Sen. Roger Marshall’s campaign is selling t-shirts mocking White House chief medical adviser Anthony Fauci as a “moron” after Fauci used the term in reference to the senator last week.
Marshall (R-KS) got into a brief exchange with Fauci, who also serves as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, last Tuesday during a Senate hearing over the federal government’s handling of COVID-19. At the end of the exchange, Fauci was caught over a hot mic calling Marshall a “moron” after the lawmaker questioned him over his investments.
“Fauci called Sen. Marshall a ‘MORON’ when he caught him flat-footed. Send Fauci a message by getting your own ‘MORON’ t-shirt!” a description of Marshall’s t-shirt says. The shirt features a black and white image of Fauci over the caption “MORON.”
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 gain-of-function research being conducted 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.”
During the hearing, Fauci also got into a back-and-forth with Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY). The White House medical adviser brought into the hearing screenshots of Paul’s campaign website and accused the Kentucky Republican of using the pandemic for political gain because Paul’s website features an issues page under the heading “#FireFauci.”
“Dr. Anthony Fauci has abandoned science and embraced theatrics at the expense of our freedom. Thanks to public email records, we know for certain that Dr. Fauci has been ignoring good advice, and lying about everything from masks to the contagiousness of the virus. It’s time to say enough is enough and Fire Fauci,” the page says.
Fauci accused the Kentucky Senator of attacking him to fundraise.
“So I ask myself why would a senator want to do this? So go to Rand Paul’s website and you see ‘Fire Dr. Fauci’ with a little box that says ‘Contribute here.’ You can do $5, $10, $20, $100,” Fauci continued, holding up pictures he said were printed from Paul’s website and wrapping up his remarks with the claim, “So you are making a catastrophic epidemic for your political gain.”
Paul responded to Fauci, saying the health official has attacked others in the medical community who have disagreed with Fauci’s guidance and the federal government’s approach to handling COVID-19.
“You have politically attacked your colleagues and in a politically reprehensible way you’ve attacked their reputations,” Paul responded.