Senator Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) joined the rest of the Democrats in skipping a Wednesday on the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic — but he also took it a step further, walking by while the hearing was going on and appearing to mock it.
Not one of the Democrats on the Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Committee — to include Gallego — attended the hearing, where CIA whistleblower James Erdman III testified that Dr. Anthony Fauci had intentionally worked to cover up information regarding the pandemic’s origins.
But while most Democrats on the committee stayed away from the hearing entirely, Fox News Congressional Correspondent Bill Melugin reported that Gallego — accompanied by at least one staffer — walked by while the hearing was still ongoing.
“Senator Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), who is on this committee, just walked by the hearing room and saw all the media cameras and said something along the lines of, ‘Wow, what’s going on here?’ A staffer walking with him replied ‘I don’t know.’ Unclear if they were trolling or not,” Melugin said in an X post.
He later relayed the story to Fox News host Harris Faulkner, saying, “Senator Ruben Gallego, Democrat from Arizona, actually walked by us about 15 minutes ago. He saw the media cameras here, and we couldn’t tell if he was joking or trolling or not, but he said, ‘Hey, what’s going on here?’ And his staffer said, ‘I don’t know,’ and they walked past us. He is on that committee. He’s not in the room.”
Fox’s Bill Melugin just exposed the stunning no-show by Senate Democrats at the CIA whistleblower hearing on Covid.
Not a SINGLE Democrat was in the room — even though several sit on the Homeland Security Committee.
MELUGIN: “There are no Senate Democrats inside of that hearing… pic.twitter.com/dERE0QpHWY
— Overton (@overton_news) May 13, 2026
Gallego has been under increased scrutiny of late because of his close ties to disgraced former Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) — who resigned after several accusations of sexual misconduct, harassment, and even rape — and has claimed that the former California congressman had succeeded in hiding his “double life” even when the two were roommates.
At the hearing Gallego and the other Democrats missed, Erdman laid out the complex web of experts — most of whom were previously linked to Fauci — who had worked to control what information was eventually revealed to the American people.
Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) called out the federal agencies that had a part in handling the information, saying they had essentially given “the big middle finger” to the American people by not being more transparent at the time.
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