'Fox & Friends' hosts baselessly suggested that Democrats are making up new COVID-19 variants to buy them time to fix the supply-chain crisis

• The hosts of "Fox & Friends Weekend" accused Democrats of inventing new coronavirus variants.
• The government is using variants to buy time to fix the supply-chain crisis, they said on Saturday.

The hosts of "Fox & Friends Weekend" baselessly suggested that Democrats are making up new coronavirus variants to help the Biden administration buy time to fix the supply chain crisis.

In a segment that aired on Saturday, Rachel Campos-Duffy, Will Cain, and Pete Hegseth discussed the possibility that the new coronavirus strain, Omicron, could bring about another lockdown, which would further impact the supply chain crisis.

Campos-Duffy cited comments made by Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg last month about how the government cannot fix the crisis — sparked by global shutdowns in 2020 — until the pandemic is over.

"[He] has said we can't fix the supply chain problem until the pandemic is over, until COVID is over," Campos-Duffy said, according to Mediaite.

"And now we see these new variants. So that's the answer: more lockdowns, more lockdowns, more fear and therefore he doesn't have to do his job of fixing the supply chain because 'we'll keep this whole thing going,'" she added.

Both co-presenters agreed with her comments, with Cain adding: "Always a new variant," while Hegseth said: "You can count on a variant about every October, every two years" — referencing the mid-term elections.

At one point, Hegseth also mimics a person on the phone saying: "We're gonna need a new variant here," according to Mediaite.

Insider reached out to Fox News for comment.

Omicron — known as the B.1.1.529 variant — was first identified in Botswana and South Africa last week and has since spread to multiple continents including Europe, Asia, and Australia. It is not part of a Democratic hoax.

On Sunday, Canada reported North America's first two cases of the variant.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious diseases expert, said over the weekend that he "would not be surprised" if the variant has already made its way into the US, according to CBS News.

News of the variant is prompting governments to issue travel bans while scientists and public health experts figure out whether it poses a greater danger than other variants.

Watch the "Fox & Friends Weekend" segment below:

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