Dr. Anthony Fauci was once again the subject of a verbal assault from Sen. Rand Paul, the Kentucky Republican and physician who has frequently clashed with the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, most recently because he believes Fauci lied about funding research that likely led to the creation of the virus.
Both Paul and GOP colleague Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas lashed out at Fauci after the Biden COVID czar attacked Republican critics of his coronavirus policies stemming from an interview in which Fauci referred to himself in the third person.
"The absolute hubris of someone claiming THEY represent science. It's astounding and alarming that a public health bureaucrat would even think to claim such a thing, especially one who has worked so hard to ignore the science of natural immunity," Paul tweeted this week.
The absolute hubris of someone claiming THEY represent science. It’s astounding and alarming that a public health bureaucrat would even think to claim such a thing, especially one who has worked so hard to ignore the science of natural immunity. https://t.co/rcDezphVRR
— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) November 28, 2021
Paul's tweet contained a video clip of Fauci being interviewed on CBS News' "Face the Nation" where he pushed back on GOP criticism of his work, calling the accusations "lies" while agreeing with the suggestion that the GOP was attempting to use him as a scapegoat.
"Anybody who's looking at this carefully realizes that there's a distinct anti-science flavor to this, so if they get up and criticize science, nobody's going to know what they're talking about," Fauci said in his interview with Margaret Brennan.
Going on to refer to himself in the third person, Fauci added: "But if they get up and really aim their bullets at Tony Fauci, well people can recognize that there's a person there, so it's easy to criticize, but they're really criticizing science because I represent science."
Other Republicans joined in their criticism of Fauci, including Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Tom Cotton of Arkansas.
"Fauci is an unelected technocrat who has distorted science and facts in order to exercise authoritarian control over millions of Americans. He lives in a liberal world where his smug 'I REPRESENT science' attitude is praised," Cruz wrote this week in a Twitter thread.
He added:
Here are the facts:
(1) On May 11, Fauci testified before a Senate Committee that “the NIH has not ever and does not now fund gain-of-function research in the Wuhan Institute of Virology.”
(2) On October 20, NIH wrote they funded an experiment at the Wuhan lab testing if “spike proteins from naturally occurring bat coronaviruses circulating in China were capable of binding to the human ACE2 receptor in a mouse model.” That is gain of function research.
(3) Fauci’s statement and the NIH’s October 20 letter cannot both be true. The statements are directly contradictory.
(4) 18 USC 1001 makes it felony, punishable by up to 5 years in prison, to lie to Congress. No amount of ad hominem insults parroting Democrat talking points will get Fauci out of this contradiction.
Fauci either needs to address the substance—in detail, with specific factual corroboration—or DOJ should consider prosecuting him for making false statements to Congress.
Cotton riffed on Fauci during an appearance on “Fox & Friends” on Monday after the long-serving head of the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases railed at Republican critics.
“His agency just admitted a few weeks ago that yes, they did in fact, fund gain-of-function research. So there’s a lie there. It’s either Tony Fauci lying to Congress or his agency after months of stonewalling writing a letter to Congress and admitting it. I suspect it’s Tony Fauci lying on the spot in his testimony to Congress,” Cotton said.
“It’s just another example of how these bureaucrats think that they are the science, that they represent the epitome of knowledge,” Cotton went on, referring to President Biden and congressional Democrats as “grubby politicians” who “have no business telling [Americans] what to do.”
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