Barstool Sports president Dave Portnoy made the remarks during a live Periscope stream on Wednesday.
- Portnoy referred to Fauci, one of the top members of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, as a "midget f-ck" and said he was "one of the great criminals of our civilization."
- Portnoy appeared to suggest Fauci was intentionally trying to weaken the stock market so he could buy up businesses "when it tanks by 500 percent and become rich."
- "You can't do it forever": Echoing comments by proponents of ending lockdown measures and restarting the American economy, Portnoy slammed the mindset that "we gotta find the cure before we can go outside."
- “Are we just done as humans? ... You have to take risks! We’re Americans!”: He also argued that boldness is part of the national character and that Americans should be free to choose whether the damage to their livelihoods wrought under lockdown is worth the potential risks to their health if such measures are lifted.
- Portnoy's rant went viral and has been viewed more than 3.7 million times on Twitter.
- What Fauci said: Fauci told lawmakers on Tuesday that relaxing coronavirus lockdown measures too early could bring "suffering and death."
- In particular, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director voiced concerned about school reopenings, stressing the importance of not being "cavalier in thinking that children are completely immune to the deleterious effects" of the virus.
- President Donald Trump criticized Fauci's comments, saying the medical expert was playing "all sides of the equation" and calling his remarks "unacceptable."