CNBC host Shepard Smith repeatedly pushed Dr. Anthony Fauci to call for a nationwide mandate requiring the use of face masks, interrupting him no fewer than nine times in one minute to tell him the matter was “urgent.” Smith’s grilling comes amid an ominous third wave of the pandemic, with record highs in the seven-day rolling average of new cases, and nearly 40 states now seeing surges in positive tests again.

“You’ve said a national mask mandate is maybe a good idea,” Smith said, during a Wednesday interview. “Why maybe?

“Well, the reason is, I would hope that we could pull together as a country…” Fauci began to respond, before Smith almost immediately interjected to say, “We haven’t.”

Fauci began, once more: “Yeah. We have not and that’s the reason why I said very clearly…”

Smith demanded to know: “Is it time for the mandate, Dr. Fauci?”

Fauci replied, “Yeah, I…” before Smith interjected. “We lean on you for advice. Do we need a national mandate or not?”

Fauci made it a little further with his next response, saying, “Well, we do, if we don’t get one then I would hope that the governors and the mayors do it locally if it’s not done nationally…”

Smith responded: “But Dr. Fauci … are you still — does the — are you still in the president’s ear, or no, and if not, who is?”

Fauci managed to respond — albeit by ignoring one question of “Why?” from Smith in the middle of his answer: “Well, I haven’t spoken to the president in quite a while about the situation with regard to the outbreak, but I can tell you right now, regardless of that, what we do need is adherence to — mandate or not — if mandate is needed, let’s do a mandate…”

Smith stopped Fauci again, saying, “You’re the one who decides, Dr. Fauci.” At that point, Fauci asked with a chuckle, “Hey Shep, are you going to let me finish?”

Smith replied, “It’s pretty, urgent, doc.”

Watch above via CNBC.

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