Dr Anthony Fauci has responded after a Jan 6 rioter was seen sitting behind him during Monday’s House Covid hearing pulling faces.
Fauci was called to testify before the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic’s hearing on Monday, as House Republicans have sought to scrutinize his role as one of the chief faces of the federal government’s response to the pandemic.
During the hearing, he went head-to-head with Republicans like Marjorie Taylor Greene who told the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases he was “not a doctor” and “belonged in prison” amid heated questioning.
But Greene was not the only one of Fauci’s critics who caused a stir during Monday’s proceedings.
A January 6 rioter, who served one of the toughest prison sentences yet for the insurrection, was seen sitting behind the medical expert pulling faces.
CNN host Kaitlan Collins also claimed that the man yelled out in agreement when Greene said that Fauci belonged in prison.
The rioter was revealed to be Brandon Fellows, who was recently released from prison on May 20 after serving three years on both felony and misdemeanor charges. Fellows was convicted of entering the Capitol and smoking cannabis in Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley’s office, according to the Department of Justice.
Fauci said he was made aware of who was sitting behind him after the hearing and asked: “What’s somebody like that doing at a hearing about Covid?”
Fellows was arrested on January 16 2021 in New York by the FBI following the insurrection after spending days bragging about the events of January 6 and posting videos and photos online.
In one video, he was seen entering senator Merkley’s office where he put his feet on the table and took two drags from a joint that was handed to him by another rioter. Meanwhile, in pictures, he was seen posing with police officers.
After the riot, he gave an interview to Bloomberg where he said his Bumble dating profile had “blown up” with attention because of the interest in his Capitol riot pictures.
In court, he represented himself, submitting long, handwritten documents in which he compared himself to Jesus.
He also at one point asked if he should call the wife of US District Judge Trevor McFadden, who was presiding over his case. Judge McFadden later lambasted him, accusing him of showing the “height of contempt” for all branches of government, adding that he had “flagrantly lied” under oath.
“It is, rather, your defiance of any and every attempt to try to get your actions to conform to what the law requires that has gotten you to this point,” McFadden said. He later added: “It’s time for you to grow up!”
Since being released from prison, Fellows has continued to seek media attention, giving an interview to Bloomberg in which he said he had “no regrets” about the insurrection, before attending the Covid hearing on Monday.
The GOP representative claimed during the hearing that Fauci’s “repulsive, evil science” led to school children having to endure class with masks and claimed he abused puppies with his testing, something he denied.
The Republican firebrand was rebuked by colleagues for her aggressive questioning as Fauci was grilled over his pandemic response and the origins of Covid.
“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 paid for by the American taxpayer,” she said. “And I want you to know that Americans don’t pay their taxes for animals to be tortured liked this.”
Throughout her hearing, she refused to acknowledge Fauci as “Dr Fauci” but instead as “Mr Fauci.”
“Mr Fauci – because you’re not ‘doctor’ – you’re Mr. Fauci,” she said while asking a question before saying, “No, I don’t need your answer.”
Shortly after Greene’s questioning, Representative Robert Garcia, a Democrat from California, lambasted her line of questioning.
“That was completely irresponsible,” he said. “This might be the most insane hearing I’ve actually attended.”
Throughout the hearing, Garcia and other Democrats apologized to Fauci for attacks from Republicans, noting how he, his wife and daughters received numerous death threats.
The hearing was Fauci’s first public appearance on Capitol Hill since he left as the chief medical adviser for the Biden administration and as director of National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases.
