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HOT MIC: Fauci Calls Republican Senator A ‘Moron’

   DailyWire.com
WASHINGTON, DC - JULY 23: Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases looks on before throwing out the ceremonial first pitch prior to the game between the New York Yankees and the Washington Nationals at Nationals Park on July 23, 2020 in Washington, DC.
Rob Carr/Getty Images

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.”

Fauci also battled with Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), with the doctor claiming Paul has made false accusations about COVID-19 and the government’s handling of the pandemic, causing him harassment.

“What happens when he gets out and accuses me of things that are completely untrue is that all of a sudden that kindles the crazies out there and I have threats upon my life, harassment of my family and my children with obscene phone calls, because people are lying about me,” Fauci told the panel.

At one point, Fauci brandished some literature he claimed came from Paul’s office that called for his firing. He also claimed a California man was arrested in Iowa last month was driving to Washington, D.C., with the intention to kill government officials, including Fauci.

“The police asked him where he was going and he was going to Washington, D.C., to kill Dr. Fauci,” he said. “They found in his car, an AR-15 and multiple magazines of ammunition because he thinks that maybe I’m killing people.”

Fauci went on to personally attack the senator.

“In usual fashion, senator, you are distorting everything about me,” Fauci said Tuesday. “This happens all the time, you personally attack me, with absolutely not a shred of evidence about anything you say.”

Paul, for his part, said Fauci’s charge was irresponsible.

“It’s disappointing for you to suggest that people who dare to question you are responsible somehow for violent threats,” Paul said.

The two have clashed before. Last month, Paul put the lion’s share of blame for the thousands of monthly COVID-19 deaths squarely on Fauci over his bias toward vaccines versus therapeutics.

“I would venture to say that thousands of people die in our country every month now from COVID because [Fauci’s] deemphasized the idea that there are therapeutics,” Paul, who is also a doctor, said in an interview on the Ron Paul Liberty Report published last month, according to Fox News.

“I think Fauci is of the philosophy that vaccines are incredibly successful and are the way to go versus therapeutics, for example. So with regard to AIDS, he was involved as the AIDS epidemic came up, he wanted to develop a vaccine,” said Paul, who has repeatedly clashed with Fauci in hearings on Capitol Hill. “There’s nothing wrong with that. He wanted to develop a vaccine. Vaccines can be great for polio or smallpox or wonderful. It didn’t actually work for AIDS.”

Joseph Curl has covered politics for 35 years, including 12 years as White House correspondent, and ran the Drudge Report from 2010 to 2015. Send tips to [email protected].

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