Dr. Anthony Fauci testified Monday before the Republican-led House panel investigating COVID-19 and the government’s response. Desperate to fan the embers of COVID-19 conspiracy theories, the committee Republicans tried to rehash the long-ago debunked claims that Fauci is responsible for the Trump administration’s abominable handling of the pandemic.
But it was a failure.
Fauci responded to each attempt at a “gotcha moment” with the same calm he composed himself in 2020.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene drove the proceedings off the rails, holding up a widely circulated image of dogs being experimented on, purportedly using grant money approved by Fauci and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. As with most of the claims made by the GOP during the hearing, this was debunked years ago.
Greene: As a dog lover, I want to tell you this is disgusting and evil. What you signed off on. And these experiments that happened to beagles–”Fauci: What does dogs have to do with anything that we're talking about today?
Greene then refused to call Fauci a doctor, and said he should be “prosecuted for crimes against humanity.” Greene was suspended from talking while Democratic representatives tried successfully to force Greene to acknowledge Fauci’s professional title. But they were unsuccessful in having her words stricken from the record. Then Greene left.
When craven Republican Rep. Nicole Malliotakis of New York implied that Fauci received big money for COVID-19 vaccines and medicines, Fauci made it very clear that headlines about pharmaceutical profits do not translate into royalties for him.
“On the record, I want to make sure that this is clear,” Fauci explained. “I've developed a monoclonal antibody about 25 years ago that's used as a diagnostic. That has nothing to do with Covid, and I receive an average of about $120 a year from that.”
Since Malliotakis has no evidence that Fauci has received money, his response left her at a loss.
Ranking Democrat Rep. Jamie Raskin helped in humiliating the Republicans by publicly apologizing to Fauci for the damage the GOP has done to his reputation.
“They're treating you, Dr. Fauci, like a convicted felon,” Raskin lamented. “Actually, you probably wish they were treating you like a convicted felon. They treat convicted felons with love and admiration. Some of them blindly worship convicted felons.”
Finally, Republican Rep. Debbie Lesko of Arizona failed spectacularly in her attempt to misinform the public, lying that she has a boatload of damning evidence against Fauci.
Fauci: So you said about four or five things, Congressman, that were just not true.Lesko: Well, we have emails to prove it.
Fauci: You don't.
Allowing Fauci to remain in his position was arguably the only smart thing that Donald Trump did as president. In fact, it might be the single intelligent thing the convicted felon has ever done in his entire life.
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