Several outlets report that NFL quarterback Aaron Rodgers sharply criticizes Dr. Anthony Fauci after Fauci repeatedly invoked the Fifth Amendment during a Senate hearing on the COVID-19 pandemic and related government responses. In a Monday appearance on ESPN host Pat McAfee’s show, Rodgers mocked Fauci’s decision not to answer questions, saying he would “plead the Fifth” as well. Multiple reports characterize Rodgers’s language as highly critical, with references to Fauci as a “coward” and “criminal,” and questions about what Fauci is “scared of.”
The coverage ties Rodgers’s remarks to Fauci’s testimony during the prior week’s Senate committee hearing, where he invoked the Fifth Amendment numerous times, according to the accounts. While the outlets differ mainly in the intensity of their wording, they agree that Rodgers is responding to Fauci’s refusal to answer questions by raising public criticism during an ESPN conversation rather than on the Senate record itself.
