CLAY: I want to tell you a story of how lies spread and how artificial stories can become a staple of the overall media narrative that is out there. And I just saw this happen with Jesse Watters of Fox News. I know a lot of you watch Jesse on The Five. He’s got his own show on the weekend, I believe, at Fox News. I know Jesse a little bit. He’s not a close friend so I’m not taking up arms for him because he’s a buddy. I know him just a little bit.

But when I saw how fundamentally dishonest this story was, I said we gotta make sure that we address this on the biggest radio show the country so that we can have as many people as possible throwing punches back. So, that’s what we’re doing right here. All right.

How is the sausage made? Here’s what happened. Jesse Watters is speaking to a large group of people out in Phoenix, and he talks about how Dr. Fauci is a liar and how he needs to be exposed for those lies. And so I want you to listen to what Jesse Watters said in his speech to a crowded auditorium out in Phoenix. Let’s play cut 6. Just listen closely.

WATTERS: You gotta ambush a guy like Fauci, okay? You gotta be respectful because they’ll turn the tables on you and you can’t have it blow up in your face. So you say my name’s Thompson. I’m from da-da-da-da-da. Do you mind, Dr. Fauci, if I ask you a few questions? He’s gonna say no. But you were polite. So if he says, no, no, no, no, not right now, you say, no, no, no, we’re gonna address this right now. Just gonna speak gibberish. You let him talk, get it on tape, now you go in for the kill shot.

This is what you say, “Dr. Fauci, you funded risky research at a sloppy Chinese lab, the same lab that sprung this pandemic on the world. You know where people don’t trust you, don’t you? Boom. He is dead. He’s dead. Imagine Tucker Carlson teases out of the A block, “Coming up, brave college student confronts Lord Fauci at dinner.”

We heard everyone is talking about Jesse Watters’ speech at #AMFEST2021

Here’s the full clip of @JesseBWatters calling for “respectful” and “legal” citizen journalism pic.twitter.com/zAHu5hKdBU

— Turning Point USA (@TPUSA) December 21, 2021

CLAY: Okay. That’s what Jesse Watters said. You just heard it all in the context in which he said it. Listen to what CNN did to that audio that they then brought to their audience. Let’s play cut 5. You heard the full, the full statement. Now I want you to hear the CNN version.

WATTERS: Gotta ambush a guy like Fauci, get it on tape with your iPhone or your buddy’s iPhone. Now you go in for the kill shot. The kill shot, with an ambush, deadly, ’cause he doesn’t see it coming. This is when you say, “Dr. Fauci, you funded risky research at a sloppy Chinese lab, the same lab that sprung this pandemic on the world. You know why people don’t trust you, don’t you?” Boom. He is dead. He is dead.

CLAY: All right. And then CNN used their edited version, remember Jesse Watters said, hey, I want you to approach him respectfully, I want you to have your phones out and ask him questions. And then CNN asks Fauci about the Jesse Watters ambush like he’s somehow advocating an assassination as opposed speaking in a metaphorical context about what a kill shot is, and this is what Fauci said.

FAUCI: That’s horrible. I mean, that just is such a reflection of the craziness that goes on in society. The only thing that I have ever done throughout these two years is to encourage people to practice good public health practices. And for that you have some guy out there saying that people should be giving me a kill shot, to ambush me.

I mean, what kind of craziness is there in society these days? That’s awful that he said that. And he’s gonna go very likely unaccountable. I mean, whatever network he’s on is not gonna do anything to him. I mean, that’s crazy. The guy should be fired on the spot.

CLAY: Okay. “The Guy Should be Fired on the Spot” is now the headline because he said Fauci should get a kill shot and because he said he should be ambushed. That’s a lie. But they, then, CNN has created a narrative where Jesse Watters called for the assassination and there are gonna be no consequences for what he said and he should be fired immediately. Think about the way that that story was played. How many of you saw the headline of Fauci demanding that Watters be fired for what was a discussion of a respectful way that a student journalist could potentially hold Dr. Fauci accountable for helping to fund gain-of-function research in labs that we believe, I personally, some of you, some of you may disagree, but I believe personally helped to directly lead to covid escaping from a Chinese lab and then infecting the entire United States and the world?

That is how the fake news in Donald Trump parlance, sausage is made. They take a cut of an overall paragraph of discussion, take it out of context, turn it into something 100 percent it was not, and then put it back on Dr. Fauci so Fauci looks like the victim and so he can demand that his critics be held accountable for their completely intemperate and unfair behavior and Fauci gets the opportunity to say, “Oh, I’m just a scientist supporting the science. How dare someone threaten to kill me.” Nobody threatened to kill you. This was about holding you accountable for your lies, which, by the way, the media continues to not hold you accountable.

When they make Fauci look like a victim, it makes it harder for others to attack him because they say, oh, look at all these illegitimate attacks he’s getting. Look at all these threats he’s having to deal with.” This is a monstrous, monstrous example of direct and flagrant lack of fairness in the media as it pertains to an overarching story. CNN lied. They got Fauci to lie based on an altered clip and many people in the media ran with it without taking the time to actually go listen to what was legitimately said. It’s everything that’s wrong with the media today.