(Ben Sellers, Headline USA) Former COVID czar Anthony Fauci may have expected his final sendoff from the While House on Tuesday to be all rainbows and sunshine—unlike the congressional hearings that lie in wait for him during his retirement.
But at Fauci’s final formal press conference, Daily Caller correspondent Diana Glebova had other plans, going straight for the jugular with a question about the origins of the deadly coronavirus, as Twitchy reported.
WATCH: KJP did NOT like it when @DailyCaller's @DianaGlebova shouted out a question to Fauci about the origins of COVID and the @NYPost's @StevenNelson10 came to her defense pic.twitter.com/iMmU25SfuT
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) November 22, 2022
Coming to her defense initially was the New York Post‘s Steven Nelson after Glebova received a scolding from White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.
From there, Jean-Pierre struggled to maintain order while pedantically demanding that the “disrespectful” reporters wait their turn to be called on.
“I hear your question, but we’re not doing this the way you want it,” she lashed out at Today News Africa’s Simon Ateba after he continued to press for a response on the COVID origin.
Ateba already had been blacklisted about a month ago for an exchange with Pentagon spokesman John Kirby, according to Media Right News.
“Simon, I’m done. I’m done with you right now,” Jean-Pierre went on to say, holding up her open palm in his direction in a “STOP” gesture as Fauci stood by somberly.
Despite the chaos of the exchange, Fauci did get one last dose of fawning adulation, courtesy of KJP, who called him “a source of information and facts, but Dr. Fauci’s leadership and legacy stretch far beyond the past couple of years” and presented him with Thanksgiving cookies, the Post Millenial reported.
KJP: "Dr. Fauci has been a source of information and facts, but Dr. Fauci's leadership and legacy stretch far beyond the past couple of years." pic.twitter.com/FxJzQAojIy
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) November 22, 2022
Fauci also was able to gaslight the public one last time in his official capacity—insisting, without evidence, that the mask mandates and vaccines he spent the past three years, on and off, pushing onto a naive public were, indeed, effective.
“So my message—and my final message may be the final message I give you from this podium—is that please, for your own safety for that of your family, get your updated Covid-19 shot as soon as you’re eligible to protect yourself, your family, and your community,” Fauci pleaded.
“I urge you to visit vaccines.gov to find a location where you can easily get an updated vaccine,” he continued. “And please do it as soon as possible.”
Although ethically prohibited from owning stake financial stake in pharmaceutical companies, Fauci is widely expected to cash in on his status in retirement, perhaps becoming a consultant for now household names Moderna or Pfizer.
Moreover, while Fauci has refused to disclose voluntarily his financial records in previous congressional hearings, Republicans gaining control of the U.S. House of Representatives may opt to subpoena the information revealing how his personal patents may have profited from the vaccine push.
It is widely suspected that Fauci, as head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases was so eager to obtain new proprietary patents on his research that he spent decades promoting controversial gain-of-function experiments that, while helping fast-track vaccine research, also ran the risk of engineering a deadly virus like COVID-19.
NIAID was responsible for helping fund some of the studies related to transmitting COVID in bats that took place at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
Sadly, while his House conterparts may have the opportunity to put the screws on Fauci, the virologist’s top nemesis among congressional lawmakers, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., may not be so fortunate with Democrats having retained a narrow Senate majority.
After Fauci announced his retirement in August, Paul promised that 2023 would be the beginning and not the end of his oversight and scrutiny.
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
Ben Sellers is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at truthsocial.com/@bensellers.
