Several Fox News hosts suggested that the Omicron variant of COVID-19 is part of a conspiracy to get out Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg elected president in 2024.
The hosts of Fox & Friends on Saturday were talking about the most recently isolated variant of COVID-19, which is shutting down international travel and raising concerns that more lives will be lost in this pandemic.
Related: Fox hosts say AOC & Pete Buttigieg’s votes should count less because they don’t have kids
But Fox’s Rachel Campos-Duffy focused on the important question: is Pete Buttigieg somehow behind this?
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“Pete Buttigieg, our transportation secretary, is potentially our new president in 2024, or so the Democrats want,” she said. He “has said we can’t fix the supply chain problem until the pandemic is over, until COVID is over.”
She was referring to how the COVID-19 pandemic has been hurting the U.S.’s capacity to take in and transport more imports as well as other countries’ ability to meet American demand since last year, a problem that she and other Republicans blame on Buttigieg.
“And now we see these new variants,” Campos-Duffy continued. “So that’s the answer: more lockdowns, more lockdowns, more fear and therefore he doesn’t have to do his job of fixing the supply chain because ‘We’ll keep this whole thing going.'”
Her co-hosts didn’t push back on her suggestion that Buttigieg and Democrats in the U.S. are somehow behind the Omicron variant, which was first reported in South Africa. Instead, they joined her in fleshing out the conspiracy theory.
“There’s always a new variant,” said Will Cain.
“Count on a variant every October, every two years,” Pete Hegseth added.
“They could speed up,” Cain suggested as Campos-Duffy laughed. “The variants could come more quickly.”
“We’re gonna need a new variant here!” Hegseth joked while holding up his hand like a phone.
In the segment, Campos-Duffy did not say why she is so certain that President Joe Biden will not run for reelection in 2024 and that Buttigieg is the candidate that Democrats, in general, want for president, but this isn’t the first time she has attacked him. In July, she said that he should have fewer votes than other adults because he didn’t have kids yet.
“It is absolutely true that people like AOC, Pete Buttigieg — you can name the left-wing politicians – people who think that we should legalize marijuana because they don’t have kids and they don’t really have a stake in what that looks like,” she said at the time.
On Sunday, out actor George Takei tweeted that people who are scared of the Omicron variant should get vaccinated and stop watching Fox News.
“If you think Omicron is a Democratic hoax, then I don’t know what to say other than to try turning off Fox News and OANN,” he joked.
If you are scared of the new Omicron variant, get your booster right away and stay masked up indoors while in public places.
If you think Omicron is a Democratic hoax, then I don’t know what to say other than to try turning off Fox News and OANN.
— George Takei (@GeorgeTakei) November 27, 2021
