Eboni K. Williams Urges Biden to Get 'A New Messenger' Beyond Dr. Fauci

Real Housewives of New York City star Eboni K. Williams made her voice heard Monday morning on The View when she encouraged President Biden to reevaluate Dr. Fauci's place at the front of the administration's COVID response. Williams, a former Fox News personality, urged Biden to find "a new messenger" who has not been politicized and demonized by the right, as Fauci has been over the past 18 months. "The stakes are so high," said the guest co-host. "It's life or death for all of us, collectively."

"Sara, you said 68% of Americans say they believe Dr. Fauci," said Williams. "I'm wondering, though, what happens if we say — it's no fault of Dr. Fauci. He evolved with the science. We credit him for that. But what if there was a new messenger?"

"We live or we die together. That's the reality of this pandemic," she continued. "So what if we say, maybe there's room for an infectious disease expert that's not Dr. Fauci? That doesn't have the unfortunate context of Trump and all the partisanship and all that crap. And we say, there's a new messenger that's probably going to say the same thing that Fauci's been saying, but maybe that does move the needle."

When Sunny Hostin reminded Williams that the Biden administration has "tried that" with Dr. Ashish Jha and other scientists, the RHONY star doubled down on her point. "I just think we lose nothing if we actually bring additional physicians," she said. "People still have this narrow interpretation of Dr. Fauci as the all-knowing, correct or wrong. And I think if we move from just Dr. Fauci in a collective way, maybe that moves the number. Because if 68% believe Dr. Fauci, and 66% are vaccinated, that seems to have a correlation there. So, maybe there's an outstanding roughly 38% that need to be moved."

DOES WHITE HOUSE NEED NEW COVID SAFETY MESSENGERS? As Dr. Fauci warns of a fifth wave of COVID cases if vaccination rates don’t improve, he admits he’s having a tough time changing the minds of people who believe misinformation over him—the co-hosts and @EboniKWilliams weigh in. pic.twitter.com/qaXY3EZAXW

— The View (@TheView) October 18, 2021

"With all due respect," interrupted Joy Behar, "That 38% is watching Fox and reading right-wing blogs. And that pretty much holds up."

"But they still impact us, right, Joy?" replied Williams. "You don't think there's any messenger — I think that there's a messenger that can impact them."

Williams will return to The View tomorrow for her second and final day as guest co-host.

Claire Spellberg Lustig is the Senior Editor at Primetimer and a scholar of The View. Follow her on Twitter at @c_spellberg.