Meghan McCain: Fauci ‘seems to be the only person holding this country together’

“The View” co-host Meghan McCain said Tuesday that the “acrimonious relationship between the press and the president” has “reached a fever pitch,” but she urged the media not to drag Anthony Fauci into that back-and-forth “Kabuki theatre.”

During Tuesday’s show, McCain, speaking remotely, asserted that Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, is the “only person holding this country together and giving people on both sides good faith on what’s happening going forward” with the coronavirus pandemic.

“The press cannot talk to Dr. Fauci like he’s Sean Spicer,” she said, referring to the former White House press secretary famous for his confrontational briefings with the press in the early days of President Trump’s presidency.

.@MeghanMcCain “The press cannot talk to Dr. Fauci like he’s Sean Spicer. He seems to be the only person holding this country together and giving people on both sides good faith on what’s happening going forward.” https://t.co/f8u2wbJuik pic.twitter.com/EcziZx0OAL

— The View (@TheView) April 14, 2020

McCain’s comments follow Monday’s particularly contentious White House coronavirus press briefing, in which Fauci sought to clarify remarks he’d made a day before about whether instituting social distancing guidelines earlier could have saved more American lives.

McCain argued that Fauci, who fought back against implications from reporters that he is being overruled by Trump on key issues, was “angry” at his treatment by some reporters.

“He was very angry with the implication that he was not in control of what he was saying, not in control of what he was doing,” McCain said.

As the public face of the Trump administration’s coronavirus response in recent weeks, Fauci has appeared on numerous conventional news networks as well as in interviews with NBA player Stephen Curry, YouTube stars and Showtime’s “Desus & Mero.”