Chris Wallace Defends Fauci From ‘Highly Political’ Attacks: His Lab Leak Emails Contain ‘No Smoking Gun’

Dr. Anthony Fauci is in the spotlight once again, this time over thousands of pages of emails Buzzfeed News obtained through a FOIA lawsuit and what Fauci and other public health officials believed about the likelihood of the covid-19 lab leak theory last year.

Fox News’ Chris Wallace joined colleague John Roberts on Friday to discuss the emails, and he said after reading through various reports and emails, he sees no actual “smoking gun.”

Wallace said it’s important to “take the politics out of this,” telling Roberts, “When Donald Trump — back when he was president — suggested that China may have played a role in it, that it wasn’t a naturally occurring virus, I think there was a knee-jerk reaction from some Democrats, from some people in the media, to say, ‘Well, if Trump says this is a possibility, it can’t be a possibility.'”

“We absolutely need to find out what the basis for the origins of covid are,” he added.

They briefly cut away from the conversation to show Jen Psaki’s briefing room exchange with Peter Doocy about Fauci’s emails. Doocy asked Psaki at one point if she thinks “the attacks are political” and even asked if there’s any circumstance where President Joe Biden would fire Fauci. Psaki said no.

After Roberts went back to the discussion, Wallace had this to say about Fauci and the emails:

I’ve read reports and read through a number of the e-mails. There’s no smoking gun there that indicates that Fauci had any reason to believe this had came from… the Wuhan virology laboratory. I’ll answer the question, even though Jen Psaki wouldn’t — this is highly political. I can promise you. You’re seeing it as a major talking point from Republicans. I think that when Donald Trump speaks tomorrow night in North Carolina, you’re going to see him go after Fauci. Let’s just remember. Anthony Fauci has been on the firing lines trying to protect Americans from public health issues since the mid-80s with AIDS. And before we start calling for his head, this guy who’s been a devoted public servant for 40 years, maybe we ought to slow down just a little bit.

You can watch above, via Fox News.