WASHINGTON — Dr. Anthony Fauci said Sen. Rand Paul’s attacks on his response to the coronavirus pandemic were meant to raise money for the Kentuckian’s reelection campaign, as the two clashed again during a Senate committee hearing Tuesday.
Holding up a printout of a page on Paul’s political website that reads “Fire Dr. Fauci,” the chief medical adviser to President Joe Biden noted, “There’s a little box that says, ‘Contribute here.’ You can do $5, $10, $20, $100. So you are making a catastrophic epidemic for your political gain.”
Paul responded that it was Fauci who was playing politics by seeking retribution against those in the medical field who have disagreed with his pronouncements on COVID-19.
He’s referring to recently released emails that showed former National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins urging a “quick and devastating published take down” of a proposal by a trio of epidemiologists who argued against blanket pandemic lockdowns.
“Instead of engaging them on the merits, you and Dr. Collins sought to smear them as fringe and take them down,” Paul said to Fauci. “This is not only antithetical to the scientific method. It’s the epitome of cheap politics and it’s reprehensible Dr. Fauci.”
While Fauci noted that the email was written by Collins, he did not have an explanation for his response to their planned strike through a media publication.
Paul didn’t relent, continuing his ongoing feud with Fauci that has now extended for more than a year.
“There you go again. You just do the same thing every hearing,” Fauci complained. “You keep coming back to personal attacks on me that have absolutely no relevance to reality.”
With omicron cases rising and as America nears 850,000 deaths from coronavirus, Paul rendered Fauci’s response a failure.
The two continued to tangle for six minutes until the chairwoman of the Senate HELP Committee — Democrat Patty Murray of Washington — intervened to allow Fauci to answer Paul’s peppering of questions.
Fauci said Paul’s accusations were causing him death threats and harassment to his family. He cited an arrest of a man in Iowa last month who said he was on his way to Washington, D.C., to kill Fauci.
Paul responded that Fauci was evading his question about his media attack on scientists who disagree with him.
“He won’t defend it, he won’t argue it. He’ll just simply turn around the attack,” Paul said.
After the hearing Paul tweeted a Fox News screenshot of Fauci holding up the picture of his website that reads “Fire Dr. Fauci.”
“Dr. Fauci and I finally agreed on something in our Senate hearing today,” Paul said.
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