WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 22 , 2021. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ RE C3
BY JEREMY BARR
Anthony S. Fauci has become
accustomed to receiving a bar-
rage of criticism and invective
from conservative media person-
alities. But even he seemed sur-
prised by the comments made
about him by Fox News host Jesse
Watters on Monday.
Onstage at a conservative polit-
ical conference, Watters encour-
aged an audience of young con-
servatives to “ambush” the na-
tion’s top infectious-disease ex-
pert and to finish him off with a
rhetorical “kill shot” of pointed
questions.
“Now you go in for the kill shot,”
Watters said, suggesting how ac-
tivists could confront Fauci in
public and film the encounter.
“The kill shot? With an ambush?
Deadly. Because 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?”
By “ambush” and “kill shot,”
Watters was proposing a surprise,
on-the-street interview with an
unwitting and unwilling subject
— a practice pioneered by investi-
gative journalism shows like “60
Minutes” but now frequently used
by political partisans to embar-
rass public officials with a damag-
ing bit of video clip. And Watters
suggested a Fox News show that
would be interested in the result-
ing footage: “Imagine Tucker
Carlson teases that ... ‘Coming up:
Brave college student confronts
Lord Fauci at dinner. Exclusive
footage.’ ... That’s what we want.
That changes the whole conversa-tion of the country.”
But the Fox host also leaned
into the violence of the metaphor:
“Boom! He is dead! He is dead!
He’s done!” (He encouraged the
would-be ambushers to be “re-
spectful,” however.)
The audience responded with
laughter and applause. But on
Tuesday morning, Fauci, the di-
rector of the National Institute of
Allergy and Infectious Diseases,
didn’t find it so funny.
“That’s horrible. That just is
such a reflection of the craziness
that goes on in society,” Fauci told
CNN host John Berman. “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 soci-
ety these days?”
Fauci added that “the guy
should be fired on the spot” but
said he doubted that would hap-
pen: “He’s going to go, very likely,
unaccountable.”
In a statement released by Fox
News on Tuesday afternoon, the
network said that Watters’s
“words have been twisted com-
pletely out of context.” The net-
work said that, “based on watch-
ing the full clip and reading the
entire transcript, it’s more than
clear that Jesse Watters was using
a metaphor for asking hard-hit-
ting questions to Dr. Fauci about
gain-of-function research.”
Watters, who serves as a panel-
ist on the 5 p.m. show “The Five”
and has his own Fox News show
on Saturday nights, rose to ac-claim as a door-stepping corre-
spondent who was filmed am-
bushing unsuspecting targets for
a segment called “Watters’ World”
that aired on then-Fox host Bill
O’Reilly’s show. HuffPost Wash-
ington bureau chief Amanda
Terkel claimed that Watters “am-
bushed and harassed” her while
she was on vacation in 2009. “He
never introduced himself and
didn’t give any context for what
he was saying — he simply shout-
ed questions as I tried to switch
out of vacation mode and remem-
ber the short post I had written
weeks earlier,” Terkel wrote in- In another clip, Watters con-
fronted Sen. Bernie Sanders
(I-Vt.), who said he doesn’t “do
ambush interviews” — to which
Watters responded: “I do do am-
bush interviews.”
Fauci has become a regular
target of criticism for conserva-
tives, particularly the prime-time
opinion hosts at Fox News, who
have accused him of mishandling
the public health bureaucracy’s
response to the coronavirus pan-
demic. Earlier this month, Fauci
criticized Fox News after Lara
Logan, who hosts a streaming
show for the Fox Nation service,
compared him to Nazi doctor Jo-
sef Mengele during a guest ap-
pearance on a prime-time Fox
News show.
“It’s unconscionable what she
said,” Fauci said of Logan during
an appearance on MSNBC. “What
I find striking is how she gets no
discipline whatsoever from the
Fox network. How they can let her
say that with no comment and no
disciplinary action? I’m astound-
ed by that.”
[email protected]Fauci: Fox News’s Watters should be fired for ‘ambush,’ ‘kill shot’ comments
“I’ve been criticized for my looks,
my voice, my ambition. I’ve been
viciously mocked and called terri-
ble names,” she says. “And yes, it
hurts. It bothers me.” She says, “I
learned to take criticism serious-
ly, but not personally.” Though,
she adds: “Some people should
not be taken seriously. They don’t
deserve it.”
Former president Donald
Trump, she says, “has this bully-
ing, macho, overweening person-
ality, and he wants to dominate
everybody in his path at all times.”
During the second 2016 presiden-
tial debate — you recall, the stalk-
ing one — she shares that she
thought of telling Trump, “Back
off, creep” but also realized that it
risked voters thinking “she can’t
take it.”
The “would-be” victory speech
is her class’s lengthiest lesson.
Depending on your opinion about
Hillary Clinton — almost every-
one seems to have one, indiffer-
ence seeming elusive — it is either
a nearly 20-minute exercise in
masochism or a wellspring of
hate-watching bordering on the
erogenous. Its inclusion is also
inspired marketing, giving this
month’s launch instant buzz.
Clinton says that she has never
shared the speech with anybody
(really?) or read the speech out
loud before, which suggests she
didn’t follow her own Lesson 6,
“Studying Persuasive Speakers,”
where she advises practicing
speaking in front of a mirror.
In a bonus interview with pro-
tegee Huma Abedin, her longtime
adviser who began her White
House career as a college student,
Hillary shares this statement that
might have been better left on the
cutting-room floor: “We could not
run the White House without in-
terns.”
The Clintons’ classes are in-
tended to be inspirational and
aspirational, with a salting of
common sense. Bill: “The best
decisions are made by diverse
groups.” Hillary: “My time is the
most precious asset that I have. It
is the way I try to organize every-
thing.” Bill: “You have to be tough
as nails with your tender heart,”
which might double as a country
lyric. Hillary: “Make your bed in
the morning, because you’re not
getting back into it.”
Final grades: For Bill, B for
content, B for presentation, C for
effort. For Hillary: B-plus for con-
tent, B-plus for presentation, and
for effort, A-plus-plus.
[email protected]ry. “I found out fairly early in life
that the more people felt I was
talking to them, the more likely
my words were to have an im-
pact,” he says.
MasterClass merges the Ameri-
can zeal for self-improvement
with our impatience, quest for
speed, convenience and unshak-
ing belief that the celebrated
know better. During our endless
pandemic, it provides intellectual
and spiritual takeout delivered to
our home. Perhaps, we should
absorb these classes cycling atop
a Peloton, simultaneously devel-
oping mind and body.
The Clintons speak directly to
you, the student — no striding
around on a stage before a crowd
you weren’t initially included in.
The intimacy is key, learning be-
hind the velvet rope. You can’t
teach brilliance or charm or drive.
They’re not infectious. But we can
feel better being around others
whom we perceive as having
them in abundance.
Hillary Clinton offers candor.daily numbers about the econo-
my, education and health care to
update her talks. Both Clintons
speak about public speaking. He
suggests including a personal sto-maker. She shares a fat briefing
book from one day on the cam-
paign, March 22, 2016 — a de-
tailed itinerary, photos and bios
of leaders she would meet, 25edge, but appears to be thriving
enough to almost double its con-
tent in the past two years. Though
the Clintons do plenty of philan-
thropy and are greatly invested in
their legacy, their talk is not
cheap. From February 2001 to
May 2016, the couple raked in
more than $153 million in speak-
ing fees, according to a CNN
analysis. On the other hand, they
really, really like to talk. They gave
729 paid speeches during those
years, and so many others gratis
during their many campaigns.
The target audience for the
Clintons or any MasterClass offer-
ing is “lifelong learners — anyone
who is passionate about learning
and wants to be inspired,” says
marketing and publicity manager
Tawnya Bear. Specifically, accord-
ing to the New Yorker, the classes
appeal to a group it deems “CATS
— the curious, aspiring thirty-
somethings who constitute a plu-
rality of its audience.”
Bill and Hillary want us to lean
on our own strengths. She’s a listwithout interruption, students
rudely scrolling through TikTok
or the drudgery of grading pa-
pers. It lets teachers play to their
skill set — the great books are
themselves. And perhaps it’s the
frisson of joining an exclusive
club of more than 150 “masters,”
one that includes Malala
Yousafzai and Metallica, and
sharing your knowledge to its 1.5
million subscribers (according to
the New Yorker, though the com-
pany won’t say officially) at the
introductory rate of $180 a year
excluding tax.
The Clintons’ courses were
filmed on a set designed to look
like their Chappaqua, N.Y., resi-
dence, if it contained manicured
replicas of their White House of-
fices. They’re impersonally per-
sonal, with gender-tinged flour-
ishes. He’s confined to a leather
club chair — teaching leadership
while sedentary seems an oxymo-
ron, diluting his very Billness —
while she’s perched in a delicate
cream linen chair on a set
swathed in Tiffany blue. All the
hits are here. He bites his lip,
pumps his thumb. His mother is
mentioned. You get her Wellesley
graduation address, on “the art of
making what appears to be im-
possible possible.”
Hillary’s class is more univer-
sal, in that her subject is “the
power of resilience” while his is
“inclusive leadership.” We cannot
all be leaders. Some of us don’t
strive to be. A roomful of leaders
doesn’t necessarily function well,
as the U.S. Senate demonstrates
almost daily.
Bill lets us know “you should
always run as if you are behind, no
matter how far ahead you are,”
which made visions of 2016 Wis-
consin dance in our head. Similar-
ly, only one person sprang to mind
when he gave the example of a
“strong woman in a family” who
has said “I love you but I don’t like
you very much today,” noting that
“we’ve all gotten a bit of that.” He
tells stories. He runs on charm.
He mentions the adage “you can
lead a horse to water, but you can’t
make it drink,” then encourages
us to “be the drinking horse. Make
it happen.” Okay then.
Follow-up question. How
much?
How much did MasterClass
pay for almost six hours of Clinto-
nian content? MasterClass, estab-
lished in 2015 as a private compa-
ny, does not impart such knowl-
MEMO FROM C1
The Clintons’ MasterClasses on resilience and inclusivity
DANNY JOHNSTON/ASSOCIATED PRESS
TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
T he Clintons walk to a Little Rock polling station in 1 984, top,
and hug as she launches her presidential campaign in 2015.BY THOMAS FLOYD
Jamie Harrison is best known
as the illusionist behind the spell-
binding stage magic of “Harry
Potter and the Cursed Child.” But,
in co-directing the theatrical in-
stallation “Flight” n ow on view at
Studio Theatre, his best trick may
be one of unexpected prescience.
Harrison and “Flight” co-di-
rector Candice Edmunds, who
together run the envelope-push-
ing Scottish theater company Vox
Motus, first staged this actor-free
production at the Edinburgh In-
ternational Festival in 2017 and
have since brought it to Mel-
bourne, New York, Abu Dhabi
and London. Yet “Flight,” as a
story told through audio and 230
scrolling dioramas, partitions off
each audience member in private
booths that feel crafted for the
coronavirus age. And playwright
Oliver Emanuel’s heart-wrench-
ing tale, of two sibling Afghan
refugees on a harrowing journey
to London, hits with renewed
resonance following the United
States’ tumultuous withdrawal
from Afghanistan earlier this
year.
“Flight” embarks from Studio
Theatre’s recently renovated
space, where on Saturday still-
wrapped light fixtures hung from
the ceiling and construction
cones impeded the 14th Street
entrance. Patrons are assigned to
“boarding groups,” ushered to a
socially distanced waiting area
and tucked into three-foot-wide
booths. The immersion begins
the moment you pull on the
provided headphones, as the am-
bient sounds of distant gunfire
establish the horrors these refu-gees seek to flee.
Over the ensuing 45 minutes,
“Flight” unfolds via miniature
tableaus, displayed in boxes of
varying depth and dimension
that revolve and illuminate every
few seconds — thinkradio play
fused with three-dimensional
graphic novel, or stop-motion
animation presented in person.
Adapted by Emanuel from for-
mer Reuters correspondent Car-
oline Brothers’s 2011 novel, “Hin-
terland,” the gripping narrative
tracks Afghan teen Aryan (voicedby Farshid Rokey) and his wide-
eyed younger brother, Kabir
(Nalini Chetty), as they escape
the Taliban and dream of being
educated in the United Kingdom.
Along the way, they utter the
touchstones of their transconti-
nental odyssey like an incanta-
tion: “Kabul. Tehran. Istanbul.
Athens. Rome. Paris. London.”
Designed by Rebecca Hamil-
ton and Harrison, the hand-
painted displays are dazzlingly
intricate. “Flight” wields its me-
dium as a ticket to the fantastical,imagining Athens as a cityscape
of bending buildings and depict-
ing the boys’ highflying dreams
with a shift to striking 2-D artist-
ry. Mark Melville’s pulsating,
swelling score elevates the ex-
perience, as does his crisp sound
design and Emun Elliott’s world-
weary narration. The technical
feat of synchronizing the audio
and images (as impeccably lit by
Simon Wilkinson) for each of the
25 booths is so seamless that I
forgave the occasional need to
shift and lean in my seat toproperly see the tableaus.
Although Emanuel’s stream-
lined script cuts some corners,
particularly when it comes to
unpacking an upsetting moment
of sexual violence, “Flight” po-
tently portrays the trauma and
tragedy refugees endure in hopes
of obtaining the simple comforts
many take for granted. The story
also converts its magical realism
into lyrical allegory and raises
poignant questions about the
nature of refugee identity.
Without that emotional invest-
ment, the artistic innovation
would fall flat. Instead, an en-
deavor that unfolds on the small-
est of scales manages to leave
quite the outsize impression.
[email protected]Flight by Vox Motus. Based on
“Hinterland” by Caroline Brothers.
Adapted by Oliver Emanuel. Directed
by Jamie Harrison and Candice
Edmunds. Design, Rebecca Hamilton
and Harrison; music and sound,
Mark Melville; lighting, Simon
Wilkinson. Through March 6 at
Studio Theatre, 1501 14th St NW.
About 45 minutes. $42-$52. 202-
332- 3300. studiotheatre.org.THEATER REVIEW
At Studio, ‘Flight’ soars by tackling big issues with miniature models
D REW FARRELL
The hand-painted displays in “Flight,” at Studio Theatre through March 6, were designed by Rebecca Hamilton and Jamie Harrison.