Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and Chief Medical Advisor to the President, practically dared Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) to make good on threats to investigate him if Republicans are able to take back the House and the Senate following November’s fast-approaching midterm elections.
Fauci, who appeared Tuesday morning on CNN’s “New Day,” insisted to anchor John Berman that all he had ever done was to help save millions of lives by putting forth common sense ideas that helped the government implement sound public health policies.
WATCH:
Fauci to @RandPaul: "All I have ever done, if you go back and look at everything I’ve ever done, was to recommend common-sense, good CDC-recommended public health policies that have saved millions of lives. If you want to investigate me for that, go ahead.” pic.twitter.com/nKUMLQY4VU
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) July 26, 2022
A Monday report published by The Hill indicated that Paul — who could become chairman of the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee if Republicans win control of the Senate in November — was absolutely planning to get Fauci under oath and into the hot seat.
“One way or another, if we are in the majority, we will subpoena his records and he will testify in the Senate under oath,” Paul said.
Fauci told Berman he was not concerned, saying, “My records are an open book. They are talking about things that are really bizarre, John, like crimes against democracy by shutting down the government. All I have ever done — and go back and look at everything I’ve ever done — was to recommend common sense, good, CDC-recommended public health policies that have saved millions of lives. If you wanna investigate me for that, go ahead.”
The Kentucky Republican has already gone toe to toe with Fauci on a number of occasions, challenging his initial resistance to any theories suggesting that the novel coronavirus originated in a Wuhan laboratory — and his apparent attempts to actively discredit anyone who subscribed to such theories or promoted a different pandemic response than the one he believed was best.
“Dr. Fauci, the idea that a government official like yourself would claim unilaterally to represent science and that any criticism of you would be considered a criticism of science itself is quite dangerous,” Paul said during a January hearing, going on to suggest that Fauci — along with former National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Dr. Francis Collins — had conspired to publicly discredit scientists who were suggesting a different approach to managing the pandemic — namely quarantining the sick and allowing those whose risk was lower to go about their business.
“In an email exchange with Dr. Collins, you conspire, and I quote here directly from the email, to ‘create a quick and devastating published takedown’ of three prominent epidemiologists from Harvard, Oxford, and Stanford.”