Anthony Fauci To Face Rand Paul At Senate Hearing Over COVID Pandemic Response
Dr. Anthony Fauci is set to appear before Congress on Wednesday for the second time since leaving his role in government, facing questions from a Senate panel chaired by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who subpoenaed him.
Fauci, the infectious disease scientist who helped lead the nation’s COVID-19 pandemic response, has become a target of many Republicans’ criticism over his handling of the pandemic, from mask and vaccine mandates to his early public statements on the virus’s origins.
This hearing of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, however, is part of Paul’s years-long accusations that Fauci lied about the pandemic, a claim Fauci has persistently denied and called “preposterous.”
He will likely face a litany of questions from Paul (who has also repeatedly called for him to be criminally prosecuted) and Republican skepticism toward public health experts and sweeping government pandemic responses. Democrats, meanwhile, are likely to defend Fauci and cast down the hearing as a politicized inquiry.
During the pandemic, Fauci served as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, a role he held since 1984, and, starting in January 2021, also as chief medical adviser to then-President Joe Biden. He retired in 2022, and was later preemptively pardoned by Biden to protect him from potentially politically motivated charges.
The hearing begins at 8:30 a.m. ET. Watch here.
