Dr. Anthony Fauci refused to turn around and face some of the people who were hurt by the draconian regulations and lockdowns he pushed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Fauci, on Capitol Hill for a Wednesday hearing reviewing his statements and actions throughout the pandemic, spent most of his time refusing to answer questions — even those as benign as “what color is your tie?” — and invoking his Fifth Amendment rights. But under direct questions from Senator Bernie Moreno (R-OH), Fauci took things a step further and refused to even look at the people seated behind him in the gallery.
Moreno first asked if Fauci could identify his own attorney, who had just been kicked out of the hearing for repeatedly attempting to speak when he hadn’t been called on. “Who is David Schertler?” Moreno asked, and Fauci immediately invoked the Fifth Amendment — prompting Moreno to ask what the Fifth Amendment said.
Fauci, after a brief consultation with his attorney, did not answer but again invoked his rights.
Moreno went on to explain that Schertler previously represented disgraced former Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and was known as the guy to call “when you’re in deep sh*t.” Schertler represented Menendez’s campaign and his wife in 2023, who were the subjects of a Justice Department probe at the time.
Turning back to Fauci, Moreno asked, “Do you feel like you’re in deep sh*t?”
Fauci again invoked his Fifth Amendment rights.
“Clearly what you think today is that somehow you’re above reproach. Somehow you feel like you don’t need to be treated like a normal American,” Moreno said to Fauci, and then pivoted to address the audience. “Can you do me a favor, in the audience, and stand up if during the time of the COVID pandemic, you were called a ‘racist’ for calling the virus the ‘Wuhan virus’ or the ‘China virus,’ if you thought the six-foot rule was total crap, if you thought the vaccine wasn’t something that you should take, if you thought it was outrageous the way the mask policy was rolled out, if you were fired from your job for not taking that vaccine — including members of the military — if you thought closing schools was catastrophically stupid, and … saying these things made you somehow a lesser human being.”
People in the gallery began to stand up in the rows behind Fauci — just two or three at first, and then more than a dozen were standing.
“Dr. Fauci, could you just turn and look at the people behind you?” Moreno asked. Fauci ignored the request and looked straight ahead. “You’re not willing to do that? It’s not a question. It’s not a question.”
One of Fauci’s lawyers tapped him on the shoulder then, and while he did turn to speak with the attorney, he kept his head low and pointedly did not look at the people standing behind him.
“To your lawyers, it’s not a question, it’s a request,” Moreno added. “All you have to do is look up from your lawyers and look at the people who were absolutely shamed for saying what we now know to be the truth. You can’t even look at them? That’s a question. Are you able to look at them?”
When Fauci still said nothing, Moreno told the audience members that they could sit. Fauci’s mic was off, but he could barely be heard repeating his invocation of the Fifth Amendment like a mantra as they sat.
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