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  • 2021-12-21 (xsd:date)
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  • Did Jesse Watters Call for Fauci's Assassination? (en)
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  • On Dec. 20, 2021, a brief clip of Fox News host Jesse Watters speaking about Dr. Anthony Fauci, U.S. President Joe Biden's chief medical adviser, at a Turning Point USA conference went viral on social media. In the clip, Watters can be heard saying Now you go in with the kill shot -- deadly. Because, with an ambush, he doesn’t see it coming. As this video circulated online, many people commented that Watters should be arrested or fired for supposedly encouraging violence against Fauci. Some even claimed that Watters had called for Fauci's assassination: While this clip is real, and while Watters certainly used inappropriately violent language, this clip is missing context. Watters made this comment while instructing the audience on how best to verbally confront Fauci in public in order to generate viral clips for Fox News. Watters comment can be heard around the 2:24:00 minute mark of the following video. We've transcribed the relevant portions below: Watters said: Watters then talked about various tactics people could use to confront Fauci in public. He instructed the audience to introduce themselves, to accuse Fauci of lying about his research (a generally false statement), to wave a blank sheet of paper in Fauci's face, falsely claiming that it's a research grant, and then to go in with what he described as the kill shot question: Watters does appear to be instructing people to verbally harass Fauci, and he did use violent, irresponsible language -- words such as ambush and kill shot -- during these remarks. However, he was not telling the crowd to assassinate Fauci. He was saying to ambush Fauci with questions. While Watters did not literally call for Fauci's assassination, as some claimed on social media, the loaded language he used while calling on the public to confront Fauci left many people concerned for Fauci's safety. On CNN, Fauci said that Watters' comments were awful, and that Watters should be fired. (en)
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