Elon Musk elicited backlash from liberal leaders and cheers from some conservative ones in response to a viral tweet on Sunday that called for Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top expert on infectious disease, to be prosecuted.
The polarizing tweet, which garnered more than a million “likes,” arrived about six weeks after Musk told advertisers that he sought to make Twitter “a common digital town square, where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner.”
Musk, a longtime critic of COVID-19 lockdowns, who has voiced a series of conservative opinions since acquiring Twitter in October, tweeted: “My pronouns are Prosecute/Fauci.”
The message to Musk’s 120 million followers appeared to attack Fauci while mocking members of the LGBTQ community and allies who sometimes state their pronouns to communicate their gender identity.
Fauci, the chief medical advisor to President Joe Biden, is the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. He will step down from his current roles later this month.
Many Democratic officials and commentators condemned Musk’s tweet, defending Fauci and expressing support for LGBTQ people.
“I’m a big fan of Dr. Fauci and how he’s calmly guided our country through crisis,” Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., said. “Courting vaccine deniers doesn’t seem like a smart business strategy, but the issue is this: could you just leave a good man alone in your seemingly endless quest for attention?”
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre called it “disgusting” and “divorced from reality” during Monday’s White House briefing.
“These attacks, these personal attacks that we’ve been seeing are dangerous — on Dr. Fauci and other public health professionals as well — they are disgusting and they are divorced from reality,” Jean-Pierre said.
