(Headline USA) Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., promised to launch an investigation into COVID Czar Anthony Fauci if Republicans take back the Senate during the 2022 midterms.
“If we win in November, if I’m chairman of a committee, if I have subpoena power, we’ll go after every one of [Fauci’s] records,” Paul said during an interview with Fox News’s Lisa Boothe. “We’ll have an investigator go through this piece-by-piece because we don’t need this to happen again.”
Paul is expected to become chairman of the Senate Health Committee if Republicans flip the Senate. Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., is currently the committee’s ranking member, but he is retiring this year.
Over the course of several congressional hearings, Paul has confronted Fauci directly about his role in the pandemic and whether he knows more about the virus’s origins than has said.
During one exchange, Paul provided evidence that Fauci and the National Institutes of Health knowingly sent funding to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which was conducting dangerous gain-of-function research. Fauci denied the research being performed qualified as gain-of-function.
Their most recent spat before the Health Committee ended with Fauci accusing Paul of inciting death threats against him.
“What happens when he gets out and accuses me of things that are completely untrue, all of a sudden that kindles the crazies out there, and I have threats upon my life, harassment of my family, and my children will have seen phone calls because people are lying about me,” Fauci said.
Paul slammed Fauci’s comments as irresponsible and argued his valid criticisms of Fauci have nothing to do with any alleged threats Fauci has faced.
“I’ll continue my efforts to hold Fauci and his allies accountable. Gain-of-function research is too dangerous,” Paul wrote in a recent op-ed.
“When Republicans win the Senate, we will not only investigate the origins of the virus but also investigate whether or not we should be sending taxpayer dollars to do research that could have caused this pandemic,” he wrote.
