THURSDAY: Navarro wants to lock him up!

THURSDAY, JUNE 25, 2026

Every know-nothing a king: Where did Covid-19 come from? What was the origin of the virus?  

On Tuesday night, the Fox News Channel assembled a group of specialists to discuss such matters on Gutfeld!   

Except wait a minute—actually, no! This was the gaggle of experts which loudmouthed on the first segment of that evening's show:  

Gutfeld!: June 23, 2026
Joe DeVito: comedian
Kat Timpf: comedian
Greg Gutfeld: host
Brian Kilmeade: co-host, Fox & Friends
Tom Shillue: comedian

Three comedians, plus one Fox "friend!" With an expert panel like that on hand, how could the analysis go wrong?   

In yesterday afternoon's report, we suggested that the analysis had perhaps gone very wrong. The following morning, on Fox Business, Peter Navarro discussed the same topic, seeming to channel the various points the comedian/experts had elucidated the night before.

For David Gilmour's report, click here. Here's part of what Navarro said on Mornings with Maria:   

NAVARRO (6/24/26): The American people need to de-canonize "Saint Fauci." 

What we know very clearly is that Fauci played God. He basically gave money to the Wuhan lab for the express purpose of using gain-of-function research to create a deadly virus for the purpose of then creating vaccines to kill the virus. 

How did that go, Anthony?   

And then, when that thing leaked from the lab, he conducted a misinformation campaign, using some of the most prestigious academics in the world, to insist that it wasn’t from the lab, it was the zoonotic theory – from nature. And the biggest lie of omission was the fact that he funded the virus to begin with.

One million Americans died, millions worldwide! He needs to be held accountable.  

It almost seems like Navarro is getting his stuff from comedian Tom Shillue!

Full disclosure! We know of no reason to believe that any of Navarro's accusations are accurate. According to the leading authority, Navarro's performance with respect to Covid in real time proceeded along like this:  

Peter Navarro

[...]  

On March 27, 2020, [President] Trump appointed Navarro to coordinate the federal government's Defense Production Act policy response during the coronavirus pandemic. In this position, Navarro promoted domestic production of coronavirus-related supplies in addition to a general nationalist agenda...

In February 2020, biologist Steven Hatfill became Navarro's advisor with regard to the coronavirus pandemic. Hatfill was a strong promoter of the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for COVID, even though the drug's effectiveness was unproven. By April, Navarro, and the president himself, were touting the drug as a lifesaver. Navarro clashed with Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, over whether the administration should promote the use of hydroxychloroquine to treat the virus. In July 2020, Navarro touted a widely criticized study as showing that hydroxychloroquine was an effective coronavirus treatment; public health experts pointed to limitations with the study and to the fact that multiple randomized controlled trials failed to conclude that hydroxychloroquine was an effective treatment.

In May 2020, Navarro criticized stay-at-home orders, arguing that the COVID-19 lockdowns would kill "many more" people than the coronavirus. He frequently referred to the virus as the "China virus" or the "CCP virus" and, in May 2020, accused the Chinese government of sending Chinese citizens to other countries to "seed" the virus. In July 2020, USA Today published an editorial by Navarro under the headline "Anthony Fauci has been wrong about everything I have interacted with him on," after which White House officials disavowed Navarro's attacks. Under criticism for the editorial, the newspaper later published an apologetic statement that read, in part, "several of Navarro's criticisms of Fauci – on the China travel restrictions, the risk from the coronavirus and falling mortality rates – were misleading or lacked context. As such, Navarro's op-ed did not meet USA Today's fact-checking standards."   

You know—basic stuff like that! On a topic which may be easier to assess, Navarro soon moved on to such brilliance as this:  

In October 2020, two weeks before the presidential elections, Navarro's office in the White House had begun preparing allegations of election fraud. In December 2020, Navarro published a report alleging widespread election fraud. The report repeated discredited conspiracy theories claiming election fraud, including allegations that had been dismissed by the courts and Trump's own election security task force...

On January 2, 2021, Navarro, along with Rudy Giuliani and Mark Meadows, participated in a call with Georgia election officials in which Trump urged them to overturn the results of the election. During a January 2, 2021, appearance on Jeanine Pirro's Fox News program, Navarro asserted, "[t]hey stole this and we can prove it," and falsely asserted Joe Biden's inauguration could be postponed to allow for an investigation.  

"We can prove it," the firebrand said. More than five years later, no one has even tried to present evidence in support of this never-ending inflammatory claim.   

For ourselves, we'd be very slow to assume that Navarro is right about anything regarding Covid. We can think of zero reason to assume that Gutfeld's panelists knew what they were talking about in their astonishing presentation on Tuesday night.

Three comedians, plus one "friend!" It never seemed to occur to Gutfeld that it might be a little bit strange to drag a group of comedians out to issue inflammatory claims about such a difficult technical matter. He made no attempt to examine a basic question:  

Do these mutts have ANY idea what they're talking about? Why should anyone think that they do?

On the one hand, this is a description of the present-day Fox News Channel at work, operating in a world where they get a total pass from Blue America's high-end mainstream news orgs.   

Also, this is the "democratization of media" in full flower, with every potty-mouthed non-specialist nitwit now fashioned as a king.   

What happened on Gutfeld! was simply astounding. Also, did you hear the one about the way the women of The View resemble a bunch of whales?