Former George W. Bush campaign strategist Matthew Dowd said Thursday on CNN’s “OutFront” that Republicans demonizing National Institutes of Health expert Dr. Anthony Fauci were attacking “science and data.”
Discussing Republican’s demeanor while questioning Fauci at congressional hearings, Burnett said, “This is far from the first time we’ve seen Republicans try to beat up on Dr. Fauci. They love these moments. We saw it from Jim Jordan today and Rand Paul not long ago. That’s how it’s been. Why is the GOP so obsessed with going after Dr. Fauci?”
Dowd said, “Well, I think this is fundamentally about the attack on science and data, and if it doesn’t agree from many of the GOP perspective as science or data or knowledge or information doesn’t agree with basically their emotional stand, they want to ignore it. And I think that’s the problem, I think, Dr. Fauci has here because Dr. Fauci is trying to take a rational approach against people who have an emotional place in this.”
He added, “The idea that this is about liberty and freedom, that somehow wearing masks — I would ask Jim Jordan, does he wear a seatbelt? Did he get his kids vaccinated when they went to school? All of these sorts of things have nothing to do with liberty or freedom, but that’s where we are when we have reason and rationality on one side and emotional reactions and ideology on the other.”
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