The White House condemned billionaire Elon Musk after he ridiculedPresident Joe Biden's adviser as well as National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Dr. Anthony Fauci on social media.
“My pronouns are Prosecute/Fauci,” Musk wrote on his Twitter account Sunday.
The post was shared on social media, racking up 177,000 retweets, and 1.1 million views in just 24 hours.
“Truth resonates,” Musk added.
Musk also shared a meme that depicts Fauci portraying the part of Wormtongue from The Lord of the Rings.
However, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre described Musk's Twitter comments in the same breath as “dangerous.”
“These attacks, these personal attacks that we have been seeing are dangerous on Dr. Fauci and other public health officials as well, they are disgusting and they are divorced from reality,” she stated in the daily news briefing.
She stated that she believed that the White House would continue to defend Fauci from criticisms regarding its handling of the outbreak of coronavirus.
“We will continue to call that out and be very clear about that, again, these are incredibly dangerous, these personal attacks that we are seeing,” she said.
She told journalists that Fauci was a health official under seven presidents and Americans had been “fortunate” to benefit from the “life and exceptional talent” of the health official who has been polarizing.
“That's what should be discussed right now, that's what we should be discussing right now, that's what we should be thankful to him for,” she added.
Fauci became the talk of the town over the weekend when he appeared in an interview by CNN's Chris Wallace and spoke of the “difficulty” of serving in the administration of President Donald Trump.
“I couldn't stand there and be complicit in saying hydroxychloroquine works when it doesn't, you know, bleach works, it doesn't,” said the man. “That is how I evolved into public enemy number one of the far-right.”
