Aaron Rodgers, quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers, tore into Dr. Anthony Fauci on Monday, referring to him as a “coward” for pleading the Fifth Amendment during his Senate hearing.
Rodgers shared his opinions about Fauci during an appearance on The Pat McAfee Show, joking he would “plead the Fifth” as a reference to the doctor’s testimony before the U.S. Senate.
“I’m going to plead the fifth… like that absolute coward, Tony Fauci,” Rodgers said. “Are you kidding me? You got a pardon, and you pleaded [the fifth] over 100 times. What are you scared of, Tony?”
“I thought you were the science, and he gets up there and can’t answer a question,” he added.
During the coronavirus pandemic, Rodgers faced intense media scrutiny over his refusal to get the vaccine, and he expressed outrage at ESPN for apparently not offering that same scrutiny to Fauci.
“How much did the network spend on that — on my responses every week, on my vaccination status, on Taylor and Travis’ wedding? Did they do even a minute on Tony Fauci?” he pointedly asked.
Rodgers even went as far as to call Fauci an “absolute criminal” and expressed gratitude to commentator Stephen A. Smith for apologizing to NBA star Kyrie Irving.
“No seriously, what are they gonna say about me now?” Rodgers said. “Now that you can’t talk about the COVID stuff because obviously it was made in a lab in China, that’s not even questionable anymore. Tony Fauci is an absolute criminal. I’m on good terms with my family. What are you going to say now?
“There’s been a lot of science, but I will say this. I gotta give flowers to my old friend, Stephen A. Smith, because he was man enough to actually admit and apologize to Kyrie Irving.”