Republican Senators Rand Paul and Ted Cruz snapped back at Anthony Fauci for attacking GOP criticism of his COVID policies during an interview which also saw Fauci refer to himself in the third person.
Paul tweeted Sunday: ‘The absolute hubris of someone claiming THEY represent science. It’s astounding and alarming that a public health bureaucrat would even think to claim such a thing, especially one who has worked so hard to ignore the science of natural immunity.’
He was responding to an interview with CBS News’ Face The Nation where President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser dismissed Republican criticism of his work as ‘lies’ and agreed with the notion that GOP lawmakers were using him as a scapegoat.
‘Anybody who’s looking at this carefully realizes that there’s a distinct anti-science flavor to this, so if they get up and criticize science, nobody’s going to know what they’re talking about,’ Fauci told CBS’ Margaret Brennan.
Referring to himself in the third person, he added: ‘But if they get up and really aim their bullets at Tony Fauci, well people can recognize that there’s a person there, so it’s easy to criticize, but they’re really criticizing science because I represent science.’
Paul had confronted Fauci earlier this year of lying about the NIH’s involvement in coronavirus research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, a claim Fauci fought back against, calling Paul a liar.
In May, Fauci testified that the NIH ‘has not ever and does not now fund gain of function research in the Wuhan Institute of Virology.’
However, Fauci also said during that hearing that there was no way to know if Chinese scientists at the Wuhan Institute of Virology lied and conducted gain of function experiments on bat coronaviruses using U.S. tax dollars.
‘There’s no way of guaranteeing that,’ Fauci said at a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing, responding to a question from Republican Sen. John Kennedy.
‘But in our experience with grantees, including Chinese grantees, which we have had interactions with for a very long period of time – they are very competent, trustworthy scientists,’ Fauci testified.
Then in July Dr. Fauci lashed out at Senator Paul during a Senate hearing as he accused the Kentucky Republican of being a ‘liar’ who ‘doesn’t know what you’re talking about’ when it comes to COVID origins and gain-of-function research.
‘Dr. Fauci, knowing that it is a crime to lie to Congress, do you wish to retract your statement of May 11 where you claimed the NIH [National Institutes of Health] never funded gain of function research in Wuhan?’ Paul asked of the nation’s top immunologist and Joe Biden’s top COVID advisor.
‘Senator Paul, I have never lied before the Congress and I do not retract that statement,’ Fauci shot back in the heated exchange on Capitol Hill during a Senate Health Committee hearing.
Cruz responded in a tweet thread of his own.
The former presidential candidate wrote: ‘Fauci is an unelected technocrat who has distorted science and facts in order to exercise authoritarian control over millions of Americans. He lives in a liberal world where his smug ‘I REPRESENT science’ attitude is praised.’
He then went on to restate his criticisms of Fauci.
Cruz’s tweets were in response to Brennan telling Fauci, ‘Senator Cruz told the attorney general you should be prosecuted.’
Fauci laughed off the accusation before appearing to claim that Cruz had a role in the events leading up to the deadly Capitol riot.
‘Yeah. I have to laugh at that. I should be prosecuted? What happened on January 6, senator?’ Fauci replied.
The news anchor asked Fauci if he thought ‘this is about making you a scapegoat’ to deflect from Donald Trump.
‘Of course, you have to be asleep not to figure that one out,’ he said.
‘That’s OK, I’m just going to do my job and I’m going to be saving lives and they’re going to be lying.’
This is an excerpt from Daily Mail.
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