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Fauci gushes over Rachel Maddow in first appearance on her show, says WH had 'blocked' him from going to MSNBC

During his appearance, Fauci alleged that working for Donald Trump was a 'tough situation'

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and chief medical adviser to the president, raised some eyebrows after he told MSNBC host Rachel Maddow that he had been prevented from coming on her show. "I've been wanting to come on your show for months and months,” Fauci told Maddow on January 22. “You've been asking me to come on your show for months and months, and it’s just gotten blocked. That's, I mean, let’s call it what it is. It just got blocked because they didn’t like the way you handle things, and they didn’t want me on."

"'Why would you want to go on Rachel Maddow's show?'" Fauci said, mimicking a conversation he supposedly had with the previous administration. “'Well, because I like her and she's really good.’”

During his appearance, Fauci alleged that working for President Donald Trump was a “tough situation” due to the “different types of pressures” that were “put on" him, according to the Washington Examiner. That said, Fauci's comments on Maddow's program garnered both praise and ridicule on social media. Trump supporters largely ridiculed the segment, with some using the term “gushing” to describe Fauci’s demeanor.

“Fauci gushing over Maddow is every reason Trump should have fired him last year in one MSNBC hit,” Political commentator John Cardillo tweeted. "Fauci outing himself as a giant lib is the least surprising thing ever after the last few months," political strategist Caleb Hull said. "Fauci doesn’t seem to understand that statements like these hijack his own message around the important stuff, particularly around President Biden’s limp goal (being sold as something great) of only having 50 million out of 330 million Americans totally vaccinated by May," the Hill's Joe Concha tweeted.

Others, however, celebrated Fauci's appearance on the show. “It's great to see Dr. Fauci on @Maddow — and anywhere else where he wants to speak his mind,” White House chief of staff Ron Klain tweeted. “I saw Fauci on @maddow tonight and I think that might have been the most relaxing interview I’ve ever seen,” Parkland shooting survivor and liberal activist David Hogg wrote. “Fauci looks so relieved and it makes me so happy. I’m ready to go to bed with zero anxiety- What a thought. Thank you to the public servants and scientists at NIH & CDC.”

During a press briefing on January 21, Fauci said that working with President Joe Biden was "liberating" as compared to his predecessor. “I can tell you I take no pleasure at all in being in a situation of contradicting the president, so it was really something that you didn’t feel you could actually say something and there wouldn’t be any repercussions about it,” Fauci told reporters. “The idea that you can get up here and talk about what you know, what the evidence and science is, and know that’s it — let the science speak — it is somewhat of a liberating feeling.”

"It was very clear that there were things said, be it regarding things like hydroxychloroquine and other things like that, that really was uncomfortable because they were not based in scientific fact," Fauci continued. 

Interestingly, during an interview with 60 Minutes on March 8, Fauci had asserted there was "no reason to be walking around with a mask." "When you’re in the middle of an outbreak, wearing a mask might make people feel a little bit better and it might even block a droplet, but it’s not providing the perfect protection that people think that it is. And, often, there are unintended consequences — people keep fiddling with the mask and they keep touching their face," he said at the time.