Joy Behar advises Fauci to quit coronavirus task force, become cable news ‘media darling’

ABC’s Joy Behar is advising Anthony Fauci to quit the White House coronavirus task force and become a cable news “media darling.”

“The View” co-host’s advice came on Monday after “fire Fauci” chants popped up at one of President Trump’s rallies over the weekend. The president responded by saying he appreciated the advice and suggested he may oust Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious diseases expert, after the presidential election.

“First off, these people chant more than a swami I used to date,” Behar said after the show played a clip from the Trump rally on Saturday in Florida. “Here’s the thing with Fauci and the tone-deafness and stupidity of Trump. Number one, I was a civil servant, OK. You can’t fire a civil servant so easily. It’s impossible.”

“But I would say he would be doing Fauci a favor if he could fire him. Fauci needs to quit. Get off of Trump’s bandwagon all together and go on television and become the media darling at CNN, MSNBC, and I bet they’ll put you on at Fox,” she added.

Trump has been at odds with Fauci over the White House response to the pandemic. In a Washington Post interview published Saturday, Fauci warned the U.S. “could not possibly be positioned more poorly” going into the cold weather months in its battle against the virus.

“We’re in for a whole lot of hurt,” Fauci told the Post.

“It’s not a good situation. All the stars are aligned in the wrong place as you go into the fall and winter season, with people congregating at home indoors. You could not possibly be positioned more poorly,” he said.

The U.S. death toll from COVID-19 eclipsed 230,000 over the weekend as cases continue to rise, according to Johns Hopkins University.