'No personal liberties were taken away': Joe Scarborough blasts Jim Jordan for spreading 'lies' about Fauci
- Joe Scarborough blasted Rep. Jim Jordan for his conduct while questioning Fauci during a hearing.
- "When do Americans get their freedom back?" Jordan aggressively asked of Fauci.
- "It's so personal and it is personal," Scarborough said. "They have lied about Dr. Fauci.
MSNBC host Joe Scarborough on Friday slammed GOP Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio for peddling "lies" about Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, during a congressional hearing on the COVID-19 pandemic.
During an episode of "Morning Joe," Scarborough was disturbed by Jordan's behavior, where the congressman repeatedly questioned when the country would fully reopen and said it was "obvious" that Fauci didn't see coronavirus-related health restrictions as an "assault" on the liberties of Americans.
The testy back-and-forth exchange between Jordan and Fauci resulted in Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters of California telling Jordan to "shut your mouth" after the congressman's time had expired and he attempted to continue questioning Fauci.
Scarborough expressed displeasure with Jordan and individuals who have attempted to minimize the severity of the coronavirus.
"It's so personal and it is personal," he said. "They have lied about Dr. Fauci. They have spread conspiracy theories about Dr. Fauci. They have said the most preposterous things."
He added: "They're trying to attack the messenger ... while they've been lying through their teeth to the American people, who has been warning that a lot of people could die. 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."
Scarborough, a former GOP congressman who represented a deeply conservative district in the Florida Panhandle, refuted Jordan's claims that individual freedoms have been threatened since the start of the pandemic last year.
"No personal liberties were taken away," he said. "The Supreme Court has reviewed the cases. The courts have reviewed cases. It's sheer idiocy playing for the lowest common denominator."
Scarborough then lamented that "lies" and "conspiracy theories" about Fauci "have always gotten clicks."
"You have to be a moron to believe it, but there are, I guess, a lot of morons out there," he said. "Jim Jordan peddles the suggestion that Anthony Fauci somehow is the problem instead of a coronavirus that's spread across America and killed 550,000 people."
During the House Oversight and Reform hearing on Thursday, Jordan repeatedly asked Fauci for a set timeline on when people could resume their normal lives, seemingly ignoring the complexities of the virus, including new variants that have spread throughout the country this year.
"When do Americans get their freedom back?" Jordan asked Fauci. "We had 15 days to slow the spread ... turned into a year of lost liberties."
"You're indicating liberty and freedom," Fauci responded. "I look at it as a public health measure to prevent people from dying and going to hospital."
Since the pandemic began in the US, nearly 32 million people have been infected and over 566,000 people have died, according to the latest data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.