Sparks flew on CNN as “New Day” host John Berman and White House trade advisor Peter Navarro squared off over a heated debate he recently had with Dr. Anthony Fauci over the effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine against the Wuhan virus.
Throughout the interview, Berman called into question Navarro’s qualifications. He defended himself and agreed with Fauci that there is not a “100% science” proving the drug works but it’s worth a shot.
As the interview started to come to an end Berman said, “we all want the same thing, which is people to get better.”
Then things got explosive…
“I’m not sure we do sometimes,” Navarro replied.
“What are you talking about?” Berman asked, before later adding, “Don’t you dare for a second suggest that I don’t want people to get better. I got two friends in bed right now.”
“That’s not what I said. Don’t put those words in my mouth!” Navarro said. “When you say that when we come on here and we say we all want the same thing, there’s this political overtone, this battle between, you know, you’re trying to create this false dichotomy.”
“There’s no false dichotomy!” Berman said. “We want people to get better!”
It has been reported that Navarro and Fauci got into a heated discussion over the use of hydroxychloroquine. Navarro didn’t deny the heated exchange during the interview with CNN although the White House has declined to comment on the incident.
Fauci has said that he doesn’t disagree with the president on “the fact anecdotally they might work” but that it is his job to “to prove definitively from a scientific standpoint that they do work.”
“I was taking a purely medical, scientific standpoint and the president was trying to bring hope to the people,” Fauci said on “Face the Nation” in late March.
CNN’s John Berman takes offense when Peter Navarro suggests that he doesn’t want people to get better from coronavirus, prompting Navarro to backtrack and eventually claim that Berman “put words in my mouth” and “did not let me finish my sentence.” pic.twitter.com/Y4T9sQrxLT
— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) April 6, 2020
