We had 15 days to slow the spread, turned into a year of lost liberties.”

Jordan said Americans’ First Amendment rights have been “trampled” throughout the past year because of public health restrictions like mask orders, curfews and capacity limits on businesses. 

“We’re not talking about liberties, we’re talking about a pandemic that has killed 560,000 Americans,” Fauci said.