The GOP Doctors Caucus sent a letter to White House chief medical adviser Anthony Fauci on Tuesday to demand that he publicly apologize to Kansas Republican Sen. Roger Marshall after calling him a “moron” during a committee hearing.
The letter was signed by vice chair Rep. Greg Murphy (R-NC) and co-signed by 12 other Republican doctors serving in Congress.
“We all understand that congressional hearings can sometimes be challenging; however, your behavior in calling Senator, and fellow physician, Roger Marshall a ‘Moron’ was extremely unprofessional and uncalled for. Considering you are the highest paid employee in the entire federal government, Dr. Marhsall’s line of questioning — given he is a member of the committee directly responsible for the oversight of NIAID — was completely appropriate,” the letter read.
“We, as members of the GOP Doctors Caucus, are calling for you to make a public apology to Dr. Marshall for your unprofessional comment. The divisiveness that has occurred during this pandemic should not come from an individual who was selected to lead this nation’s pandemic efforts,” the group added.
Fauci’s comment came during a January 11 hearing of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions committee to address policy changes regarding the Omicron variant of COVID-19.
Marshall questioned Fauci over documents released by Project Veritas earlier this month raising questions about the origin of COVID-19 and what the U.S. government knew about possible gain-of-function research at Chinese labs. As The Daily Wire reported:
Dr. Anthony Fauci got feisty on Tuesday during a contentious Senate hearing, at one point calling a Republican senator “a moron.”
The top U.S. immunologist, who has been the face of the federal government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic since the beginning, clashed with Sen. Roger Marshall, who challenged the doctor on documents recently published by Project Veritas.
At one point, Marshall challenged Fauci to “submit to Congress and the public a financial disclosure that includes your past and current investments.”
“You are so misinformed,” Fauci said.
After Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), who was chairing the hearing, ended the heated exchange, Fauci can be heard saying, “What a moron… Jesus Christ.”
Marshall has since made public Fauci’s financial information. The coronavirus expert reportedly made $434,000 last year, making him the highest-paid federal employee. In addition, Fauci and his wife are reportedly worth more than $10 million.
“Dr. Fauci has forfeited his credibility as a public health expert by placing political science ahead of medical science,” Murphy told Fox News Digital in a Tuesday statement.
“Physicians have an obligation to put forward clear, consistent, and well-educated messaging to inform patients and the public. Instead of fulfilling this responsibility, Dr. Fauci has administered confusing and conflicting information in an air of arrogance that has resulted in a marked decrease in the public’s trust,” he added.
Fauci’s heated words during the recent hearing also included an argument with Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY).
Dr. Anthony Fauci accused Paul of using the coronavirus pandemic for his own political gain after Paul critiqued his handling of the pandemic, appearing at a Tuesday hearing on Capitol Hill with “evidence” he had printed from Paul’s website.
.@RandPaul to Fauci: "[T]he 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…It is cheap politics & it is reprehensible." pic.twitter.com/b6JCaaHQTR
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) January 11, 2022
“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.