The MSNBC “expert” who claimed President Trump gave white nationalists a wink and a nod when he ordered flags lowered to half-staff through Aug. 8 to honor the victims of mass shootings is here to tell Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx how to do their jobs.
It is just what the nation needed right now: A crazy person giving unsolicited and, frankly, insulting advice to the healthcare professionals who have done a pretty decent job so far guiding us through the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Trump has [Fauci and Birx] in his power,” reads the subhead to former FBI agent Frank Figliuzzi’s Vanity Fair op-ed, “Hostage Survival Tips for Drs. Fauci and Birx.”
It adds, “But they have what Trump wants – credit, adulation, the appearance of scientific expertise. And their survival means our survival.”
Figliuzzi writes, addressing both Fauci and Brix, that “you’ll both need to understand how similar your predicament is to a hostage standoff, and how you can employ kidnap and ransom negotiation techniques to overcome the challenges of your figurative captivity.”
He adds, “Since you just bought us all another month of smart social distancing, there are already signs that you are applying some of these proven methods even if you don’t fully grasp them as such. But this can go south quickly, and we’re counting on you to get it right.”
It must take a lot of gall to write a piece like this, talking down to the leaders of a pandemic response team because they work for a guy you dislike. Figliuzzi, some dude who once worked for the FBI before going to General Electric and later becoming a frequent MSNBC guest, goes on to lecture two accomplished healthcare professionals who would be interested in his advice … why exactly?
“You control what the president wants: public adulation, credit for mitigating a deadly virus, and the appearance that he understands complex medical concepts,” Figliuzzi op-ed continues. “You must delicately and subtly message the president that if he harms the hostages (you and us), he won’t get what he wants. This can be fraught with peril.”
He adds, “In a sense, we’re all being held hostage, and you are negotiating for our safe release. Hostages sometimes develop Stockholm syndrome when they start identifying with their captor and his causes as a survival mechanism. Don’t let that happen to you. Don’t let that happen to us.”
This is not about Birx and Fauci. With crazed conspiracy theorists like Figliuzzi, it is always about Trump. His op-ed is just a 500-word excuse to write about how much he dislikes the president. He doesn’t and never did care about the pandemic that has infected 156,000-plus Americans and killed 2,880.
Trump’s presidency has utterly broken people like Figliuzzi and the MSNBC hosts who continue to platform his lunacy. They have become the very thing they claim to “resist.” They cannot let their partisan demagoguery go for even a moment, not even amid the current pandemic. It’s pretty sad, really.
