Republican Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) has fired back with a warning after Dr. Amthony Fauci announced today that he plans to retire just before the next Congress begins in January.
As Slay News reported, Fauci revealed he will be retiring from federal service in December, after more than four decades, leaving just before the 118th Congress begins on Jan. 3, 2023.
Sen. Paul and several Republicans have been warning of their plans to investigate Fauci once the GOP takes back control of Congress, which will likely happen after the November midterms.
Fauci and the senator have previously sparred during congressional hearings on multiple occasions.
On the news of Fauci’s resignation plans on Monday, Paul promised that the top government health official will still testify before Congress.
“Fauci’s resignation will not prevent a full-throated investigation into the origins of the pandemic,” Paul said in a Monday morning tweet about Fauci.
“He will be asked to testify under oath regarding any discussions he participated in concerning the lab leak.”
Fauci’s resignation will not prevent a full-throated investigation into the origins of the pandemic. He will be asked to testify under oath regarding any discussions he participated in concerning the lab leak.
— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) August 22, 2022
Fauci has drawn the ire of many Americans for his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, his discussions of vaccines, lockdowns, and the origins of the pandemic.
On Monday, Fauci announced that he will be stepping down as Democrat President Joe Biden’s top medical adviser and the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) in December.
“I will be leaving these positions in December of this year to pursue the next chapter of my career,” Fauci said in a statement.
He emphasized that he is “not retiring,” promising to use his knowledge to “advance science and public health.”
“Over the coming months, I will continue to put my full effort, passion, and commitment into my current responsibilities, as well as help prepare the Institute for a leadership transition,” he said.
“NIH is served by some of the most talented scientists in the world, and I have no doubt that I am leaving this work in very capable hands.”
Fauci has previously reacted to Paul’s threats to investigate his handling of the pandemic by saying, “Go ahead.”
“My records are an open book,” he said on CNN in July.
“They are talking about things that are really bizarre, like crimes against democracy by shutting down the government.
“All I have ever done — and go back and look at everything I’ve ever done — was to recommend common sense, good, CDC-recommended public health policies that have saved millions of lives.
“If you wanna investigate me for that, go ahead.”
Paul has repeatedly promised to investigate, warning that “there will absolutely be consequences for the people who are flouting the law.”
“He just wants you to listen to his authority,” Paul said of Fauci during an interview with The Daily Signal in November 2021.
“He has the authority.
“He wants people to listen and not question him, but that’s sort of a recipe for authoritarianism, so I greatly object to him.”
During an early August congressional hearing examining the origins of the coronavirus pandemic and gain-of-function research, multiple scientist witnesses contradicted Fauci’s claim that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) never funded gain-of-function research.
Paul said at the time that this contradiction was the most “damning” thing to come out of the hearing.
It was the first hearing to examine the role of gain-of-function research.
The research is a process in which scientists may stitch viruses together to make a “chimeric” virus for the purpose of studying a response.
“I was told directly to my face, and the quote is there from Dr. Fauci, they had never ever funded gain-of-function research in Wuhan,” Paul said as he left the hearing.
He was referring to Fauci’s May 2021 assertion that “the NIH has not ever and does not now fund gain-of-function research in the Wuhan Institute of Virology.”
“All three witnesses contradicted that,” Paul continued.
“I think that’s a big deal because the first hearing we have had where scientists who actually look at this information [and], as informed as he is, completely disagree with him and say that the research was gain-of-function and the NIH paid for it.”
