Scott Gottlieb just slandered me on live television

On CNBC, where he is a contributor, he just accused me of making "physical threats" against Tony Fauci; he is daring me to sue him for defamation, and I might take him up on that offer

This morning, CNBC anchor Joe Kernan asked Dr. Scott Gottlieb about my Substack last night showing he had asked Twitter to censor me last August, just before it did.

Gottlieb, who is a CNBC contributor, the former head of the Food and Drug Administration, and a Pfizer board member could have said almost anything in response:

Tony Fauci is a great American and I’m frustrated that snarky journalists attack him.

Our vaccines are lifesavers and anyone who says otherwise is an anti-science conspiracy theorist.

I look forward to being vindicated in court if Berenson is foolish enough to sue.

Et cetera…

But Gottlieb didn’t say any of those things.

Instead, he claimed that I had threatened Anthony Fauci.

Kernan introduced the segment with Gottlieb by explaining my allegations, then said, “Do you want to tell us your side?”

“I’ve raised concerns around social media broadly,” Gottlieb said. “And I’ve done it around the threats that are being made on these platforms, and the inability of these platforms to police direct threats, physical threats about people, that’s my concerns around social media, and what’s going on in that ecosystem.”

After a short digression where Kernan explained he believed the vaccines were a great scientific advance, Gottlieb returned to the question:

Gottlieb: I’m unconcerned about debate.

Kernan: What’s that?

Gottlieb: I’m unconcerned about debate. I’m unconcerned about debate taking place in platforms. I am very concerned when threats, I am very concerned when threats are being made, physical threats against people’s safety -

Kernan: This had to do with Anthony Fauci, this had to do with Anthony Fauci -

Kernan here is referring to the email from Gottlieb that I exposed in my Substack last night, the one in which Gottlieb refers to a Substack from last year I wrote about Fauci and commented, “This is why Tony needs a security detail.”

Gottlieb: I am very concerned with physical threats being made against people’s safety and the people who gin up those threats against individuals. [emphasis added] That concerns me.

The context here could not be clearer, as CNBC’s own tweet shows: Gottlieb is accusing me of “gin[ning] up threats against individuals,” including Anthony Fauci.

As Scott Gottlieb knows, I have NEVER made any threats against Fauci - or him - or anyone else involved with our Covid response. Nor have I used the kind of over-the-top language that some vaccine skeptics use, such as calling Fauci a profiteer or criminal who should be tried for crimes against humanity. I regard those accusations as inflammatory and the stakes of this debate too high for that kind of language.

Am I sarcastic and cutting at times? Sure. I call Albert Bourla, the chairman of Pfizer, The World’s Favorite Veterinarian, and I write “BULLETINS FROM ANTHONY FAUCI” where he demands a Nobel Prize and refers to Americans as “peasants.” These are clearly mocking and comic.

But, again, I have never or encouraged threats or harassment of Fauci or anything else. Gottlieb’s comments totally are categorically false, as people who saw the segment immediately knew.

Why Gottlieb committed this kind of own goal I don’t know, but that’s not my problem. I will not be accused of inciting violence.

Time to apologize, Scott.