🚨Dr. Fauci Testifying LIVE Right Now Before Senate As Dark CRIMES Exposed | Time To LOCK Him Up...

Summary

The Benny Show Podcast Summary

Episode: 🚨Dr. Fauci Testifying LIVE Right Now Before Senate As Dark CRIMES Exposed | Time To LOCK Him Up...
Date: July 29, 2026
Host: Benny Johnson

---

Episode Overview

This explosive episode of The Benny Show covers Dr. Anthony Fauci’s much anticipated live testimony before the Senate—an event framed by The Benny Show as an historic reckoning with the architect of America’s COVID-19 response. Amid escalating demands for accountability and suggestions of criminal wrongdoing, Dr. Fauci was subpoenaed to respond to accusations around COVID origins, gain-of-function research, policy decisions, and personal conduct. Instead, he invoked the Fifth Amendment over 120 times, stoking outrage and fierce commentary from both Republican senators and Benny Johnson. The hearing devolved into political theatre, culminating in moves toward holding Dr. Fauci in contempt.

---

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Opening Salvos: Senate Divided on Purpose of the Hearing

• Senator Rand Paul (00:11–10:19): Delivered an extensive indictment of Dr. Fauci’s leadership, focusing on conflicts of interest, the lab-origin theory of COVID-19, gain-of-function research, and alleged coverups. Paul detailed a timeline suggesting a private panic and urgent efforts to check whether NIH funds were involved in research at Wuhan that could have led to COVID-19’s emergence.
  • Quote: "Your primary concern was avoiding culpability. Your primary concern was hiding the fact that you had approved the funding for this dangerous research." (08:00)
• Senator Bernie Moreno (10:19–18:35): Countered by attacking the partisan nature of the hearing and defending Dr. Fauci, accusing Chairman Paul of bias, and lamenting the absence of bipartisan inquiry.

2. Fauci Invokes the Fifth Amendment

• Dr. Anthony Fauci (19:34–22:04): Opened with an explanation for invoking his Fifth Amendment rights, citing hostility and a vendetta led by Senator Paul, specifically: "The sole reason [for my subpoena] is to get me to say something ... that could vindicate his repeated public pledges that I end up, in his words, 'behind bars.'" (20:00)
• Counsel’s Interjections: Dr. Fauci’s legal counsel frequently asserted the Fifth on his behalf.

3. Questioning—and Stonewalling—on Key Issues

• Lab Leak, Funding, and Gain-of-Function (23:25–37:54):
  • Repeated, pointed questions from Senator Paul and others on:
    • NIH’s funding of Wuhan research
    • Potential for U.S. money enabling dangerous experiments in China
    • Lack of U.S. oversight at Chinese labs
    • Whether definitions of "gain-of-function" were purposefully narrowed
  • Fauci remained silent, invoking the Fifth every time.
• Hospital Policies, Early Treatments, Vaccine Injury Suppression (46:51–57:07):
  • Senator Ron Johnson grilled Fauci about:
    • Vaccine adverse event reporting and suppression
    • Early treatment options (hydroxychloroquine, ivermectin) and alleged sabotage
    • Recipient reports of vaccine injury being ignored and hidden.
• Financial Conduct (99:40–108:50):
  • Senator Josh Hawley accused Fauci of profiteering during the pandemic, citing use of public resources for personal awards exceeding $1 million and juxtaposing his growing wealth with pandemic suffering.
    • Memorable Quote: "Nothing says honesty like taking the Fifth, huh, Doc?" (99:40)
• Manipulation of Public Policy (135:42–146:38):
  • Senator Marco Rubio focused on:
    • The shifting public messaging on masks, distancing, and lockdowns, highlighting private diary entries at odds with public statements.
    • Connections between Fauci’s policy stances and subsequent political ramifications.

4. Political Theatre & Tensions

• Ejection of Counsel (39:19–40:25): Dr. Fauci’s attorney was removed from the hearing for attempting to speak out of turn.
• Repeated Fifth Amendment Invocations: Senators (notably Hawley and Lee) mocked this, even asking about the day of the week or the color of Fauci’s tie, which he refused to answer (99:54–100:20).
• Democratic Senators Defend Fauci: Argued the hearing was a partisan witch-hunt meant to scapegoat a public servant and undermine trust in health institutions.
• Calls for Contempt Vote: After Fauci’s refusal to testify, Chairman Paul announced a forthcoming vote to hold Dr. Fauci in contempt of Congress (171:28–174:14).

5. Public and Partisan Reaction

• Benny Johnson Commentary: Intense, provocative, and partisan:
  • Labeled Fauci a "criminal," "coward," "filthy," and "mass murderer," repeatedly comparing him to history’s great villains and lamenting his invocation of the Fifth as tantamount to admission of guilt.
  • Praised Republican senators for their attacks and previewed an interview with Rand Paul.
• Audience Engagement: Call-and-response moments, e.g., Hawley inviting the audience to stand if they felt shamed for COVID skepticism, which Benny highlighted as powerful spectacle (180:13–183:08).

---

Notable Quotes & Key Moments (with Timestamps)

| Time | Speaker | Quote/Moment | |-----------|-------------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 00:11 | Sen. Rand Paul | "Your primary concern was hiding the fact you had approved the funding for this dangerous research." | | 19:34 | Dr. Anthony Fauci | "...the sole reason [for this subpoena] is to get me to say something ... that could vindicate his repeated public pledges that I end up, in his words, 'behind bars.'" | | 23:34 | Dr. Fauci/Counsel | [Repeated throughout] "On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment..." | | 33:02 | Benny Johnson | "Filthy coward." | | 76:01 | Sen. Richard Blumenthal | "...you are single mindedly fixated on Dr. Fauci ... so invested in that outcome that you have created a personal brand around it." | | 99:40 | Sen. Josh Hawley | "Nothing says honesty like taking the Fifth, huh, Doc? Let's try something. What day of the week is it today?" | | 107:14 | Sen. Josh Hawley | "At the end of the day, it wasn't just about the money really, was it? It was really about a power trip." | | 125:42 | Sen. Joni Ernst | "Dr. Fauci... did you know that the NIH's billion dollar SEARS contract programs were funding gain of function researchers in China, the US and in the Netherlands?" | | 144:44 | Sen. Marco Rubio | "Why was your pardon backdated to January 1, 2014—the date corresponding with the Obama-era ban on gain-of-function research in the US?" | | 170:54 | Sen. Rand Paul | "At any point between January 1, 2014, and January 19, 2025, did you destroy any Federal record or tell anyone else..." | | 175:49 | Benny Johnson | "...because you are one of the largest mass murderers of all time. You're certainly the largest mass murderer in American history. On the level with Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, and Mao." |

---

Republican Senators' Core Allegations

• COVID-19 Lab Origin: Accused Fauci of misleading the public about pandemic origins and actively working to bury the lab-leak hypothesis.
• Gain-of-Function Research: Accused of circumventing US regulations to fund dangerous research abroad, especially in Wuhan, and conducting "semantic games" on definitions.
• Suppression of Dissent & Early Treatments: Alleged a campaign against critics and alternative treatments (ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine) to protect the vaccine and emergency powers.
• Financial Impropriety: Charged with using public office for personal enrichment during the pandemic.
• Destruction of Records & Misuse of Federal Communication: Raised allegations of record deletion and inappropriate use of personal email to avoid transparency.

---

Democratic Senators’ (and Allies’) Responses

• Partisan Witch-hunt Framing: Emphasized that the hearing was a vendetta, not a fact-finding mission.
• Praise for Public Service: Highlighted Fauci's decades at NIH, contributions to public health, and the importance of expertise in government.
• Risks to Future Public Service: Warned that hostile and scapegoating hearings deter talent from public service, threaten scientific inquiry, and undermine faith in US health infrastructure.

---

Benny Johnson’s Commentary & Tone

• Outraged and Inflammatory: Consistent use of harsh and combative language targeting Fauci and Democrats.
• Celebrates Republican Tactics: Cheers the GOP’s aggressive questioning, the ejection of Fauci’s lawyers, and promises further coverage (including a follow-up interview with Rand Paul).
• "Guilt" by Pleading the Fifth: Treats Fauci’s repeated invocation of the Fifth as virtual proof of criminality.
• Conspiratorial Narrative: Suggests COVID-19 was orchestrated to affect US elections and claims shadowy programs were manipulated for partisan gain.

---

Noteworthy/Infamous Moments

• 121 Fifth Amendment Invocations: Fauci refused to answer every substantive question—often even basic ones (99:54–100:20).
• Senator Hawley’s Taunting: Hawley ridicules Fauci for "taking the Fifth" on innocuous questions about his appearance and surroundings.
• Lawyer Ejected: Fauci’s counsel physically removed after interrupting proceedings (40:25).
• Contempt Vote Announced: Committee will vote to hold Fauci in contempt due to refusal to answer, despite a blanket presidential pardon (174:12).
• Public Participation: Hawley asked members of the audience to stand if they felt harmed or shamed by COVID policies, emphasizing the personal impact of government decisions (180:13–183:08).

---

Timeline of Important Segments

• 00:00–10:19: Sen. Rand Paul Opening Statement
• 10:19–18:35: Sen. Bernie Moreno (Democratic rebuttal)
• 19:34–22:04: Dr. Fauci’s Statement and Fifth Amendment Invocation
• 23:25–37:54: Intense GOP Questioning, all rebuffed with Fifth Amendment
• 46:51–57:07: Sen. Ron Johnson on safety surveillance suppression
• 99:40–108:50: Sen. Hawley's Financial Allegations and Satirical Questioning
• 135:42–146:38: Sen. Rubio on shifting COVID policies/messaging
• 170:54–174:14: Final contempt discussion and summary by Sen. Paul
• 180:13–183:08: Hawley and Johnson elicit audience engagement and highlight emotional moments

---

Conclusion

This episode delivers three hours of escalating confrontation, partisan rhetoric, and high drama. Dr. Fauci, under a presidential pardon, refuses all questioning by invoking the Fifth Amendment, provoking fury and disappointment from Republican senators and Benny Johnson, who frames the hearing as both a moral reckoning and a possible prelude to criminal prosecution. Democratic senators cast the event as a politicized vendetta that endangers scientific service and public trust.

Dr. Fauci's legacy, the credibility of public health institutions, and the politics of the pandemic all hang in the balance, with the hearing closing on the brink of contempt proceedings and the promise of further political fallout.

---

For further exploration, Benny Johnson encourages listeners to tune in to his next show featuring Rand Paul and to watch the full footage of the hearing for unfiltered access to the day's events.

Transcript

[Benny Johnson]

Ladies and gentlemen, Dr. Fauci is live right now in Congress. Yes, we good? Thank you. Okay, here we go. We're just going to jump right in.

[Senator Rand Paul]

Families were separated from dying relatives. Workers were ordered to accept a medical procedure or lose their jobs. Worship, assembly, employment, education and travel were restricted in the name of science. While you did not impose every restriction, you. You used your public authority to justify them. While you concluded publicly that Covid occurred naturally, your private record tells a different story. In early 2020, your hand picked virologist warned that the virus appeared to have been manipulated in the lab. In a conference call concerning the origin of the virus, all but two of the participants believed deliberate insertion was possible. Your concern was not merely theoretical that sent same week you led an urgent effort to determine whether your own agency had funded the research related to these experiments that were now under suspicion. Hours later, your assistant reported that the Wuhan experiments had indeed been reviewed and approved by the nih. Those were not the actions of officials who believed that a research related origin was an absurd conspiracy theory. They were the actions of officials urgently trying to determine whether their agency funding was connected to the research under discussion, connected to the pandemic. You could not hide that your agency had funded the Wuhan research or your long history of defending gain of function research. The only alternative left was to argue that COVID 19 did not originate in the Wuhan lab. You were not a detached observer. You had an institutional interest in the public believing that federally funded research had nothing to do with the pandemic. It was a conflict of interest from the very beginning. The authors of the proximal origin of SARS Covid 2 privately had serious doubts about a natural origin. Within days though, they flipped and they all wrote in proximal origin that the virus was almost certainly not a laboratory construct. That paper was then used by the government and the media and you to discredit Americans who were asking the same questions that you and the authors were asking yourselves privately. You even cited proximal origin from the White House podium. You held it out as evidence that the virus could not have been engineered. But you didn't disclose your role and the discussions that preceded the writing of the paper. You did not disclose the author's original concerns. You did not reveal that you had been part of the paper, that you had read and offered editorial comments on the paper before it was published, before you began using it as evidence that it couldn't have originated in the lab. You did not disclose that you had immediately investigated yourself whether NIAID funding might be connected to the research. You did not tell the American people the full story. Duly released private messages indicate that the doubts with the authors and others didn't disappear after the publication. So while this was being waived at the White House to show that it couldn't come from the lab people, the authors were still privately continuing to assign a meaningful probability to a laboratory origin. One thing in public and another in private. Some of the same scientists discussed avoiding email and carefully managing communications that might eventually be obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. The pattern is straightforward. Privately, there was alarm, then an immediate inquiry to see if NIAID's possible exposure to funding, then a rapid public declaration of certainty, continued private doubt, and then years of resistance to disclosure. The question is why? The only logical answer is that your primary concern was avoiding culpability. Your primary concern was hiding the fact that you had approved the funding for this dangerous research. Your support of gain of function research is extensive and longstanding. In 2011, your agency funded Ron Fouchier's laboratory with it mutated the avian flu until it could spread through the air between mammals. This was the tipping point. This is when others became worried. You funded this. You advocated for this. The federal government's own biosecurity board, though, recommended withholding the details of these experiments because of the danger the research posed. People were concerned that publishing it was publishing a roadmap to creating bioweapons around the world. But you sided with the gain of function scientist Foucier and argued that the benefits of publishing the research far outweighed the risks. You defended this avian flu transmissibility experiments as critical research. You wrote that even if a scientist became infected and triggered a pandemic, the benefits of the gain of function experiments outweighed the risk. In 2014, your agency, NIAID, began funding the Wuhan bat coronavirus work. In 2015, Ralph Baruch and the Chinese scientist Shi Zhengli published NIAID supported research combining a bat coronavirus spike protein with a SARS backbone. The resulting virus could infect human airway cells. It's a novel virus that now can infect human cells. It gained transmissibility. It gained function. In 2018, the same group of scientists, EcoHealth, Barrick, she and their collaborators submitted the diffuse proposal, which involved the insertion of a furin cleavage site into the coronavirus. DARPA rejected it as too dangerous. When Covid was sequenced though early on In January of 2020, within days, scientists discovered that, lo and behold, it had a novel furin cleavage site, just as had been proposed in the Diffused product. This was either an extraordinary coincidence or a smoking gun evidence that the Chinese had created COVID 19. It made the laboratory origin question more legitimate, and it made your categorical public denials indefensible. On May 11, 2021, you told the Senate, the NIH has never, ever and does not now fund gain of function research in the Wuhan Institute of Virology. When I gave you the opportunity to correct the record, to reconsider the statement, you responded that you had never before lied to Congress. We were then told that only the government's narrowest regulation of definition counted here. That you could define gain of function in one way in which this wasn't gain of function, in which all of the common sense of the world would be thrown out. All of the idea that the mice were dying and the virus was more transmissible didn't matter because you had a technical definition that allowed you to fund it. But the real question is, was it dangerous? Was it a wise decision to fund this? And you haven't deviated from that. You've never admitted that it could have been a mistake funding this research in China. The American people weren't asking for a semantics debate over what is gain of function. They were asking, does common sense say that this research was dangerous in Wuhan? They wanted to know whether their money funded experiments in Wuhan that made bat coronaviruses better able to infect humans. The answer is yes. They wanted to know whether NIAID adequately supervised their work. The answer is no. When you defended this research, you described its benefits in the broadest terms. But when Congress demanded accountability, you hid behind the narrowest possible definition. You can't have it both ways. Your conduct concerning federal records raises further questions. It is a crime to destroy federal records. Yet our investigation reveals your assistant diligently reported that she deleted tons of emails in 2024. You testified that you did not delete federal records. Who's telling the truth? You or your assistant? The committee has obtained repeated instructions from you telling federal officials to Delete Communications. On February 2, 2020, one day after origins Call, you told Francis Collins, please delete this email after you read it. The committee asked for your voluntary cooperation to come today. Your appearance had to be compelled by subpoena. You're here today under duress. You're here today because of the court ordering it. President Biden issued you a sweeping pardon extending back to 2014, the same pardon he gave to his son, Hunter. A pardon may protect a person from criminal prosecution, doesn't rewrite history. It does not erase documents. It does not convert a misleading statement into a truthful one. And it does not prevent Congress from establishing what happened. There will be another pandemic. There will be another crisis. And there will again be officials who insist that uncertainty must be hidden for the public's own good. They will demand obedience. They will invoke science. I am the science, as though it were a commandment. They will argue that government officials cannot be questioned because questioning them would undermine public trust. They have it backwards. It is secrecy that destroys trust. It is arrogance that destroys trust. It is censorship that destroys trust. And it is the refusal to admit error that destroys trust. That loss of trust may be your most damaging legacy. Trust can't be ordered. It has to be earned. No scientist is above scrutiny. No government official is beyond accountability, and no public servant has the right to treat the suffering of millions of Americans. As a footnote to his preferred version of history. I now recognize Senator Peters for his opening remarks.

[Senator Bernie Moreno]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee has a long and a very proud history of conducting serious oversight on behalf of the American people. When this committee has been at its best, Democrats and Republicans have worked together to investigate complicated issues, to follow the facts wherever they may lead, and produce recommendations that actually strengthen our nation's security and improve government functions. That bipartisan tradition has produced meaningful work following Hurricane Katrina, the January 6th attack on the US Capitol, failures at the Secret Service, and countless other matters. Unfortunately, today's hearing is the latest step in the Chairman's sharp departure from that long tradition. This hearing appears to be a culmination of months of biased and selected efforts by the majority under the guise of a committee investigation to basically legitimize a predetermined conclusion that was reached years ago in 2021. The chairman has called for today's witness to be be fired, to be arrested, accused him of leading cover ups and conspiracies. He has even featured the witness prominently in fundraising emails and on the COVID of his book. He has also called for the cancellation of the witness's security detail, despite the fact the witness and his family have received numerous credible death threats. When I served as chairman, Senator Paul and I launched a bipartisan biosecurity investigation that included oversight of risky research and the origins of COVID 19. Because we agreed that the committee's work would be stronger if we did it in a bipartisan manner and just followed the facts. That was and continues to be an area of legitimate and certainly needed oversight. As Chairman, Senator Paul has taken the opposite approach. He has abandoned long standing practice by blocking minority participation in committee oversight actions and has chosen to selectively release committee records that the minority has never had any access to in order to support his pre drawn conclusions. The Chairman has repeatedly excluded committees minority and withheld documents and evidence from members that are entitled to receive them, disregarding longstanding Senate rules and committee precedent that have preserved the credibility of our oversight in this committee for decades. I have raised these concerns directly with the Chairman because it's not just what we investigate that matters, but how we conduct that investigation that also matters. One sided investigations designed to validate predetermined conclusions do not serve the American people who sent us to actually undercover the truth and to solve problems. I wrote to the Chairman requesting that he adhere to committee rules, but instead of addressing concerns that I raised, he removed part of the committee's website from the public view. This move not only prevented the public from being able to view those list of concerns, it adds serious questions about the desire for transparency and legitimate oversight of this matter. But what makes today's hearing particularly disappointing is not simply the Chairman's actions, but what we could be using this committee's true and time oversight responsibilities to accomplish. This committee has not held its annual threats hearing at all of this Congress. We have not held a budget hearing for the Department of Homeland Security. There are important hearings that we would have the opportunity to discuss as to how to strengthen our homeland security across the board. No hearings on those topics. Instead of focusing on the national security challenges that we are facing in our country right now, today's hearing looks backwards, revisiting questions this committee has already examined, including through bipartisan work that Senator Paul and I conducted together when I served as Chairman of this committee. But rather than building on that work to strengthen our preparedness against future disasters, we are instead relitigating the past. COVID 19 exposed serious deficiencies in our nation's public health infrastructure. We know that more than 1 million Americans lost their lives and this committee should absolutely continue examining how we can better prepare our nation against future biological threats. Those are the kinds of forward looking life saving questions that will help our nation be better prepared to protect the health and the safety of Americans when the next emergency occurs. Unfortunately, at this precise moment we should be strengthening our capabilities. The Trump administration seems to be doing everything in their power to actually weaken our capabilities. The administration has hollowed out the public health workforce. They have fired, pushed out and cut funding for public health personnel, shrinking the CDC workforce by a quarter. Thousands of experienced scientists have left government Service. And with them has gone critical institutional knowledge that cannot be easily replaced, certainly not quickly replaced. The administration, thanks to political operatives like Russell Vogt, has slashed or illegally withheld funding for life saving medicines and cutting edge technologies that let us rapidly develop them during an emergency. Mr. Vogt is now further politicizing the federal grant making process, proposing to subject all federal grants, including those for disaster relief, housing development and cancer research, to the whims of political appointees, not nonpartisan experts. All of this has left the American people more vulnerable to infectious disease threats and we are already tragically seeing the consequences. Staffing and funding cuts have slowed the federal, state and local response to ongoing outbreak of a foodborne parasite which has sickened thousands in my home state of Michigan as well as across the country. At the same time, the administration cuts to global health programs and international partnerships have greatly reduced our ability to contain dangerous diseases like Ebola before they spread to our shores. We should be examining whether our federal health agencies have the personnel and the resources they need to effectively prevent, detect and respond to these threats. We should be asking how to strengthen our biodefense efforts to deter our adversaries and prevent biological attacks against our country and how our government can better coordinate and communicate during public health emergencies. These are the kinds of forward looking matters that are worthy of, are worthy of this committee's time. Instead, we are here continuing the Chairman's year long focus on one individual. History tells us, unfortunately another pandemic is all but inevitable. The question is whether Congress and this committee will work to better prepare our country for it or continue looking backward. Why our public health infrastructure crumbles around us. That is the hearing that we should be having today. Unfortunately, I fear the intent of this hearing is only meant to further a purely partisan agenda and will not, it will not make Americans Safer.

[Senator Rand Paul]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The accusation that the committee has denied access to the minority to records is categorically false. This is the most transparent investigation in the history of Congress. We actually created a website and we put all of the information on the website. It continues to operate. The reason it hasn't been accessed is no Democrat ever signed up for it. Not one Democrat. We told them the access, they never asked for the access code. They haven't been on the website because they have not cared about the investigation. It's the practice of this committee to swear in the witness. Dr. Fauci, please stand and raise your right hand. Do you swear that the testimony will give before this committee will be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you God?

[Benny Johnson]

Here we go. Here we go.

[Senator Rand Paul]

Dr. Anthony Fauci, you're recognized for five minutes for your opening statement.

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

Member Peters, members of the committee, I served at the NIH for over 54 years, 38 of those as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Over that period, I proved that I believe in and respect the value of legitimate Congressional oversight. In fact, I testified before and or briefed Senate and House, Congressional, Senate and House committees well over 200 times. Over those 38 years, during and after the COVID pandemic, I have appeared multiple times for hearings in the Senate and the House, usually under oath, and sat for several days long, transcribed sworn interviews, answering questions about the very issues that are now the subject of this hearing. However, given Senator Paul's obvious obsession with calling for my prosecution, his repeated slanderous comments about me, and recently his publicly releasing my unredacted personal diary aimed at embarrassing and intimidating me, the only conclusion I can reach is that the sole reason he is calling me before this committee is to get me to say something, anything, that could vindicate his repeated public pledges that I end up, in his words, quote, behind bars, unquote. Any reasonable person who has followed his unhinged obsession with me would readily come to the same conclusion. Therefore, although it pains me to do so, because of the respect I have for the legislative branch of government and my decades long record of cooperating with Congress, under the advice of my attorneys, I will invoke my right under the fifth Amendment of the Constitution to refrain from answering your questions.

[Senator Bernie Moreno]

Thank you.

[Senator Josh Hawley]

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

[Senator Rand Paul]

Begin a round of questioning. Dr. Faust, your testimony today is held by a lawful subpoena. As you know, it's a crime under 18 USC section 1,100 to knowingly make a material false statement to Congress with a penalty up to five years of imprisonment. Understanding that you are under oath, the American people would like to understand your reasoning, your rationale for why you chose to fund the research in Wuhan. There have been, you know, intelligence agencies, the CIA, the FBI, the DOE, have all, all come to the conclusion that more likely than not, the virus came from the lab in Wuhan. And so we'd like to know what was the rationale, what was the discussion, how you know, what went behind the decision to fund the research in Wuhan? How did you come to the conclusion that a totalitarian country would be capable of doing this in a VSL2 lab, a lab that lacked the security? What was the reasoning? And are you Sorry, basically, for making the decision, would you, you know, given another chance, say, well, gosh, circumstances now, as I know, maybe it wasn't a wise thing. Can you explain to the committee why you chose to fund this dangerous research in China?

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

decline to answer based upon my rights

under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution.

[Senator Rand Paul]

In the red folder on your table is a copy of Section 192 of Title 2 of the U.S. code. Your counsel has been provided a copy as well. That section makes it a crime for a witness appearing under subpoena to refuse to answer any questions pertinent to the question under inquiry. Do you have that in front of you?

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

decline to answer based upon my rights

under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution.

[Senator Rand Paul]

Let the record record that the witness has refused to answer whether there's a folder in front of him based on his Fifth Amendment right. It is true that you're appearing under direction of our subpoena to provide testimony on matters under consideration by the committee, including The Origins of COVID 19, Risky Life Sciences research, and your tenure as a federal government employee. Additionally, you've been provided a full and unconditional pardon, dated January 19, 2025, for any offenses against the United States which may have been committed or taken part from January 1, 2014 through the date of the pardon, for a 10 year period arising from or in any manner related to your service as director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, as a member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, or the White House COVID 19 Response Team, or as Chief medical Advisor to the President. Have you refused this pardon or do you have any reason to believe this full and unconditional pardon, this grant of immunity, would somehow require you to plead the Fifth Amendment.

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

declined to answer based upon my rights

under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution.

[Senator Rand Paul]

Based on the facts presented, I'm going to direct you to answer the questions. The committee has issued a valid subpoena. They have requested your presence here. The questions are very pertinent to your decision making as head of NIAID as well as a chief advisor to the President. Do you still refuse to answer the questions?

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

decline to answer based upon my rights

under the fifth Amendment of the Constitution.

[Senator Rand Paul]

Doctor Fauci, were you ever made aware of gain of function research on monkeypox being conducted at the National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures center and back at Fort Detrick

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

on the advice of counsel, I

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

respectfully declined to answer based upon my

rights under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution.

[Senator Rand Paul]

Dr. Fauci, did the CIA ever transfer funds to NIH under an interagency agreement?

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

declined to answer based upon my rights

under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution.

[Benny Johnson]

Is insane. Dr. Fauci is a criminal.

[Senator Rand Paul]

Dr. Fauci, did the NIH ever conduct research for or in coordination with any element of the intelligence community, CIA, odni?

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

decline to answer based upon my rights

under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.

[Senator Rand Paul]

The reason why these questions are important is, you know, President Trump has done a ban, and we're glad that he did it. A ban on gain of function research. So we're better off than we were when we had an advocate serving as head of niaid, an advocate for gain of function research. There is still, though, a question, though, whether or not the intelligence community is adhering to that order. There's a question of whether or not gain of function research is still ongoing. And these are important questions the American people deserve to know. Dr. Fauci, have you been read into any classified Department of Homeland Security program and any prospective special access program concerning gain of function research?

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

decline to answer based upon my rights

under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution.

[Senator Rand Paul]

When we look at the research in China, the gain of function research that you've denied was gain of function. One of the things that startled the scientists when they saw Covid in the first couple of weeks was when they looked at the sequence of it, they said, oh, my God, there's a furin cleavage site in it. And in this particular family of coronaviruses, the sarbicoviruses, they'd never seen this before. They were also startled to look at it and see how it was coded for what the codons were, and to discover that the codons used out of 36 different possibilities, turned out to be the one that was commonly used in gene manipulation by scientists. Dr. Fauci, were the scientists at the Wuhan Institute of Virology capable of inserting a furin cleavage site into a coronavirus?

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

decline to answer based upon my rights

under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution.

[Senator Rand Paul]

So one of the experiments that was pretty common was they would take the backbone of a SARS virus and. And this would be a SARS virus, that the backbone itself wasn't that dangerous. But then they would dig through guano 300ft underground back guano, they'd find other viruses, unknown viruses. They take the S protein off of an unknown virus and stick it on a backbone, and then they would infect mice that have humanized cells. And they were trying to discover if they could create a virus that infects humans. Now, many people would say, well, gosh, that doesn't sound like a really good idea to create viruses that don't exist in nature to see they'll infect human cells. What if one escaped? What if you keep infecting this and do serial passage, you actually adapt the virus to be infectious to humans. So the question is Whether or not Dr. Fauci, the Wuhan Institute of Virology, was combining an S protein with one virus with the backbone of others. And could this lead to a virus? Maybe it wasn't even predicted, but could it lead to viruses that gained in function and then could lead to a pandemic?

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

declined to answer based upon my rights

under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution.

[Senator Rand Paul]

One of the arguments that you and others have made against this virus coming from the lab is it couldn't have come from the viruses that have been published. And nobody's really arguing that. I think from the very beginning, people acknowledged that the viruses that have been published are too far evolutionarily distant from a virus that could have become COVID 19. But what has never been acknowledged by the side who tries to call the other side a conspiracy theory, which is really something you don't usually see in a scientific debate. This is the first time I've ever seen an article printed in Lancet by your friends who called this a conspiracy theory. These are the kind of things you see as a screed on a political, you know, website. You don't really see this in science, but when they. They release this as being a conspiracy theory, you know, we're wondering that when you do this, when you combine these viruses and are able to grow them in humanized cells, whether or not this kind of risky research, whether or not, Whether you call it gain of function or not, whether you use the definition of gain of function, whether this kind of research should have had more scrutiny. I think in your house testimony, you testified that you never traveled to China and that you were unaware that anybody at NIH ever examined the labs, that you trusted the Chinese scientists. I think you've said that even recently that with your discretion, you trusted the Chinese scientists. The problem is that even in our country, we trust our scientists. They're good American scientists, probably Doing the right thing for America. But. But at the same time, we oversight to make sure it's not dangerous research, but we also investigate. The lab I believe Fort Detrick was one of our main labs was closed down in the last year or two because of research institute, a research incident that was dangerous with dangerous pathogens. And so the American people would want to know how could you approve this dangerous research in China? Say that you trusted the Chinese scientists and then in the end you had to admit that you'd never been there. None of your inspectors had ever been there. Dr. Fauci, had any of the labs where this dangerous research occurring? Were any American lab oversight or lab investigators? Did they ever appear in these labs to make sure they were safe labs?

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

declined to answer based upon my rights

under the fifth amendment to the Constitution.

[Benny Johnson]

Filthy coward.

[Senator Rand Paul]

So one of the main theories for those who have looked at this being created in the lab was the idea that could have come from a virus not previously published. Dr. Fauci, are you aware that Dr. Shi, who worked for the Wuhan Institute of Virology, was said to, and I think in her own words, to have over 100 viruses that had not been previously published that could have been a close enough relative to create COVID 19? Are you aware of that?

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

decline to answer based upon my rights

under the fifth amendment to the Constitution.

[Senator Rand Paul]

Under your testimony previously, when you denied ever having funded gain of function in China, it was so adamant as to be striking to leave no room for any interpretation of what is or isn't gain of function research. But there's another important question. Did you fund gain of function research in other biolabs around the world?

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

declined to answer based upon my rights

under the fifth amendment to the Constitution.

[Senator Rand Paul]

The one research project that we do know you did fund is the one that Ron Fouchier did. It's important to talk about because this sort of was the beginning of the debate over gain of function. This wasn't just me. I wasn't even aware of the debate 10 years ago. This was other scientists. Over 200 scientists at the Cambridge working group signed a protest because they didn't think you should fund the research and they didn't think it should even be published because it was sort of a roadmap as to how to make a bioweapon. So what they did was the avian flu. And this is important. It may be the most important question we get to here today, the avian flu has about 50% mortality for humans. The good news, though, about animal viruses is they don't infect humans very well. It will infect humans, but doesn't go human to human very well. Ron Fuchsia, with the money that you provided to him, did an experiment where he caused purposeful mutations to create a new virus, an avian flu that didn't just infect birds well, but actually infected mammals, well, went ferret to ferret in an aerosolized manner. People saw this and were aghast, you know, at the decision making process that you decided to fund this. But this is when, you know, the debate came about and you wrote in support of this in the Washington Post and you said, even if a scientist is bitten, even if a pandemic should occur, the knowledge is worth the risks. Do you still stand by that? Would you like to qualify at all whether or not the knowledge of gain of function is worth the risks? Particularly in this case, since we now know 15 million people died worldwide. Many people believe this came from the lab. Do you think that the risks really are worth the benefits for gain of function research?

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

decline to answer based upon my rights

under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.

[Benny Johnson]

Oh, man. Okay.

[Senator Rand Paul]

All right, we're going to finish with this question. And it's based really on that statement, that general statement and your support for gain of function, the idea that the benefits outweigh the risks. So there are many other people who disagree. They aren't politicians or not. I don't know what party they're in. David Relman is probably one of the most esteemed, and he is a scientist at Stanford. He, I think, has classified clearance. He's been a consultant to our government probably for a decade or more. And he's written about this publicly. He says the opposite. He said that the risks of this research do not outweigh the benefits. He said the risk we shouldn't do it. Richard Ebright, who's been involved in this debate for two decades, says the same thing. Does he really? We really shouldn't be doing this at all. There's a quote also by the Kevin Esvelt quote, is that at the very

[Senator John Fetterman]

end,

[Senator Rand Paul]

Kevin Esvelt, who's a CRISPR scientist at mit, also wrote about this gain of function. I implore every scientist, funder and nation working in the field please stop. No more trying to discover or make pandemic capable viruses. No more experiments likely to disseminate blueprints for plagues. Dr. Fauci would you like to at least answer this one question for us today and let us know whether or not you've changed your mind on whether or not the benefits of gain of function research outweigh the risks?

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

decline to answer based upon my rights

under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.

[Senator Rand Paul]

The chairman has denied your assertion of privilege and directed you to answer, but you nonetheless refuse and stand on privilege despite the existence of the pardon. The committee will have to consider after this hearing what appropriate action should be taken against you for the failure to testify after being directed to do so. It's against the law to obstruct an investigation of Congress. There will be repercussions to your refusal to testify today. Senator Peters.

[Senator Richard Blumenthal]

Wow.

[Benny Johnson]

Okay. I mean, hey, guys.

[Senator Rand Paul]

You're not recognized. You're not recognized. If you are unruly, you will be removed from the proceeding. You are not. You are not recognized. And you. You are not recognized.

[Benny Johnson]

Sir.

[Senator Rand Paul]

Sir. You are not recognized. You are not recognized. Security, we'll hold off. But you will respect these proceedings. You were told not to sit at the table. You insist on sitting at the table. And we told you you would not be recognized. You are not invited here for testimony. Sir, you are being disruptive. Would you behave this way in a courtroom? No, because the judge would put you in jail. I can't do that today, but I can have you escorted from the premises.

[Senator James Lankford]

So.

[Senator Rand Paul]

So I would say, sir, sit quietly and don't say another word.

[Senator Richard Blumenthal]

Wow.

[Senator Rand Paul]

I said sit quietly. You are not recognized. Another word and you're gone.

[Benny Johnson]

Get them.

[Senator Bernie Moreno]

Mr. Chairman, I'd like to hear what the. The attorney has to say.

[Senator Rand Paul]

He is not recognized by the committee or the chair. If he speaks again, he will be removed from the room. This testimony is from Anthony Fauci. This is not a game with his lawyers. He can advise. His lawyers can give him advice. He's got a half dozen here. They're all allowed to talk to him. All right, but the attorneys are not recognized. In fact, the attorney was told not to sit at the table, and he's not obeying that recommendation. There's a row behind you, sir. That's where you were told to sit, and you're not. And now you're disrupting the proceedings. And so, look, this is the way Anthony Fauci wants to be remembered. For a lawyer not listening to the rules, that's the way you want to be remembered, and that's what you're going to do. You are not recognized. Sir. Security, please remove him from the room.

[Senator Josh Hawley]

Wow.

[Senator Mike Lee]

Show it.

[Benny Johnson]

Show it. What is going on?

[Senator Rand Paul]

Let the record state that Dr. Fauci will still have the advice of the other half a dozen attorneys that he brought along today. Senator peters.

[Senator Bernie Moreno]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The COVID 19 pandemic is the first or the last public health crisis to impact our nation. In December 2022, I released a report that identified significant failures in our federal government's preparedness and initial response to COVID 19. This report contained 17 key findings. It's a. A large report which I have right here. It contains 17 key findings and corresponding recommendations, including the need to invest in sustainable domestic manufacturing capabilities for critical medical supplies, build the infrastructure needed to surge testing capacity for infectious diseases, and robustly fund public health emergency preparedness and responses across all levels of. Of government. Unfortunately, multiple administrations, including the current Trump administration, have failed to fund or to reform our health preparedness. This is something that I would hope the committee in the future would investigate. It needs to be taken a look at. It also feels like a new public health threat is hitting us every month. There's a foodborne parasite affecting thousands of people in Michigan and across the country.

[Benny Johnson]

Ladies and gentlemen, just a quick programming note on all this. You know, you have the Democrats now speaking. They're going to just glaze Fauci. Obviously, they love the pandemic, they love the vaccine, they love rigging the election, they love mass murder. Fauci is going to take the fifth, and he's going to say that for the next, like, five hours. So I'm going to run it through this. You know, I'm going to run it back with this Democrat, the, you know, co chair here for the minority, and then we're gonna get to Ron Johnson. He's a friend of the show. He's gonna ask some questions. We've already seen a couple of fireworks here, but I believe that Dr. Fauci, I mean, we'll see what he says when it comes to the Democrats if Fouche is going to answer. But I don't think he's going to answer to anyone, Democrats or Republicans. He's going to plead the fifth the entire time. His lawyer started to smart the mouth off and then he got removed by security. Very interesting. Let's see if there's more of that. But that's what our programming notes are going to be here, and then we'll. We'll see what happens after Ron Johnson. Okay, so let's, let's run it back.

[Senator Bernie Moreno]

Technology shutting, agencies responsible for tackling infectious diseases around the world firing thousands of federal employees with keeping our communities and our medicines and our food supply safe and injecting political appointees in what should be non political grant making functions. That is something this committee should be looking at. I could go on. I could go on on all the topics that we need to be looking at moving forward to protect this country. We're not doing that in this committee. That's what this committee was designed to do. It's what it has done throughout history. It has done it in a bipartisan way. We should get back to that and think about the future of Scrolling with

[Benny Johnson]

Hayley I am Hayley Carania.

[Senator Rand Paul]

I scroll with the homies here in

[Senator Marco Rubio]

the live chat because there's a lot

[Senator Rand Paul]

to scroll through on X, on Instagram,

[Senator Joni Ernst]

on TikTok, cutting through the clutter one hot take at a time.

[Senator Marco Rubio]

Love seeing you all in the chat before the show.

[Senator Rand Paul]

I tried to jump in just a

[Senator Marco Rubio]

few minutes before to say hello.

[Senator Rand Paul]

I love the chat interaction. Thank you for helping but I do

[Senator Marco Rubio]

it to get all the of the

[Senator Joni Ernst]

videos and all of the content that you won't find anywhere else scrolling with Hailey.

[Senator Rand Paul]

Just search that up and I will be there.

[Senator Joni Ernst]

Follow and listen on your favorite platform.

[Senator Bernie Moreno]

This country and keeping this country safe. When a crisis like COVID 19 strikes, we have an obligation to examine what went right and what went wrong to provide accountability for the American people. Congress certainly has done that between the House and Senate, nearly 20 different countries committees, 20 different committees, including this committee as I mentioned, have conducted oversight of the COVID 19 pandemic, conducting transcribed interviews, holding dozens of hearings and released more than 10 reports. Today's exercise, unfortunately is a stark departure from those largely bipartisan, legitimate efforts. The chairman has shut the minority out of participating equally in these efforts where withheld information selectively release documents, actions that completely undermine the credibility of this investigation. I will enter our record without objection, Mr. Chairman, a letter that I sent to you that detailed all of those areas that we have concern with and where we were shut out. Without objection, we'll provide other details as well. I think today's hearing unfortunately does real damage. It's turning tempting to turn one person into the scapegoat for a crisis that hundreds of officials across both the Trump and the Biden administration were responsible for handling. And it does so in a way that people that are facing death threats. This is only going to unfortunately deter other scientific experts from public service to understand that this is what they would have to go through as they provide their advice to us. We're not going to make our nation safer. And I hope that we can restore by doing these kinds of activities. And I hope that we can restore our legitimate bipartisan oversight that's gonna help strengthen our public health and pandemic preparedness and other homeland priorities. That's what this committee needs to focus on. It hasn't the last year and a half. Let's hope it does in the future. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

[Senator Rand Paul]

Senator Johnson.

[Senator Ron Johnson]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Dr. Fauci, I hope the American people listen very carefully to Chairman Paul's opening statement. I mean, it's a stunning indictment of the actions you've taken that have been so destructive to global health. I certainly understand why you needed a pardon. I certainly understand why, on the advice of counsel, you're not answering any questions. Because I think it'd be almost impossible for you to answer the questions truthfully without really demonstrating what you did, your culpability. Self incriminating. We have all of us prepared a lot. I've been deluged with questions asked. Dr. Anthony Fauci. There are so many legitimate questions that deserve answers and now you're not willing to provide those answers. So with my limited time, I'm going to talk about things that my investigation revealed that have not been adequately answered and quite honestly haven't been adequately covered by the legacy media. I'll kind of combine the questions into kind of one. But, you know, I certainly. Let's put up the last Covid chart. I was warned pretty early on about the dangers of the experimental gene therapy that you've called a vaccine, but it really falls on the definition of gene therapy. So I was going to ask you, I mean, were you carefully monitoring the safety surveillance systems like VAERS and V SAFE that literally were deluged with complaints? Currently, worldwide, there have been almost 1.7 million adverse events reported to the Vayer system. Of those, over 39,000 were deaths. And of those deaths, 24% occur on the day of vaccination within one or two days. 24%. Which by the way, just happens to be the same percentage that Erasmusen poll pointed out. The American public believe they. 24% of the American public believe they know somebody who died of the experimental gene therapy. So again, I was certainly interested in asking you whether or not you were following this as carefully as I was. It's not my responsibility to follow safety surveillance systems. But I did. And by the way, when I published this is actual government information when I published it. And people had me on their shows, they would be censored by Facebook. They'd be deplatformed. I think largely at the hest of the actions you took to make sure that disinformation wasn't spread. This wasn't disinformation. This was the truth. So I was going to ask you whether you knew Dr. Marks. I think you do know him. He's the head of cber. He's the man who is in charge of approving vaccines and surveilling for the safety. My investigation, investigation shows that on March 1st of 2021, less than three months after the emergency use authorizations, he was warned by Dr. Anna Sharsman, data mining expert, that the algorithm they were using to analyze Vayer's data was going to hide in mass safety signals. 26 days later and 3 months consecutively after that, they did data runs with a new algorithm that unmasked those safety signals. They showed dozens of safety signals, including sudden cardiac death, cerebral artery occlusion, basal ganglia, stroke, agonal rhythm, Bell's palsy and pulmonary infarction. Your diaries now show that you actually suffered pulmonary infarction in I think probably June 2021. I was just wondering, I was just wondering whether ever went through your mind that maybe that injection, all those boosters you took, might have caused that. And the question I was going to. And I'll ask this question. Were you ever made aware of the fact that Peter Marks was warned that the algorithm was going to hide the safety signals? And were you told that senior FDA officials were given dozens shown dozens of safety signals associated with the COVID injection?

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

declined to answer based upon my rights

under the fifth amendment to the Constitution.

[Senator Ron Johnson]

Next area I want to go through is in that same month of March 2021, an employee at NIH, Dr. Nath, led a team of researchers who were diagnosing and treating individuals who'd never had Covid or severely injured by the genetic therapy injections. Dr. Nath told those individuals, stay quiet. We want to make sure that we gather all the information and then release it to doctors so they can treat people like yourself. There was a concerted effort. I'll enter this in the record. It appears inside NIH to quash Dr. Nass Publishing that study, it finally was put on a prepense server telling no one. And I think about May of 2022. I think what's noteworthy about this is Dr. Nath told the injured participants that early treatment, early intervention was crucial for them to be treated. And yet within the NIH, they were questioning what was Dr. Nath doing? They didn't want to publish that because I want to take time searching for it because publishing it would create vaccine hesitancy, which is what we continue to hear time and time again, is the reason they didn't promote the. They lied about the safety signals they were seeing throughout the pandemic. I always pushed early treatment. We've got things in here where you were really concerned about Remdesivir because it was untested, but hydroxychloroquine, yeah, it was an improved drug, maybe some safety issues, but we had a great deal of experience with it. All of a sudden you had the surgisphere study those retract within two weeks because it was completely false, totally blew up the use of hydroxychloroquine. And then when it comes to ivermectin, which, by the way, because I had close contact by so many people, I referred them to doctors who actually had the courage and compassion to treat vaccine injured individuals. It works. But I was going to ask you whether you were involved in the FDA attack on Ivermectin. You had a interview on CNN on August 29th of 2021, where, again, I just don't want to take time to find the exact quote. But, you know, so there's no evidence, there's no evidence that ivermectin is helpful on that exact same day. And I've got the studies right here. There was a website that was tracking the random controlled studies. So here they are showing 60, 70% efficacy of ivermectin. The same day you say there's no evidence. There was all kinds of evidence. Loved ones had to go to hospitals, had to sue hospitals. Just would you try it? So I would want to know to what extent were you involved in sabotaging hydroxylchloroquine, ivermectin? And did you do that because you knew the only way you get emergency use authorization for these drugs, these experimental gene therapy, was if there was no effective treatment, you couldn't get the emergency use authorization. So is that why you help sabotage these cheap generic drugs in favor of remdesia, which, by the way, nurses. Are you aware the fact that nurses called it run Death is near.

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

decline to answer based upon my rights

under the fifth amendment to the Constitution.

[Senator Ron Johnson]

But let me end on this note because this, this just came to light. You know, we've got 11 million pages of documents. We also have other people who are in the room. But now we, you. You actually lied to your, you Lie to your. You lied to your own diary. On March 27, 2020, you wrote in your diary. To my surprise, yesterday, the POTUS sent a letter to governors outlining a plan to reopen county by county while monitoring the spread of virus in low risk counties. This was half baked and never shown to Deb or I before it was sent out. So we have evidence that in fact, you were fully aware of it and certainly approved, if not authored it. So I simply ask you, I mean, is that true? I mean, did you literally lie to your own diary? Did you know of that letter sent out to governors about reopening county by County? Again, Mr. Chairman, I'd ask you to ask the witness to just answer that one simple question.

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

decline to answer based upon my rights

under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.

[Senator Ron Johnson]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

[Benny Johnson]

Dirty scumbag.

[Senator Tammy Baldwin]

Dr. Fauci.

[Benny Johnson]

Dirty scumbag.

[Senator Tammy Baldwin]

I want to be thanking you for more than 50 years of service to this country at the National Institutes of Health. And it is unfortunate that you have been put in the position that you are in today. And it must be enormously frustrating to know that this hearing is designed to entrap you. It must be very frustrating for your attorneys to hear the chair's mischaracterization of the legal issues and posture that impact your decisions at the witness table today. Meanwhile, I was going to ask you a series of questions about things that are relevant right now to the people of the United States, about the state of public health in this country. Since President Trump took office in 2025, more than 4,500 cases of measles have been reported. That is more cases in the year and a half since Donald Trump has been president than were reported from 2000 to 2024 combined. Children are dying because there has been increased vaccine hesitancy fueled by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. The Secretary of Health and Human Services, and frankly, his entire administration. Thousands of people in the United States of America have been sickened by a foodborne parasite. And the outbreak is nowhere near under control as staffing at the FDA and other critical public health entities has been slashed by Russell Vogt and Elon Musk. Last year, the National Institutes of Health awarded 200. I think it's 201 fewer grants compared to the previous years. 207. I am corrected. Compared to previous years, as those grants were either canceled or delays, especially at the beginning of the Trump administration. I can tell you, I can tell my colleagues what the impact was on people in New Hampshire, on scientists In New Hampshire, on clinical trials in New Hampshire, where people's cancer treatment was interrupted because Elon Musk and Russell Vogt know better, they say, than the people at NIH about what to fund and because they did some sort of word search, it seems, for some of the grants. And boy, oh boy, if you were studying rural health in New Hampshire and trying to understand how to better engage people who need health care in rural America, that was off the table. America is losing researchers and scientists to other countries because researchers and scientists, highly trained, highly qualified, invested in often by the American taxpayer, are finding the hostility from this administration so strong that it interferes with their science. And they want to pursue science wherever that science takes them. I also sit on the Health, Education, labor and Pensions Committee. We have had a number of hearings with nominees recently to fill critical spots. One of those nominees is Dr. Erica Schwartz, a brilliant woman, medical degree, biomedical engineering degree, I think she also told us she has a law degree and a master's in public health. She, she was a two star admiral in the United States Navy, an experienced doctor. And yet when I asked her if she would push back at Secretary Kennedy if he instructed her to suspend the promotion of the flu vaccine, as he did at some point in the last few months, there's an email to prove it. She couldn't answer that question. She either could not, would not, or had been bullied into evading a question about whether she, as the director of cdc, would stand up to Secretary Kennedy, the most unqualified Secretary of Health and Human Services this country has ever seen. And more than unqualified, somebody who pursues conspiracy theories, degrades people with disabilities, and continues to promote disproved science. That's the state of health care and public health in this country right now. Not to mention the trillion dollars or so of cuts to the Medicaid program that is decimating health care in my state and decimating it around the country. Not to mention the refusal of my colleagues and this administration to extend critical tax cuts for people who are trying to afford insurance on the Affordable Care Act. I just was at one of my community health clinics and they are reporting fewer and fewer people coming in for care, disrupting care because they can no longer afford health insurance. And that is impacting, of course, the revenue stream to the community health clinic, their ability to hire and pay people, their ability to take care of their community. That's what I wish we were having hearings about in this committee and in the HELP committee. That's what I wish we were trying to address in a bipartisan way. But instead we are here in an attempt to entrap you because you had a distinguished career trying to put Americans public health first. With that, I Yield.

[Senator Rand Paul]

Senator Lackford.

[Senator James Lankford]

Mr. Chairman, thank you. Dr. Fauci, thanks for coming today. I know you're invoking your fifth amendment right, which you have the right to be able to do constitutionally, but thanks for coming and be a part of this. There are a lot of issues and a lot of questions that have come up and hopefully in some day in the future, we'll be able to get all this clarity to be able to pull together. There were over a million Americans that died from COVID You know that well, you were tracking the numbers literally every single day. Those affected and those that died from the earliest days. There are a lot of lessons that we've got to learn from this that we should put into history to be able to determine what happens in the future.

[Benny Johnson]

Lankford is such a future.

[Senator Josh Hawley]

Wow.

[Senator James Lankford]

How do we deal with something like

[Benny Johnson]

this again, sitting there glazing fouch.

[Senator James Lankford]

Uncharted territory for everyone. But I would tell you, countless families, including my own, watched a loved one die behind glass or through a screen because we couldn't get access to him.

[Benny Johnson]

This is why we children, school Republicans

[Senator James Lankford]

like this people miss their prom scum or graduation ceremonies. There are lots of things that happened that dramatically changed the future of the country. The mental health issues that we have continued to deal with from the isolation have been profound. Even something as simple as children that wore masks or around adults wearing masks for all that time are slower in learning language now because they couldn't watch someone's lips moving. And so they're slower in that. Amazingly enough, churches in places of worship were forced to be closed down. There were even churches that met where the pastor preached in the parking lot. And the congregants all met in their cars with windows up and police came and scattered them and said, you can't be here. The simple act of social distancing became an issue. As everyone guessed, what's the right distance to be away from someone else? Literacy rates have declined. All these things are results, not to mention the loss of lives and the health experiences that have been out there for many Americans. So there are legitimate questions. I wanted to be able to raise some of those, to be able to walk through some of this because it has been very, very challenging. As we've gone through some of your notes and your diary and other things that are out there, we're trying to be able to pull Bits and pieces of things to be able to learn lessons. On May 6, 2020, you wrote, that time, I had a conversation with Robert Redfield, as you know well was then the director of CDC, about the fact that greater than 1 million children worldwide have missed their measles vaccination because of the shutdown. You stated this is terrible and needs to be addressed, since on that basis alone there would be far, far more excess deaths from measles among children than coronavirus deaths among children. I need to bring this up to the tf, the task force. Did you ever have an opportunity to bring up the potential of measles deaths among children and infection rate going around the world from measles based on the fact that so many children would not get their measles vaccine because of the shutdown?

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

I'm sorry, Senator, but on the advice

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the fifth

amendment to the Constitution.

[Senator James Lankford]

That is your right to do. One of the big issues is really coming up is on the lab issue. This was greatly discussed about whether this came from a lab or whether this came from nature. There are obvious issues and differences between the two. To be able to know this, you had a lot of conversation on this. Scientists around the world were in conversation on this. There were different statements that you even made in your private notes and your public notes on it. In January 26th of 2020, this is before we had our, even our first tragic death of coronavirus in the United States. You wrote, it now appears using EPI data that the genomic data, the first infection was in early December and was not connected to the market, which was. Was the big rumor that was out there is this wet market in China. We know the market was not the source. It was the amplifier. On January 31, you wrote about a phone call. You wrote, the people in the phone, on the phone felt the mutations around the furine cleavage site of the spike protein could not have occurred naturally since it would require an evolutionary jump that they found nowhere in bat isolates. They bring up the possibility this could have been deliberately inserted and either accidentally released or. Or deliberately released by a crazy person in the lab. The former being the most likely. February 1st, same year, 2020. This is again still before our first death. There was not total agreement about the likelihood of deliberate insertion. Ron said he was. He was sure that this could occur naturally and we should not waste our time and divert our effort to pursue this. This is expected of him since he was the original gain of function person with Yoshi Also, Christian was withdrawn. The rest felt deliberate insertion was possible. And given the fact that Dr. Jingling Shi the University of Wuhan has been working for years in gain of function in coronaviruses to allow adaptation of the spike protein to bind to the human ACE2 receptor, we could not let this go. That's a remarkable statement for February 1st of 2020 when there hadn't even been the first death here. But we knew something was moving. You knew well that something was moving. You identified February 1st before any of us had ever heard of the Wuhan Lab. Not only the Wuhan lab in the conversation, but literally the scientists that you named in your own notes the lead scientist that was there. It's interesting to me on that. And the questions I was going to ask you was just your background and knowledge about the Wuhan lab and Dr. Sheehan and all the details. I'm aware of where you have been. On trying to be able to plead your fifth amendment right, which is your right to be able to do, but also want to be able to find out some facts to be able to help us for the future. On this, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in May of 2020 put out a classified document that has only been recently unclassified on this, that had this statement. We assess all the necessary conditions for an accidental release of a laboratory modified coronavirus. Specifically a coronavirus adapted to recognize human cell receptors were present at the Chinese Wuhan Institute of Virology in mid to late 2019. Now the question that I had for you is this is May 27th of 2020. This is the report that most people will see is this. I have clearance. I serve on the Intelligence Committee. I've actually read this complete document unredacted. My concern is, were you given the ability to see this document unredacted based on your position, were you able to see this and to be able to get this information? I could. I could see it and I know what's here. Everybody else just has their conclusion at the beginning of it, not this. My question to you was going to be, did you have access? Because it's important for the future that people in your position do have access to this kind of information and insight. Is there any way you could answer that question? Were you able to give access to this data?

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

declined to answer based upon my rights

under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.

[Senator James Lankford]

You wrote on January 26th of 2020, we should be allowed to send our CDC epidemiologists to China to work with them. So they could see the data firsthand. You also wrote in February 12, 2020 that you had great concerns about the World Health Organization because they depends greatly on China and as you stated, often bows to them. This is a really important issue that we've got to resolve for the future. It's not just our cooperation with Chinese scientists. It's our acknowledgment that China covered up their data, wouldn't allow our scientists to be able to come in. They cleaned up the wet market, they cleaned up the other areas. They wouldn't allow you to get access to all the other scientists there, including their health records, what happened to them, or even all the sequencing that they had done in advance. For the future of our research and our cooperation with any scientists around the world, I think it's really important that we resolve. If we're going to fund research and cooperate with you, we've got to have certain things from you. If things go sideways, we've got to have access to all information in all places. You were noting not only that China was affecting the World Health Organization and that China was bending them to their will. And so the World Health Organization was putting out data that you saw, at least at that point, as being from a Chinese perspective, covering up what was going on with. But you also noted we weren't able to get access to all this information. We've got to be able to figure this out for the future, to be able to make sure that research that is done, we have access to all information. If something goes sideways at some point, which clearly it did at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, and that being, as was noted by many people, the only lab in the world that was doing research like this that had a lower standard of actually their security standards there than many other labs around the world, yet they were doing this very, very dangerous research. What can we gain and what advice could you give us to say in a future setting, we've got to make sure that we actually get information from people and we can be guaranteed that we're going to get that insight. Yes, sir.

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

decline to answer based upon my rights

under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.

[Senator James Lankford]

I yield back,

[Senator Rand Paul]

Senator Blumenthal.

[Senator Richard Blumenthal]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to go back to the dark days of the coronavirus pandemic, one of the darkest days or times in our history. Hospitals were overflowing. Navy medical ships were docked in the Hudson River. Emergency rooms were forced to into unprecedented triaging. During the worst week of the pandemic. Which happens to have been the last week of President Trump's first term. More than 25,000Americans died of COVID 19. Easy to forget those dark days. But for the past 18 months, the Trump administration has been engaged in a campaign to rewrite this history. And today's proceeding, I fear, is part of that effort. One of the darkest days in our Senate's history. The Trump administration has launched a baseless set of smears against vaccines that help pull us out of that public health crisis. Vaccines that are undoubtedly President Trump's greatest accomplishment. It has slashed funding to local public health departments that were on the front lines of the pandemic. And those health care workers are heroes. It has disparaged those heroes as woke or wasteful. And it has used a politicized Department of Justice to target the researchers who helped us track and understand the novel virus. Today's hearing is another page in that playbook. Sadly, tragically, Dr. Fauci, you've spent five decades in public service, including nearly four decades in leadership at the National Institutes of Health helping to conquer COVID 19. But also HIV, swine flu, Zika, Ebola and other epidemics with real life results saving human lives. Put aside all the flowery rhetoric that we hear in the United States Senate. Dr. Fauci has saved lives, as have public health officials in the United States and throughout the world. And today we are demeaning and degrading their life saving service. Republicans are eager to rebrand you as a villain in order to distract from their own failure to protect Americans from soaring health care costs. They've been rising astronomically in the last couple of years. And from unsafe food which has caused cyclospora to spread and resurgent measles as a result of the anti vaccine policy. This hearing is the culmination of a years long crusade which started more than six years ago when Dr. Fauci dared to contradict President Trump. The campaign to vilify you, Dr. Fauci is just one part of this larger campaign against science and facts. A campaign that has made Americans less safe. It is shameful that in a country like ours, a dedicated public service like Dr. Fauci has experienced persistent threats to his life since the pandemic. Because of the lies that are told about him, his attorney has been gagged, thrown out of this hearing room. But he has written a letter to the chairman that is an explanation for the reasons why Dr. Fauci is in fact invoking his constitutional right. It is a right, and I would ask that this letter from David Shirtler and Danny Onato be made part of the record. If this.

[Senator Rand Paul]

Without objection,

[Senator Richard Blumenthal]

his attorney has also issued a statement within the last half hour. I believe that sets forth again the reasons that he is here to help protect his clients rights. And I would ask that that statement be made part of the record as well. Mr. Chairman.

[Senator Rand Paul]

Without objection.

[Senator Richard Blumenthal]

Let's be very clear. The Fifth Amendment is a right of everyone appearing before an authority like this one. It should be respected and the reason that Dr. Fauci has invoked it in the words of his attorney, quote, during and after the COVID 19 pandemic, Dr. Fauci appeared at least a dozen times for congressional hearings in the Senate alone in answer to questions about the very issues on which you purport to seek information. He has been thoroughly transparent and consistent in providing factual information to Congress and he is deeply familiar with the processes and protocols of sharing information with the legislative branch and then referring to the Chairman. This years long public crusade against Dr. Fauci makes one thing clear. This is not a serious effort to seek information from Dr. Fauci. Fauci in a transcribed interview for a valid legislative purpose. You are single mindedly fixated on Dr. Fauci seeing Dr. Fauci prosecuted for imaginary crimes and you are so invested in that outcome that you have created a personal brand around it. Those are the words of his attorney and he cites as well the statements of the Chairman which indicate a clear intent that the result of this proceeding be a prosecution. Quote, the power of some of us must be used for good. Like putting Fauci in jail. That's from December 23, 2025. I want to give him a subpoena and a jail cell. Also from December of 2025. The first was 2024. Those kinds of statements by the chairman of a committee in tweets certainly provide a well founded fear that the proceeding underway is simply an effort to trap Dr. Fauci in some kind of criminal wrongdoing. That is not the purpose of a Congressional hearing, not the valid purpose of a congressional hearing. During some of the dark days in this body. Under Senator Joe McCarthy it became standard operating procedure to seek that kind of prosecutorial objective. We should not be part of a rerun of that kind of effort. This attempt to rebrand one of the most challenging times in our nation's history is a short sighted act of desperation that will leave us less prepared for the next pandemic. It is an insult to the memory of more than 1 million Americans who died from COVID 19. If there are valid Scientific questions about the origins of this pandemic, COVID 19, about the kinds of steps that were taken to counter it, about the need for more preparation. They should certainly be addressed, but not in a show trial, not as part of a continuing vendetta against a single individual. And unfortunately, I fear that is what we are seeing today. America deserves better. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

[Senator Rand Paul]

In no courtroom in America can you have your witness plead the Fifth Amendment. Then your attorney gets to testify. That's what that letter is. The attorney's complaining and testifying, saying he didn't do it. The prosecution's unfair. You don't get to do that. That's one thing you give up when you take the Fifth Amendment. You say, I'm not going to testify. I'm not going to give you any information. You don't then get to put your lawyer forward to justify it. He can do it in the press, but you can't come and testify. He was not invited to testify and he was out of order. And it was appropriate to have him injected.

[Senator Mike Lee]

Senator, Chairman Paul, thank you for doing this. I think I know in my state, people have been asking questions about Dr. Fauci for years. So, Dr. Fauci, your entry is made clear that you love being a hero, a celebrity, and here had the eyes of the world upon you. You loved every newspaper profile, every photo shoot, every fancy dinner with the elites. To many Americans who lost family members, who lost trust in our federal government, you're not a hero. Unfortunately, you're a villain. You made yourself the story and abandoned the American people to serve your own ego. To begin, I'd like to talk about your relationship with David Morenz. He was the senior Advisor in the NIAID on Office of the Director, your office, for 16 years. He was your friend. He was a frequent guest at your house. You reportedly co offered over 50 scientific articles with him. You turned to him first. Right after COVID 19 first occurred, earlier this year, the Department of Justice charged him with conspiracy against the United States in addition to other charges as part of conspiracy to conceal information and falsify records to suppress alternative theories about the origins of COVID 19. Now you've publicly ticked this man to the curb saying Dr. Moranz was not an advisor to me on institute policy or other substantive issues. So let's start with the use of personal Gmail accounts and Dave Moranz relationship with Peter Dasich. David Moranz tells Peter Dasich, president of Equal alliance, and you've got this in front of you. It's exhibit one. It's already in the record as part of this it says, quote, P.S. i forgot to say that there's no worry about FOIA. I can either send stuff to Tony on his private Gmail or hand it to him at work or as house. He is too smart to let colleagues send him stuff that could cause trouble. Dr. Fauci, did Dr. Moren's relationship with Peter Dasich concern you? Yes or no?

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

declined to answer based upon my rights

under the fifth Amendment to the Constitution.

[Senator Mike Lee]

Did Dave Morantz ever bring documents to your house?

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

declined to answer based upon my rights

under the fifth Amendment to the Constitution.

[Senator Mike Lee]

Do you ever receive a text about your work at NIAID to your personal cell phone?

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

declined to answer based upon my rights

under the fifth Amendment to the Constitution.

[Senator Mike Lee]

Did any text about your work at NID that went to your personal cell phone ever become part of federal records?

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

declined to answer based upon my rights

under the fifth Amendment to the Constitution.

[Senator Mike Lee]

Did you maintain a personal email account while serving as Director?

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

declined to answer based upon my rights

under the fifth Amendment to the Constitution.

[Senator Mike Lee]

Did you ever receive work related communications on that Gmail account from David Morenz?

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

declined to answer based upon my rights

under the fifth Amendment to the Constitution.

[Senator Mike Lee]

Did you preserve any work related communications on that Gmail account from David Morenz?

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

declined to answer based upon my rights

under the fifth Amendment to the Constitution.

[Senator Mike Lee]

Did Dave Morans ever provide you with documents outside of those two ways that would violate NIH policy for four year compliance?

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

decline to answer based upon my rights

under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.

[Senator Mike Lee]

Now let's look at two other communications you emailed Dave Moretz on January 26, 2020. Quote, it is important that I speak with you tonight. Please call me at home. This is part of Exhibit 2 that you have in front of you. This email sent the same day, the exact same day you write in an internal document, quote, now we know the market was not. Would you call the origins of COVID 19 a substantive issue?

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

declined to answer based upon my rights

under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.

[Senator Mike Lee]

Did you discuss COVID 19 origins with DeMarantz on this phone call?

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

declined to answer based upon my rights

under the fifth Amendment to the Constitution.

[Senator Mike Lee]

Now let's take a closer look at the last time you testified before Congress. This is part of what you have in front of you is Exhibit 4, which is part of the record. In June 2024, you testified to Dr. Moran's, quote, was not an advisor to me on institute policy or other substantive issues. Furthermore, his office is located in a different building from that of the NIAID director, unquote. Is that still your testimony today?

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

decline to answer based upon my rights

under the fifth Amendment to the Constitution.

[Senator Mike Lee]

So today under oath, your testimony remains that Dr. Moranz was not an advisor to you on institute policy or substantive matters.

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

decline to answer based upon my rights

under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.

[Senator Mike Lee]

I've got Exhibit 5, which you have in front of you. On October 24, 2021, David Moranz texted you to provide information about an advocate for the controversial EcoHealth alliance grant. You thank him and tell him you will check the information. Would you agree that this shows an advisory relationship between David Moranz and yourself?

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

decline to answer based upon my rights

under the fifth Amendment to the Constitution.

[Senator Mike Lee]

Do you agree that you two are discussing a substantive issue?

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

decline to answer based upon my rights

under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.

[Senator Mike Lee]

If documentary evidence establishes that Dr. Moran's advise you regarding EcoHealth Alliance Covid origins or grant policy, then your June 2024 testimony would have been inaccurate, correct?

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

decline to answer based upon my rights

under the fifth Amendment to the Constitution.

[Senator Mike Lee]

Is there any document in your possession today that would contradict your prior congressional testimony?

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

declined to answer based upon my rights

under the fifth Amendment to the Constitution.

[Senator Mike Lee]

Have you deleted, destroyed or instructed anyone to destroy records after learning Congress is investigating these matters?

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

declined to answer based upon my rights

under the fifth Amendment to the Constitution.

[Senator Mike Lee]

Are you aware of anyone who did?

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

decline to answer based upon my rights

under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.

[Senator Mike Lee]

As you know, Dr. Mansdale faces charges related to destroying records while you distance yourself from him. Is that fair to a decades long friend?

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

declined to answer based upon my rights

under the fifth Amendment to the Constitution.

[Senator Mike Lee]

When is the last time you spoke to him?

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer. Based upon my rights under the fifth

amendment to the Constitution.

[Senator Mike Lee]

In hindsight, are you disappointed how you handle Covid? Do you have any regrets?

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

decline to answer based upon my rights

under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.

[Senator Mike Lee]

Dr. Fauci, I want to close with this. Here's how you impacted my family and people close to me. I have daughters with children. You can't imagine the questions they had around vaccines for their kids and themselves. And the pressure, the unbelievable pressure to make the right decision for their health. I can tell you, pregnant women who worked with me were so scared because every time they went to the doctor, they were told something different about taking the vaccine. And you caused this. Imagine being a mom trying to protect their kids or an expectant mother trying to figure out what to do. Every three weeks, a doctor tells you a new set of guidance on a vaccine. The haphazard information you released and pushed on the American people with little research is appalling. And why there is so little. There's. There's so much distrust in our institutions today. That trust is crucial to public health. And you, more than any person or event in my lifetime, have destroyed that trust for millions of Americans. You lied to hundreds of millions of people amid the worst public health crisis in a century. You failed to follow your own guidance. You forced people to watch their loved ones die alone over the phone. It's just disgusting. Destroyed the federal government's credibility when it comes to public health. We have entire generations of Americans who rightfully so, do not trust your institution to keep people safe because of you. This has destroyed decades of progress and lifetimes of work because you want to fuel your own ego and be the center of attention. What would you do differently, knowing what you know today, Dr. Fauci?

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

decline to answer based upon my rights

under the fifth amendment to the Constitution.

[Senator Mike Lee]

All the evidence is right here. And you still can't bring yourself to tell the truth or apologize because you received an auto pin pardon from a staffer in the Biden White House. If we have another pandemic tomorrow, millions could die because of what you did. What you did to make Americans lose trust in their government when it comes to medicine and health care. How many families have you apologized to had to watch their loved ones die alone? You breached public trust, and now you're hiding behind a fraudulent pardon. Your legacy will not be as a man who has saved America for Covid, but as a man who destroyed the public trust in America's public Health institutions exchange for five minutes of fame. This is how history will remember you.

[Senator Rand Paul]

I yield back, Senator Kim.

[Representative Ritchie Torres]

Thank you, Dr. Fauci, for coming on out in front of this committee. I know it's not what you would want. It's not what you deserve. I just want to say, and start by just saying thank you to you for your service to this nation. I didn't know much about you prior to the pandemic. I came to learn about you from however many Americans did. But I also had the opportunity to talk to you and engage with you as someone who is member of the Select Committee on the Coronavirus Crisis over in the House of Representatives when I learned about your background. 38 years as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, appointed by President Reagan, served under seven presidents, four Republicans and three Democrats. I admire that greatly. I myself had a chance to serve in the executive branch, serving government under both a Republican president and a Democratic president. And I believe that we need more of that, more of that type of work, a place where we can understand our jobs not as coming from a place of partisanship and politics, but that of just public service. And right now, I feel the hyper partisanship growing in this country in dangerous ways. I feel it much more present here on the Hill than I did back when I served as a nonpartisan career public servant at the State Department. And I worry about it. I worry about what kind of trajectory we're on as a country and what this causes when it comes next for public service and those willing to step up for our nation. And it's not just in the attacks, but we see it brought out with the cuts to funding, to the firing of federal workers, to the demonization of their motivations, people calling our public servants criminals, thinking that they are there solely to undermine others that are trying to engage. I look at it right now, it's not just that the people are being attacked, our public servants being attacked, but that it's undermining the very nature of the work of governance. These cuts to HHS funding, to NIH funding, to the grants, cuts, to the researchers doing the critical work to find cures and medicines, these firing, these cuts, they're creating a chilling effect, honestly, a chilling effect for the next generation of people who might consider stepping up to serve our nation, to be the next generation of researchers who now are wondering whether or not this is the right thing for them to do at a time when they see some of their colleagues or those that they looked up to being attacked, their funding being cut Researchers that I talked to who are now either leaving the country or considering leaving the country to do their work because of the sheer unpredictability of America, that this nation, so great, so powerful, has now been crippled with this sense of unpredictability and unreliability. That is not the type of country that I hope we strive to be. I've raised this because these attacks upon Dr. Fauci, it's not just about him. It's sending signals to others, others who are thinking about serving our country, our scientists, our doctors, our healthcare professionals, our researchers, trying to show to them that if you don't get in line with the politics, that you will also potentially be subject to attacks. From the work that he has done, from hiv, AIDS to Ebola to Covid, we've seen him try to engage in these crises. They're not easy, especially when it's a novel disease, when you don't know what comes next. A lot of unknowns, having to make decisions without the full breadth of knowledge we always wish we had in hindsight. But there is nothing perfect, no perfect clarity when it comes to pandemics, when it comes to crises. I worked in national security and wars and crises. I made judgment calls, gave my best advice to generals, to ambassadors, even to a president. Did I get it all right? No. Did I do my best? I did everything I thought I could with the information that I had. The public servants, they do this work because they love this country and that they strive to improve it. It's not an easy job, but it is, because there is so much at stake in our country. But these public servants do it because they are in the arena. I just want to end by just reading a portion of this because I think it's important, as we're thinking about how to be able to treat public servants through this country, to think through this. And in the words of Teddy Roosevelt, saying it's not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strive valiantly, who errs, becomes short again and again, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumphs of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat. Thank you for your service, Dr. Fauci.

[Senator Rand Paul]

I yield back, Senator Holling.

[Senator Josh Hawley]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Well, nothing says honesty like taking the Fifth, huh, Doc? Let's try something. What day of the week is it today?

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

declined to answer based upon my rights

under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.

[Senator Josh Hawley]

What color tie are you wearing?

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of council, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

declined to answer based upon my rights

under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.

[Senator Josh Hawley]

What color is the carpet in front of you?

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

decline to answer based upon my rights

under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.

[Senator Josh Hawley]

Let's just get one thing straight. You don't have any rights under the Fifth Amendment because you've been pardoned. As you very well know, as the Supreme Court has been clear for a century and more. Brown versus Walker, 1896. When he has been pardoned, he may not stand upon his privilege. You know that. Your lawyer is sitting behind you now, shifting nervously in their chairs. They know it. This isn't about the Constitution. This isn't about the law. This is about contempt. Contempt for this body and contempt for the American people. But I think I know why you're doing it. It's because you don't want to answer questions. It's because you did all kinds of terrible things. It's because during the pandemic, you got rich, didn't you? You got rich while people were dying. Hundreds of thousands of Americans. Over a million in the end. And you were getting rich. And not only were you doing that, you were using federal employees with taxpayer money to apply for and solicit cash prizes for you personally, for cash prizes totaling over a million dollars. You did all of that during the pandemic, didn't you? That's a question.

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

declined to answer based upon my rights

under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.

[Senator Josh Hawley]

You remember Greg Folkers? Who was that?

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

declined to answer based upon my rights

under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.

[Senator Josh Hawley]

Your chief of staff is the answer. Do you remember Patricia Conrad? Who was that?

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

decline to answer based upon my rights

under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.

[Senator Josh Hawley]

She was your personal assistant. And what were these individuals doing in the depth of the pandemic in November of 2020, when millions of Americans were suffering from COVID What were they doing? I tell you what they're doing. Folkers was on your behalf soliciting and gathering information for a cash award. Let's look at it. We've got his email right here, right over my shoulder, Folker says, I'm working on this nomination for the Dan David award for Fauci. We need to beef up the COVID part. Do you have language in the can that you can share that delineates how we responded in new ways to Covid? He sends this to multiple federal employees. What was the Dan David award? Do you remember, Doc,

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

on the advice of counsel, I respectfully declined to answer

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

based upon my rights under the Fifth

Amendment to the Constitution.

[Senator Josh Hawley]

It was a $900,000 cash award. $900,000 cash award. And he got it because he used federal employees to get it. And this wasn't the only award, was it, Dr. Fauci? In fact, you applied for and received at least eight other federal cash prizes on federal time using federal employees and federal resources. You here they are over my shoulder. Besides the Dan David Award, you've got the Partnership for Public Service, you've got the Adelson Prize, you've got the Smithsonian Award, you've got the National Academy of Medicines Award, you got the CDC Foundation. In fact, you turned your staff into a full time application machine. You actually wrote to people and said, do you think maybe I'd qualify? And you got cash for all of this. And it wasn't just one or two employees, was it? In fact, you use eight separate federal employees on federal time using federal resources to solicit cash awards. Isn't that true?

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

decline to answer based upon my rights

under the fifth amendment to the Constitution.

[Senator Josh Hawley]

Here they are right over my shoulder. Here's all of them. The people that you use federal employees so that you could go and get cash money. And the most hilarious part is that you weren't content to even dragoon them into applying for all of these cash awards. You then have them go out to the ethics agencies and ethics watchdogs and demand that you be able to get the money. That's right, we've got it. In your emails, your staff and employees on federal time using federal resources, being paid with federal dollars are soliciting cash for you. And then they're turning around and saying to the agency, we don't want just an answer. We want to get to yes. Because Fauci wants the money. He wants it. We want to get to yes. And yes takes time. This is your chief of staff again using federal email to pressure the agency's own ethics people so that you could get money so that you could get rich. And it violated the law, didn't it, Dr. Fauci? Didn't. Violated the law. Didn't is a question you can answer. Go ahead.

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

decline to answer based upon my rights

under the fifth amendment to the Constitution.

[Senator Josh Hawley]

Federal law, as you very well know, prohibits the solicitation of cash awards or other personal benefits for federal employees. And it certainly prohibits using your own employees to do this. 5 CFR section 2635, 205B. It says it right there in black and white. You cannot use federal resources, federal dollars, federal employees, federal offices, federal email, federal time to solicit cash awards. And you did all of it. And the worst part is thousands of people were dying while you were doing it. You were supposed to be the nation's doctor and you're playing one on tv, but this is what you were doing with your time. Isn't that true?

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

declined to answer based upon my rights

under the fifth amendment to the constitution.

[Senator Josh Hawley]

Yeah, yeah, I can see why. I can certainly see why. You know what I can't quite figure out? Is that why you were so obsessed with it, because you're already rich. I mean, and your scheme worked here. I mean, your net worth now is north of $12 million. You, you got over a million dollars in cash awards during COVID During a 12 month, 24 month span during COVID A million bucks you knocked down in cash money using federal resources. Now you're worth more than $12 million. You've got a pension that in its first year paid out north of $400,000 a year. A million people dead. You're getting rich. A million people dead. You're using federal employees to. To get cash awards for you. A million people dead. And you're here taking the fifth because you don't want to admit that what really happened in all that time was a multi month, multi year course of self dealing. Isn't that true, Dr. Fauci?

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

decline to answer based upon my rights

under the fifth amendment to the Constitution.

[Senator Josh Hawley]

Yeah, well, silence is admission. And here's the real thing. At the end of the day, it wasn't just about the money really, was it? It was really about a power trip. I mean, through all of this, you want to be the most famous scientist in the world. You were so focused on getting every award and every drop of cash that you could. All because you wanted to be on tv. You wanted to be the sun God of science. You wanted to be the guy who was in charge of it all. You wanted to blam bass trump. You wanted to make sure that nobody else stole your spotlight.

[Senator Ron Johnson]

You to wanted.

[Senator Josh Hawley]

You wanted to be the guy. You had time to sit for InStyle magazine. Here's what you were doing with your time. You could sit for InStyle magazine, but you can't answer questions for the American people. You could sit for InStyle magazine, but you're here taking the fifth. You could sit for InStyle magazine and get a million bucks in cash awards. But now the cat's got your tongue. I bet he does. I tell you what. Here's my conclusion from all of this. This was really all about you the whole time. Somewhere along the way, you lost your way. You may have been a good public servant at one time, I don't know. But I can tell you from reading your emails now, from looking at what you did, how you used your employees, somewhere along the line, it became all about you. You became a narcissist and a megalomaniac and a liar. And you've lied to the American people and you've lied to this body. And you've disgraced your profession by doing it. You called yourself the most famous scientist in the world. You've done more to harm science than anybody in my lifetime. And I hope you'll go home and write that in your diary.

[Senator Rand Paul]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Senator Fetterman.

[Senator John Fetterman]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Dr. Fauci. I'm not here to perhaps attack you or defend or anything. It's really just more honestly I just want to acknowledge I have had members of my family die from COVID And now I also grieve for people that I've met that have lost their business through the pandemic and they'll never been the same. During the pandemic, I was the lieutenant governor. So we were in the middle of. Of all of that maelstrom, trying to find the right balance between protect life and protect the economics and for all of it. And I'm not sure if we got it all right or wrong. But without a doubt I can continue to question myself. One that I it's not about much more, your regrets. But I have one, and that is early on that there was the theory that the virus could have emerged from the lab. And early on that became like a right wing kinds of theory. And I thought it seemed to make sense now there was a really advanced lab that was close by and then you have this unknown virus out. But that became a very partisan thing. And now it seems now it's more and more emerging theory that that would have Come from the lab now. You know, I hope, I think, that the next time our nation's facing something like this, we are not become, you know, as I might have been blinded by the partisan idea that maybe the truth might come from a side that's different than you are. But I think we should really be willing to pursue truth.

[Senator James Lankford]

No.

[Senator John Fetterman]

No matter where that may have emerged, you know, after, for all of that. So. And I now see the. The remain back to the chair.

[Senator Rand Paul]

Thank you, Senator Moreno.

[Senator Josh Hawley]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And I will echo Senator Johnson's comments about your opening statement. Mr. Chairman, I think it was. It was dead on. Very, very well done. Mr. Fauci. Do you know who. David Shirley.

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

decline to answer based upon my rights

under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.

[Senator Josh Hawley]

Fifth Amendment of the Constitution. What does the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution say?

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

decline to answer based upon my rights on.

Under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution.

[Senator Josh Hawley]

No, I'm just asking you what it says.

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

decline to answer based upon my rights

under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.

[Senator Josh Hawley]

I'm going to give the Constitution to my aide. He'll bring it over to you so you can have it for future reference. I think it's something that every American should know. What the Constitution says. Do you know who wrote the Fifth Amendment?

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

decline to answer based upon my rights

on the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution.

[Senator Josh Hawley]

So you're invoking a right that you don't know who wrote it or what it says. Is that correct?

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

declined to answer based upon my rights

under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.

[Senator Richard Blumenthal]

Wow.

[Senator Josh Hawley]

All right, let me tell you who David Shurtler is for the audience because he was ejected by the chairman. He's a high profile criminal attorney. He's represented some really great people like Senator Bob Menendez, maybe. That's somebody who my Democrat colleagues may remember took gold bars as bribes from the Egyptians. And there's an article here in the Washington Free Beacon that talks about why you would hire a guy like Derver Shirtler. And the comment is, if you're in deep shit, that's who you call. Do you feel like you're in deep shit?

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

declined to answer based upon my rights

under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.

[Senator Josh Hawley]

Clearly, what you think today is that somehow you're above reproach. Somehow you feel like you don't need to Be treated like a normal American. Can you do me a favor in the audience and stand up? If, during the time of the COVID pandemic, you were called a racist for calling the virus a Wuhan virus or the China virus, if you thought the six foot rule was total crap, if you thought the vaccine wasn't something that you should take, if you thought it was outrageous the way the mass policy was rolled out, if you were fired from your job for not taking that vaccine, including members of the military, if you thought closing schools was catastrophically stupid, stupid. And that you thought that during these times, saying these things made you somehow a lesser human being, Doctor Frederick, you just turn around and look at the people behind you. You're not willing to do that. That's not a question. It's not a question to your lawyers. Not a question. It's a request. All you have to do is look up from your lawyers and look at the people who were absolutely shamed for saying what we know now to be the truth. You can't even look at them. That's a. That's a question. Are you able to look at them? You can sit down. The audience. There was a mom in Ohio during the depth of the coronavirus pandemic, decided to go to her high school football game for her son. They hadn't been out much. The kids had been learning at school, and then the school got shut down. They hadn't really gotten much out of that education. As any parent knew, that remote learning was no learning at all. But it was a Friday night. Her son wanted to go watch a buddy go play football. So they went to the stadium. They sat alone, far from everybody else. Just a mom, a dad, a few kids. They didn't feel they needed to wear masks because it was stupid, because they were outside. They all live together. They're not near anybody. Dr. Fauci, do you know what happened to that mom and that family?

[Senator Richard Blumenthal]

That's the question.

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

declined to answer based upon my rights

under the fifth Amendment to the Constitution.

[Senator Josh Hawley]

They were dragged out of that stadium and arrested. Those policies were put in place because you had moronic politicians that listened to the words of a megalomaniac who was more interested in having met a Kardashian than the suffering of the American people. And that is you. Your advice to communities like that, to idiotic politicians who enforce those rules, arrested that mom for watching a football game with her own family outside. When that story broke, I said to myself, I cannot stand Eileen on the side and watch this happen. It was about six years ago today that I decided I'm going to give up my businesses, sell them all, run for office, run through the United States Senate. Here I am sitting in front of you six years later saying, who the fuck do you think you were for doing that? It is a total disgrace what you did to this country. And if my Democrat colleagues are standing there defending you, I hope the voters, the United States of America, watch the clips of every one of you doting on a guy who is more interested in being a celebrity than saving American people. I will make it my mission to make certain that every single one of those Republic Democrats who did that will see that clip over and over and over again. Because defending there is no defense of what you did. You may have had a 50 plus year legacy of public service, but it ends in total and complete disgrace. So let me ask you an opportunity to answer one question. Will you apologize, just apologize to the people who you harmed through your actions. Will you say, do you have the dignity to just say you're sorry?

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

declined to answer based upon my rights

under the fifth Amendment to the Constitution.

[Senator Josh Hawley]

So you won't apologize to the military members who Joe Biden summarily dismissed from the military for not taking the vaccine?

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

declined to answer based upon my rights

under the fifth Amendment to the Constitution.

[Senator Josh Hawley]

Will you apologize to the business owners that lost their business, shattered their lives and they'll never recover?

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

declined to answer based upon my rights

under the fifth Amendment to the Constitution.

[Senator Josh Hawley]

Will you apologize to the moms who had to force their infant children, 2, 3, 4 year olds, to put masks on and what that did and how that traumatized those kids.

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

Under the fifth Amendment to the Constitution?

[Senator Josh Hawley]

Will you apologize to the family members of the people who died because they took your advice and not only got the first vaccine, but the five, six other boosters that they did not need.

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

To answer. Based upon my rights under the fifth

Amendment to the Constitution.

[Senator Josh Hawley]

Will you apologize to that mom from Ohio for being arrested for watching a football game with her family?

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

To the Constitution?

[Senator Josh Hawley]

So you didn't know who wrote the fifth Amendment? It's James Madison lived in this town. I can only wonder what he would think of somebody like you invoking his writings to shield culpability for the actions that you took. It's no secret why you have to hire the biggest dirtbag attorney on the planet because of what you did. I hope you're paying him well. And I hope that one way or the other, somewhere, sometime, you answer for your crimes.

[Senator Rand Paul]

Senator Ernst.

[Senator Joni Ernst]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for holding this important hearing today. Dr. Fauci, Americans haven't forgotten the tragic stories of people who lost loved ones during COVID and those that were denied a chance to say goodbye to their family members, that were in hospitals or residing in nursing homes because of the COVID 19 protocols. Americans haven't forgotten the mandates, the adverse reactions to vaccines, the government misinformation, social media censorship, hotlines to tattle on their neighbors, the forced school closures, the tragic rise in suicides, or those businesses that were forced to close during lockdowns. Americans haven't forgotten the hundreds of billions of dollars spent by taxpayers for Covid relief, stolen by fraudsters who bought royals, excuse me, Rolls Royces and yachts. These were taxpayer dollars. Americans have lost trust in science and government after the COVID response. Trust which will be incredibly difficult for us to gain back. Dr. Fauci, you said that the science was evolving and that your recommendations evolved with it. But Americans remember you as the public face of the coronavirus response, as one of the nation's most trusted voices. You urged policies you said were absolutely necessary, even when those policies came at an enormous human and economic cost. And Americans deserve answers about reports that you may have worked with others to pressure the President into adopting the slow the spread strategy and why you later sought an unconditional pardon for crimes you may have committed dating back to 2014. Dr. Fauci, in 2022 you had a taxpayer funded salary of $480,000 a year. You were in fact the highest paid federal employee in the entire federal government, even making more than the NIH Director and the President of the United States, according to now public documents. That was due in large part to your work on biodefense. Unreported is how NIAID spent over $1 billion from 2009 to 2026 in biodefic and influenza federal contracts and subcontracts. My office uncovered records on USASpending.gov that show from 2015 to 2020, NIAID paid out $515,418 in subcontracts to Harbin Veterinary Institute in Harbin, China, including $100,000 a few days after it opened a BSL4 bio lab in 2018. That very same institute was criticized for doing gain of function bird flu research in 2013. And yet you were funding them for years after that, sending US taxpayer dollars to China. These contracts, which we also traced to niaid show US Taxpayers gain of function researchers in the Netherlands and in Wisconsin funding the same folks whose controversial work led President Obama to pause this exact type of dangerous pandemic research. Dr. Fauci, did you know that the NIH's billion dollar Sears contract programs were funding gain of function researchers in China, the US and in the Netherlands?

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

decline to answer based upon my rights

under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.

[Senator Joni Ernst]

Dr. Fauci, Dr. Deborah Birx wrote in her book that you and President Obama's former CDC director were at a Saturday, March 14 March 14 we're at a Saturday, March 14, yes, 2020 meeting at her home two days before the president announced his 15 days to slow the spread effort. Your now released diaries said the meeting was a week before that. Dr. Burke said you all were trying to trap the President into having no other options. She wrote your plan was to quote, block any of the President's escape routes so quote, he'd have no choice but to agree to our flatten the curve measures. Yes or no, Dr. Fauci, did you try to block or trap President Trump into the slow the spread flatten the curve measures in March 2020?

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

decline to answer based upon my rights

under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution institution.

[Senator Joni Ernst]

When the COVID 19 virus broke out in Wuhan, China, you, Dr. Fauci, knew pretty much right away that NIH had funded Chinese labs, including those doing coronavirus research. There's email Traffic from early January 2020 where your staff was flagging for you that NIH funded coronavirus research at the Wuhan lab through EcoHealth Alliance. Yet few Americans knew we funded the Wuhan lab because the funding went through a sub award and was not reported to the public database like USAspending.gov as it should have been. Also, EcoHealth violated federal law by failing to report in its research papers how much taxpayer funding it spent on that research. At my request, the Government Accountability Office helped track down that 1.4 million of US taxpayer money that was sent to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, both by you, Dr. Fauci, and through USAID. But first it passed through EcoHealth alliance, which I helped to get defunded through the NDAA. Dr. Fauci, did you intentionally use subaward funding to obscure NIH funding of Chinese biolabs and coronavirus research?

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

declined to answer based upon my rights

under the fifth Amendment to the Constitution

[Senator Joni Ernst]

NIAID awarded multimillion dollar grants to a number of scientists shortly after they wrote publicly in the Proximal Origins paper that the COVID virus likely came from nature. Though documents Chairman Paul released last week show in in private, those same scientists were much more open to the virus being from a lab. In 2023, Representative Jordan insinuated that you basically gave a $9 million bribe in the form of an NIH grant to NIH funded virologists to say the virus likely was from nature. Dr. Fauci, yes or no? Did you reward the Proximal origin authors by giving them NIAID grants or contracts?

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

Decline to answer based upon my rights

under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.

[Senator Joni Ernst]

Dr. Fauci, we have learned that US coronavirus researchers at UNC shipped quote, humanized or transgenic mice to China by around 2017 for use in their dangerous coronavirus work. Under your NIAID, coronavirus researchers also used aborted baby body parts in mice research and taxpayers paid for them to do that. NIH funded coronavirus researcher Dr. Ralph Baric and his colleagues at UNC put parts of livers, thymuses and chunks of human fetal lung that they got from aborted almost 5 month old human babies. They put those parts in their research mice. They disgustingly named them BLTL mice and wrote they had created a quote sandwich of aborted body parts in the mice. Get it folks? Blt. A BLT sandwich. Your RML lab employees in Montana also ordered and used aborted baby body parts in their taxpayer funded research. An email show how they plan to use those mice for post Covid work. NIH funded putting aborted babies fingers and scalps off the heads of aborted babies and putting them into the backs of research mice. The scalps later grew fine baby hair in the mice. They even included those disgusting photos in their research paper that you funded. Not all of those were research on coronaviruses, but some were. Thankfully the current NIH director has said no more of this. Dr. Fauci, yes or no, do you think that human aborted parts should be put into mice for coronavirus research?

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

The advice of counsel, I respectfully decline

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

to answer based upon my rights under

the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.

[Senator Joni Ernst]

Mr. Chairman, would you direct the witness to answer the questions that we have been asking?

[Senator Ron Johnson]

You probably would if he was here, but I can direct it. But I think we understand his answer.

[Senator Joni Ernst]

We do understand that Americans are asking for accountability, Dr. Fauci, and your silence is very telling. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[Senator Ron Johnson]

Senator Moody.

[Senator Marco Rubio]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. You know I'm the most junior member of the senate here, showing from where I sit, I just got here last year. Many of you may remember I was the attorney general in Florida who fought back against the lockdowns, the school closures, the church closures, the everything to embrace sanity and science. We fought back, we got ridiculed for it. And we didn't just call people names. We actually empaneled a grand jury of people of all walks of life, all political persuasions. So that's how I came here. Fighting for a free state amongst states that had locked their own people down. We are now called the free state of Florida. And I believe our responsibility here is to make sure that government remembers the people are our bosses, that we report to them, that we're accountable to them. Government shouldn't operate for itself. Government operates on behalf of and for the American people. And anytime we get close to reporting back to our bosses about what government has done or how it's been abused or how individuals that are employed by the government had acted in their own self interest or against the interest of the American people, every time we get close, if we start uncovering outrageous fraud, we'll have a hearing and the tactics have been to not show up. So you'll have all of us over here trying to drill down on why we've been given money that actually works against American citizens. And no one shows up. Today there's. Well, nobody's here at the moment. Today there seems to be a difficult, a different tactic. Today we have Democrats showing up and trying to spin why we shouldn't even be having this hearing to report back to our bosses. As one said, today's hearing does damage. It will deter others from public service. Another said, this hearing is designed to entrap you. Another said, one fell all over himself flattering you, thanking you for your service multiple times, quoting man in the arena. Another said that we are demeaning first responders and today is a sad play in a repeated playbook or we're going after one man. I mean, all of their time was used on why we should not be having the hearing to report back to our bosses and give the people accountability. So I would like to talk about that because I believe that trust, the trust the American people place in our public health institutions and what happened to that trust during COVID is important because in a public health emergency they are asked to make extraordinary sacrifices based on advice given to them by the government that is supposed to be working for them. And for that system to work, the public public has to Be able to trust them, trust the people giving them instructions. That trust depends on candor. Would you agree with that, Dr. Fauci?

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

declined to answer based upon my rights

under the fifth amendment to the constitution.

[Senator Marco Rubio]

And when the evidence is uncertain, officials need to say so. When recommendations are based on assumptions rather than hard data, they need to say so. And when they get something wrong, they need to own it. And when the trust is lost and the consequences extend far beyond any single pandemic, the next time public health officials genuinely need Americans to listen, millions of people may simply ignore them or not believe them. And Dr. Fauci, you were undeniably the face of the federal government's Covid response. You said so yourself in your diary. You said, it's not hyperbole to say I've become the most famous and talked about person in the country. So I want to understand how we got here. Let's start at the beginning. On March 8, 2020, you appeared on 60 Minutes to discuss the spread of COVID 19. You were specifically asked to clear up the confusion and misinformation surrounding masks. You told the American people, right now in the United States, people should not be walking around with a mask. The interviewer immediately stopped you and said, are you sure of it? Because people are listening really closely to this. And instead of walking back or qualifying your statement in any way, you doubled down. There's no reason to be walking around with a mask when you're in the middle of an outbreak. Wearing a mask might make people feel a little better. It might even block a droplet, but it's not providing the perfect protection that people think it is. And often there are unintended consequences. People keep fiddling with their masks. They keep touching their face. Just a few weeks later, the CDC released its guidance recommending that Americans wear masks in public. You were asked to explain your original recommendation. You emphasized a very different consideration. You said, well, back then, the critical issue was to save the masks for the people who really needed them, because it was felt there was a shortage of masks. So I want everybody to sit with that. The critical issue driving your initial recommendation to the American public was scarcity, logistics, not medical evidence. When you told the American people there was no reason to wear a mask, what was your principal objective? Giving them an honest assessment of the medical evidence or discouraging them from consuming a scarce supply of masks?

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

decline to answer based upon my rights

under the fifth amendment to the Constitution.

[Senator Marco Rubio]

Well, unfortunately, that was Just the beginning of a broader pattern. Let's talk about the six foot distancing rule. In April 5, 2020 interview on CBS said every time I get to that podium in the White House briefing room, I always essentially plead with people, please take a look at those very simple guidelines of physical separation. And, and they're very, very clear, physically separate, six feet away. Yet when Congress finally asked you in 2024 what science supported that evidence, six foot distance rule for Covid, you admitted you were not aware of any studies supporting it. Incredibly, you said the six foot rule sort of just appeared and described it as an empiric decision that wasn't based on data. That rule had real consequences. Schools didn't open back up, businesses didn't open back up, churches didn't open back up. I could go on and on and on. And Americans were kept physically separated from one another during the most difficult moments of their lives. Many lost loved ones during that time. So Dr. Fauci, did you have any evidence to support a six figure foot separation rule when you gave that advice to Americans?

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

declined to answer based upon my rights

under the fifth Amendment to the Constitution.

[Senator Marco Rubio]

All right, well, let's look at the lockdowns then. By 2022, the consequences of prolonged COVID lockdowns on our children were clear. From delayed development to social isolation. Which is probably why you were asked in July 2022 whether you would recommend locking down schools again. And you said, first of all, I didn't recommend locking anything down. But now we have your diary and it tells a very different story from the one you told the public. And I will quote, I spoke with Bill de Blasio, the mayor of nyc, and convinced him based on what I was saying publicly in my conversation tonight, to close the NYC schools, he had already decided based on what I was saying on tv. I went on to tell him he should close the bars and restaurants in nyc and. And he said he would do this based on my recommendation. You even said that you told the President we should shut the whole country down. So Dr. Fauci, how do you square telling the American people publicly that you didn't recommend locking anything down with your own diary entry kept on federal government equipment saying that your recommendation is what convinced the mayor and the President to lock things down?

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

declined to answer based upon my rights

under the fifth Amendment to the Constitution.

[Senator Marco Rubio]

Now I just want to make clear that when in Florida we were pleading with people to give us advice based on Scientific evidence. That we were getting these conflicting statements by you that didn't match scientific data. And in fact, when we empaneled a grand jury, the grand jury's conclusion, not surprising to anyone. And by the way, we're still the only state to have impaneled a grand jury. I was the only attorney general to do this. We did this in 2023. That conclusion was the lockdown mask and social distancing advice ministered by federal agencies and implemented by certain local, state and federal agencies were, was not based on the best available scientific data. In fact, many recommendations and their accompanying mandates departed significantly from available research. Again, people from all walks of life, all political persuasions, that is what they found. And yet during that time, while you were giving those statements, knowing there was no scientific basis for it, and we know now, you knew it because we have your diary entries, you called the governor that I worked with to fight to keep Washington and D.C. out of our state so that we could indeed respect the rights of our citizens. You called our governor, Governor DeSantis, and I'm going to quote this, so I get it right, right out of your journals, a total jerk. That he is a complete disgrace, that he is blocking local authorities from mandating masks in various locations, including schools. And you were very concerned and upset that we were actively, and I'm going to quote, criticizing you. And we talk virtually every day about being wrong on everything. And what is astounding is that you wrote, you feared because of that, because we were questioning our government, because we were fighting back for the truth from our government, from scientifically based recommendations, because we were pushing for that. You said you feared that our democracy is in dire danger. Thank goodness we have people up here that I work with to understand our role, which is to report to our bosses, the people, because they are in charge, calling for our government to be honest with us and transparent with us, transparent with us and accountable to us. That is a democracy. What you did is the opposite. And I cannot believe I have to explain this to someone who represented our government and some of the most important issues for so long. And before I conclude, if I can just put up our pardon, this is the pardon you have heard so much about. And Dr. Fauci, the only other person that got a pardon like this, I believe had a last name of Biden. This pardon goes back to and if you'll see, January 1st of 2014. Did you talk to President Biden and ask for this pardon?

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

declined to answer based upon my rights

under the fifth Amendment to the Constitution.

[Senator Marco Rubio]

Who did you talk to in the White House about this pardon?

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

declined to answer based upon my rights

under the fifth Amendment to the Constitution.

[Senator Marco Rubio]

Did you specifically ask that it be dated back to the beginning of 2014?

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

declined to answer based upon my rights

under the fifth Amendment to the Constitution.

[Senator Marco Rubio]

Did you do that so that you would be given immunity? Going back to the beginning of 2014?

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

declined to answer based upon my rights

under the fifth Amendment to the Constitution.

[Senator Marco Rubio]

I'm just very interested why it was this date. Did it have anything to do with the fact that 2014 was also the year that the NIAID or nih began funding EcoHealth alliances Understanding the Risk of Bat Coronavirus Emergence grant?

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of Council, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

declined to answer based upon my rights

under the fifth Amendment to the Constitution.

[Senator Marco Rubio]

And this is the same grant that funded the work on bat coronaviruses at the Wuhan Institute on Virology. Millions of Americans are questioning what happened during COVID why we were getting given misleading information, misleading advice, why you gave conflicting statements based on, I guess, how you were feeling that day. And Americans rightfully we lost over a million Americans. They should be insulted when the Democrats insult our chair that he's doing this because he's on an obsessive mission to go after one man. Could his obsessive mission be to find out why American a million Americans died and who might be responsible for that and where that started? Could that be his mission? Dr. Fauci,

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of counsel,

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

I respectfully declined to answer based upon

my rights under the fifth Amendment to the Constitution.

[Senator Marco Rubio]

And after everything we have just walked through, can you sit here today and tell the American people, our bosses, that you bear no responsibility for their collapse and trust of their government.

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

To Based upon my rights under the

fifth Amendment to the Constitution.

[Senator Rand Paul]

Time has expired. We're going to do another quick round for those who remain about five minutes. Any questions that haven't come up that are pressing, let's try not to re go over territory that's already been done. I'll begin by asking unanimous consent to insert into record documents that show that the CIA transferred funds to NIAID through interagency agreement hearing. No objection. So ordered. We had hoped to hear testimony from Anthony Fauci today. We haven't, but I think it's important that we do hear from him. So we will have a video. We'll Play in a moment. For years, Anthony Fauci has been the public face of saying this in all likelihood came from nature. He kept saying, it's the marketplace, it's the marketplace, it's the marketplace. He's been saying that on television up until recently. But what we find is that what he was saying in public is different than what he was saying in private in January. In private he wrote that looks like the wet market was a super spreader event. It didn't originate there. We know that some of the earliest deaths and sickness came from somewhere else. But then for years and years we got dishonesty. So let's play the video so we can see a little juxtaposition of the problem we're dealing with. You have animals that come out of the wild that are sold, that these open what they call the wet markets.

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

Wet markets where you bring animals in from the wild, you have these viruses.

[Senator Rand Paul]

The wet markets in Asia where people

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

bring animals from the forest into market,

[Senator Rand Paul]

there are wet markets.

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

In Wuhan, there are ample opportunity for

[Senator Rand Paul]

riders to jump from an animal, the origin was from a bat to an intimate, opposed to a human, very likely in a wet market. And those animals should not have been

[Senator Richard Blumenthal]

in the Wuhan wild market.

[Senator Rand Paul]

They knew that those animals should not have been in the market.

[Senator Ron Johnson]

And they immediately cleaned out the market,

[Senator Rand Paul]

put restrictions on the animals that come into these wet markets.

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

I think I should shut down those things right away.

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

I mean, it's just, it boggles my mind.

[Senator Rand Paul]

So repeatedly saying in public different, something different than what he believed in private. This is interesting because, you know, the first SARS outbreak in 2000, 2003 was traced to a wet market to animals there. But interestingly, they had evidence. They had evidence that the animals had the disease. They also had evidence that the handlers had a disproportionately high number of antibodies to the disease. So there was evidence and the evidence was presented. So when this came out, the same thing happened again. They did look at the wet market. They looked at the wet market and tested I think 80,000 animals and didn't find any animals that had COVID 19. When they did find COVID 19 and trace samples there, they found that the DNA or the RNA was consistent with human spread. This was known, not later on, didn't take years to develop. Was known in January of 2020. And so Dr. Fauci says privately he knows it didn't come from the wet market, but as you saw, those were over a multi year period. One of the other discussions I've had with Dr. Fauci over the years about natural immunity. So most infections, you get a degree of immunity, not perfect, some fairly perfect smallpox you just don't get again, George Washington knew this. He had his wife get vaccinated, but he didn't because he'd already had smallpox. But there's one particular story that a man came up to me and lost his wife to Covid. He said, we all got it. We all got sick. And my wife ended up getting sick enough to go to the hospital. But we'd recovered two weeks, she was still alive. Two to three weeks later, we'd all recovered, and they wouldn't let us be with her. And to this day, it's one of the saddest things. And it just, you know, I think all of us should think about this. They were not allowed to visit their mom. He wasn't allowed to visit his wife in the hospital. But based on this misunderstanding of natural immunity, that for some reason, two weeks later, they were a problem. But this was all promulgated by you. We had the workers in the, you know, the meat factories. They were essential. They had to keep working. Most of them got Covid. They got it in the first couple of weeks. Most of them were younger. The reassurance should have come from public health. The reassurance should have said, congratulations, you've recovered. It also should be acknowledged, what's the number one thing we can do if we get another pandemic before we have a vaccine, before we have monoclonal antibodies? It would be to utilize natural immunity. So instead of the advice you were giving to Cuomo and others in New York that led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people or tens of thousands of people, you could have been saying, well, maybe the nurse is taking care of the elderly. Should be people who are two weeks out from COVID infection. We could have used natural immunity as somewhat of a block of protection. Imperfect, but the only protection we had and the only thing we could have done instead, the nursing homes were seeded with people who had Covid. So I think the discussion of natural immunity is one where there wasn't sufficient honesty, humility. There wasn't enough presentation to encourage people. That was the only encouraging thing we had for a while, is you've got it. You're very, very, if not impossible, close to impossible, chance that you'll die if you get it again. Everybody could have been reassured. Nobody was reassured. It's like, well, we don't know. We just don't quite understand natural immunity. My favorite quote from that is, From Martin Koldor from Harvard. You called him one of the people that you had to take down, the fringe epidemiologist, which I've never ever heard a scientist call another scientist that. But he jokingly said on Twitter, he said, yeah, we knew about natural immunity. We from 486 BC, from the time of the Athenian plague. We lost all knowledge of it in 2020. The good news is it's slowly coming back 24 to 2025. We're beginning to understand what natural immunity is again. Not something perfect, but a useful tool that could have been used, but also something that could have helped people by telling the public, my goodness, you're not going to die now. You have a chance if you've already had it. You're 85 years old and you're at risk for it. You're wanting to feed your wife and they're telling you to wear four masks and not be around your wife when you've already had it. It made no sense. I visited with a man whose mom was 83 and she was dying from COVID They go to the hospital in Orange County. They won't admit her to the hospital till she's vaccinated because we have a policy that everybody in the hospital must be vaccinated. She's got Covid and they wanted to vaccinate her again. At one point in time, the CDC understood this. They told people, don't get vaccinated if you've had Covid within three months. Why? Because it may give you a heightened immune response when you've already got a heightened immune response, but giving a person very sick. And many of the people who died from COVID died from sort of this storm of response, this immune storm. The answer wouldn't be try to stir up their immune response more by giving them a vaccine. The answer was actually steroids and good old fashioned steroids. 37% reduction in death. It turned out to be way more value than remdesivir, way more valuable than any of the other treatments. But I don't remember ever hearing a complimentary word on natural immunity or steroids or anything else. And, you know, I wish we could have done more today. I would have been willing to accept an apology today. I'm sorry. I made mistakes. We all made mistakes. And you know, at the time I thought the gain of function research was, you know, the risks of it were worth the benefits. But I've reassessed since 15 million people died. People say, well, gosh, these things never happen. We know it happened in 1977. We know with 100% certainty a virus escaped in 1977. There's something called the Russian flu. Nobody's exactly positive how it got out, but when they sequenced it, they found out that a flu in 1977 had exactly the same RNA as a 1954 one that they had in the lab and they had created a vaccine for. In fact, turns out anybody born before 1954 was immune. And the only people who got it were people who'd been born between 1954 and 1977. But it was identical. The genetic sequence was identical to this vaccine or the virus from 1954. And that doesn't happen because these respiratory viruses are always mutating. To be identical means it had to have leaked from the lab proof positive that it had. So we know this happens. An author by the name of Young wrote a book and said there was 1200 cases of significant accidents that have occurred. We knew all of this, and yet it was completely discounted because I think you were worried that if it was seen that you funded dangerous research to start the pandemic, you'd get blamed. And it was a concerted effort. Wasn't just you. Anybody associated with the funding decided we needed to protect ourselves. Senator Johnson.

[Senator Ron Johnson]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. You mentioned that we lost knowledge of natural immunity. I didn't. Dr. Fauci did. I suppose I had an asymptomatic case of COVID because of the very faulty PCR test. I never got vaccinated or injected. There's no way I would have done that because I found out enough about the MRNA gene therapy. But you also brought up the issue of hospital protocols. I'm going to be holding a public event on hospital protocols. We've already received a couple hundred testimonies. They are heart wrenching. They are heart wrenching. Here's an excerpt from the testimony of a staff surgeon, very experienced, you know, doctor for decades at Providence Regional Medical Center, Everett, Washington. Quote, after our hospital was given remdesivir by the cdc, we were provided misleading, inaccurate information about the drug biomedical leadership. When I had a young trauma patient who was a perfect candidate for remdesivir, the infectious disease doctor on call told me to not give it to her because, quote, she seemed like a nice girl. He concludes, it was known early there are mdesivir kills. I said nurses referred to it as run. Death is near. So again, I've always been. Never made sense to me that we put all of our eggs in the experimental gene therapy. If you knew anything about it. You would have avoided it like a plague. And we sabotaged early treatment. But the only treatment we really approved monoclonal antibodies which I think basically worked pretty well but those weren't particularly available. They were denied an awful lot of patients. Was all remdesivir based on a study that the NIH changed the endpoint from mortality because it had no impact on mortality. Today's recovery A drug that the WHO recommended against its use in Covid in November of 2020. But a drug that cost over $3,000 for a course of treatment versus things like ivermectin hydroxychloroquine who even Dr. Fauci and I should have got that one out because I want to take this time to end things in the record said, you know, we need to have a very tight protocol in remdesivir because it's unknown. But hydroxychloroquine, I mean that's approved some side effects but we have a long history of it. Let's put up my latest chart again I was tracking adverse events on the experimental injection but I use this chart as a comparison. So you've got ivermectin hydroxylchloroquine. These are average Again ava's doesn't improve causation but there's correlation. It's there for safety signals. So Ivermectin over 30 years of FDA reports 17 deaths per year Hydroxychloroquine over 38 years of reporting 142 deaths per year Remdesivir over 5 1/2 years 546 deaths per year the COVID injection almost 7,000 deaths per year which is safest? What did the FDA freak us out about? Ivermectin Hydroxychloroquine when they turn a complete blind's eye toward the injections injury. So I want to enter the quote from the surgeon by the way, here's the answer. Cheryl Atkinson in an interview said that when it comes to money we check financial ties among experts on the government panel devising coronavirus treatment guidelines which have the effect of dialing back hydroxyl chloroquine use and giving an edge to remdesivir. We found the 11 members reporting links to a drug company. Nine of them named relationships to maker Gilead. Seven more including two of the committee leaders have ties to Gilead beyond the 11 months they had to disclose. Two were on Gilead's advisory board. Others were paid consultants received research support in honorary by the way, within the study, I think one of the study participants was employee of Gilead Bunch also had conflicts with Gilead so gee, I wonder why. You know there are conflicts of interest. Gilead made billions of dollars off remdesivir and people died in terms of ignoring safety signals. You can probably put that down now. This has come to light. This is Dr. Drew Weissman who got the Nobel Prize for the MRNA platform. He wrote to Dr. Fauci on February 8th of 2020 Tony, I wanted to alert you to some new data we generated with our MRNA LNP vaccine. Now it was a higher fold dose but that MRNA LNP go to the placenta and fetus measured by translation of the MRNA and cause of immune response in amniotic fluid. So that same day Dr. Fauci responds it'd be interesting to see what human dose levels given intermuscular do. So about A month later Dr. Wiseman replies he said we still have some concerns over or the data after they tested it im now again there's more documentation in terms of the FDA blew it off. It's like ah, don't worry about that. That was the whole thing. That's what Peter Marks did when he was shown that his algorithm is going to mass safety signals. The last thing I want to enter in the record here is and I want to make the point, you know why is this important that they buried the treatment of severely injection injured. The fact that we haven't acknowledged these injection injuries, these people can't get treatment, they're being gaslit by their doctors. So it's all in your head. The rate of the injection injured, of suicides is increasing because they've given up hope because our medical establishment, federal health agencies completely failed them, failing to acknowledge it. So again Dr. Nath was treating, diagnosing and treating injection injured in March of 2021. This concerned people. So you had Dr. Walter Koroshitz writes Dr. Fauci one of the points you made there's been a steady slow stream of reports to me of post vaccination neurological conditions. Dr. Napt has been collecting a bunch, he has reports sent out to publish. Well that alarmed everybody. Boy, you can't let the public know what's actually happening. You can't actually let the public know what the science is showing. So on April 29th a email from Francis Collins head at NIH to that to Dr. Koroshetz says I find this approach troubling and will have the main consequence of feeding vaccine hesitancy and social media over overreaction. Then Dr. Lawrence Tabek writes to Francis Collins, I don't understand why Walter does not shut this thing down. Why don't you shut down Dr. Nath who's actually treating injection injured?

[Senator John Fetterman]

Why?

[Senator Ron Johnson]

Because of vaccine hesitancy and because we haven't acknowledged that. And the reason I've been advocating for this is because I know the injection injured. I know people who lost loved ones within days of the injection and we've turned our backs on them. They deserve acknowledgement. They deserve to be heard, seen and believed so they can get treatment. I also know the doctors whose careers were destroyed because you denigrated things like ivermectin and denied ivermectin to people in hospitals who got their kidneys knocked out by the remdesivir but got put on ventilators, never got to hug their loved ones goodbye because those hospital protocols, that's what your science did to people. So Dr. Fauci, my only question is, based on your lack of testimony here today, based quite honestly on our investigation into the COVID up of safety signals and injection injuries, we have issued letters to a number of former FDA officials to come in for transcribed interviews. You will be getting a letter today asking for a volunteer transcribed interview. So I'd be asking, will you comply or will I have to subpoena you?

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

declined to answer based upon my rights

under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution subpoena.

[Senator Rand Paul]

Thank you, Senator Scott.

[Senator Mike Lee]

Dr. Fauci, did you personally receive any royalty payments connected to Covid related intellectual property?

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

decline to answer based upon my rights

under the fifth Amendment to the Constitution.

[Senator Mike Lee]

Given that NIH receives royalty payments from certain pharmaceutical companies, why would any American believe these financial ties did not influence decisions about which treatments were promoted or restricted?

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

declined to answer based upon my rights

under the fifth Amendment to the Constitution.

[Senator Mike Lee]

Why doesn't niaid publicly disclose these payments?

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

declined to answer based upon my rights

under the fifth Amendment to the Constitution.

[Senator Mike Lee]

Did you partner with Bill Gates on global health initiatives or vaccines?

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

declined to answer based upon my rights

under the fifth Amendment to the Constitution.

[Senator Mike Lee]

How much should Bill Gates entities provide in funding to NIAID collectively since 2005?

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

decline to answer based upon my rights

under the fifth Amendment to the Constitution.

[Senator Mike Lee]

To your knowledge that Bill Gates partnered with China on sensitive research?

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

declined to answer Based upon my rights

under the fifth Amendment to the Constitution,

[Senator Mike Lee]

specifically dual use research such as countermeasures or gain of function?

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

decline to answer based upon my rights

under the fifth Amendment to the Constitution.

[Senator Mike Lee]

Do you know if Bill Gates entities partnered with US Government classified programs?

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

decline to answer based upon my rights

under the fifth Amendment to the Constitution.

[Senator Mike Lee]

Do you know if Bill Gates maintains an active national security clearance?

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

decline to answer based upon my rights

under the fifth Amendment to the Constitution.

[Senator Mike Lee]

Did you advocate or request for Bill Gates to receive a security clearance?

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

declined to answer based upon my rights

under the fifth Amendment to the Constitution.

[Senator Mike Lee]

You have any knowledge that NIAID or NIH through HHS sponsored or requested a security clearance for Bill Gates?

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

declined to answer based upon my rights

under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.

[Senator Mike Lee]

Around 2010 my understanding is that the government shifted its approach to biodefense countermeasure research. Did NIAID under your leadership partner with the Obama White House or any other U.S. government classified entities on sensitive countermeasures research?

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

declined to answer based upon my rights

under the fifth Amendment to the Constitution.

[Senator Mike Lee]

Did your office take steps to drive biological research investments?

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

declined to answer based upon my rights

under the fifth Amendment to the Constitution.

[Senator Mike Lee]

What was private industry's take on the type of research in the 2010 timeframe and before?

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

declined to answer based upon my rights

under the fifth Amendment to the Constitution.

[Senator Mike Lee]

Was it considered too dangerous to conduct? An industry was hesitant to take this on invest in?

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

declined to answer based upon my rights

under the fifth Amendment to the Constitution.

[Senator Mike Lee]

Why did you take steps to mature the government's approach to biodefense?

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

declined to answer based upon my rights

under the fifth Amendment to the Constitution.

[Senator Mike Lee]

Were there any specific lines of effort or actions you felt were needed during this time to improve the research, development and fielding model?

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

decline to answer based upon my rights

under the fifth Amendment to the Constitution.

[Senator Mike Lee]

How is dual use and gain of function incorporated or accounted for in maturing biodefense countermeasures?

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of Council, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

declined to answer based upon my rights

under the fifth Amendment to the Constitution.

[Senator Mike Lee]

Did you ever discuss moving gain of function, countermeasures, research out of government space to private industry space?

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

declined to answer based upon my rights

under the fifth Amendment to the Constitution.

[Senator Mike Lee]

How were these private organizations regulated through government oversight while conducting risky research, including gain of function or gene editing technology?

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

declined to answer based upon my rights

under the fifth Amendment to the Constitution.

[Senator Mike Lee]

Did the Obama White House or any government entities take steps to inject funding into private industry?

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

decline to answer based upon my rights

under the fifth Amendment to the Constitution.

[Senator Mike Lee]

How do you ensure that our national security and public health is protected when private organizations work with foreign countries of concern and have the no government oversight, such as the Eco Health alliance research grant you funded in CCP in a CCP military lab?

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

declined to answer based upon my rights

under the fifth Amendment to the Constitution.

Did.

[Senator Mike Lee]

Did any. Did, given the culture of the pay to play at NID niaid, did you or anyone acting on your behalf make any payment or injure any arrangement in any way or fashion secure influence the broad pardon you receive from President Biden?

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

declined to answer based upon my rights

under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.

[Senator Mike Lee]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

[Senator Rand Paul]

I'd like to ask unanimous consent to enter into the record a letter from the Department of Energy that confirms during Anthony Fauci's tenure that Bill Gates was given Q security clearance from 2014 to 2021. Without objection, that will be entered into the record. I'd also ask you to ask consent to enter into the record the contents of the folder of authorities provided to Dr. Fauci, including the pardon. Let's be clear today, you know what we've seen. I really did want to hear from Dr. Fauci. I wanted to hear perhaps an apology, perhaps some semblance of being sorry for what happened or that judgment errors were made. We didn't hear any of that. But he was subpoenaed here to testify, refused to answer any questions even after being directed by the Chair and being advised of the law requiring him to do so. He has cited a privilege that is unsupported because of his blanket pardon and because he waived the privilege by testifying at the start. I'm going to give you one more opportunity to comply with the law limited to the period of your pardon. At any point between January 1, 2014 and January 19, 2025, did you destroy any Federal record or tell anyone else.

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

Under the advice of counsel, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

decline to answer based upon my rights

under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.

[Senator Rand Paul]

Given that you have a unlimited presidential pardon, what is your specific objection that you are making?

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

declined to answer based upon my rights

under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.

[Senator Rand Paul]

My question was limited to the period of your pardon only. I find your objection unsupported and direct you to answer the question.

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

decline to answer based upon my rights

under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution

[Senator Rand Paul]

because you refuse to answer, citing a privilege that is unsupported because of your pardon. And after being denied to do so, this committee has scheduled a vote next week on a. On a resolution certifying your contempt. I think we have another question or two from Senator Langford,

[Senator Josh Hawley]

Chairman.

[Senator Bernie Moreno]

Really?

[Senator James Lankford]

This is a question for you, and it's a question try to figure out how do we get a good answer on this? Because clearly Dr. Fauci's attorneys are saying that he has a Fifth Amendment right. We've also subpoenaed him to be able to compel his testimony to be able to be here. I happen to be in the committee was. We're also dealing with Lois Lerner. Lois Lerner came and testified, gave an opening statement, and then took the Fifth Amendment. The committee then held her in contempt for that, saying, you can't do both. You can't both testify and say, I'm not going to answer questions. So the parliamentary question that I think we've got to be able to deal with is, is this consistent with Lois Lerner, what she also did when she came before Congress, gave an opening statement testimony, so made a statement, and then refused to answer questions. Are we dealing with the same issue here where someone is making. You can't make a statement and say, I'm not going to make statements at the same time.

[Senator Rand Paul]

I think it's a very good question. I think that's something all of us will examine over the next week. We're going to have a vote next week on contempt. I think there's another legal question that the courts may have to decide upon, and that is whether or not a presidential pardon that offers you complete immunity, that you can still claim that you need protection from immunity when you've been protected, because Dr. Fauci isn't liable for anything as long as he tells the truth, even if he admits that he destroyed records on a routine basis. His assistant said she destroyed a ton of emails. I think it Was a routine thing. I think he destroyed throughout his career. There probably thousands of emails. Even if he did that, as long as he answered truthfully, yes, I did. I didn't think that was important. I made a mistake. You can't be prosecuted for it. Many of the things are outside the statute of limitations as well. All he had to do today if he wanted to testify was be honest. As long as he was honest even about committing a crime, he would have no jeopardy. But I think the pardon has given him more immunity than most people would ever get. If you offer a witness immunity in exchange for testimony, he has blanket immunity. The president gave him blanket immunity for virtually anything he could have possibly done while at nih. So I think we all have to individually act, answer this question. We welcome you to be part of helping us figure out the question. But there will be a vote. At least right now, though we plan to be a vote next week on contempt.

[Senator James Lankford]

Okay, thank you, Mr. Chairman.

[Senator Rand Paul]

Today will be the capstone to Anthony Fauci's 40 years of abusive power at NIH. In the end, must imagine Foushee believes he got away with it. But still, late at night, even the guilty must become anxious, rerunning the scenarios through his mind, wondering, latching on to lingering doubts and worrying. Did his actions lead to the largest man made plague in human history? Are the millions dead the result of his experiments or experiments that he approved that increased the pathogenicity of deadly viruses? History will judge. But the facts as we now know them paint a sordid tale of dishonesty, misjudgment, and ultimately the hubris the likes of which the world has rarely seen. If everyone will remain seated for a few minutes, we're going to let Dr. Fauci exit. Thank you.

[Senator Richard Blumenthal]

Wow.

[Benny Johnson]

Okay, so contempt vote. Ladies and gentlemen, Dr. Foushee being escorted not to prison, sadly not to jail, but being escorted out. His lawyer was escorted out, however, by the cops. Was escorted out by Capitol police.

[Senator Rand Paul]

And we are going to continue.

[Benny Johnson]

People yelling at Dr. Fauci. Okay, ladies and gentlemen, a absolutely and totally savage hearing. I've never seen anything like it in my life. A couple of very quick thoughts here, Klein, if you don't mind my screen one. If you are the science, Dr. Fauci is the science. Why do you need a pardon? Why do you need pardon against crimes committed against the people of the United States of America.

[Senator Bernie Moreno]

America.

[Benny Johnson]

Because you are one of the largest mass murderers of all time. You're certainly the largest mass murderer in American history. On the level with Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin and Maet Tong. Dr. Fouche killed seven and a half million people. And those are just sort of the round numbers. That's probably a conservative estimate. Dr. Fauci today pled the fifth. Why are you pleading the fifth? If you are the science, why do you need a pardon? Going all the way back to 2014, the Obama era. And we know exactly why he goes to that exact era. That exact date, January 1, 2014. That's the date that Barack Obama banned gain of function research here in the United States of America. To his weird credit, Barack Obama did in fact get that right. And so that is the date that Dr. Fauci moved his mutant manipulation of viruses to make them more infectious to humans. By adding spike proteins to cleavage sites in coronaviruses that naturally occur in nature but are, are not able to infect humans. He made them transmissible to humans. He paid for it. Barack Obama banned that practice and so he moved it offshore to China. That's the exact date. Sorry about that. That's the exact date that that happened. This is why the pardon goes to 2014. This is why Obama was president. When the pardon begins for Dr. Fauci, by the way, the pardon is for crimes committed against the peoples of the United States of America. The only crime that I witnessed at today's hearing was the physical public beatdown that Dr. Fauci got. It was a public whipping unlike anything I've ever seen. Even though Dr. Fauci asserted his Fifth Amendment right, which he should not be allowed to do, the fifth Amendment guarantees that you will have a fundamental right, including protection against self incrimination. Once again, if Dr. Fauci is the science and he wants to tell the American people that he was right, you can't claim that you have a Fifth Amendment right. Let's see, 121 times. So what you heard here, if you've been watching over the last 90 minutes or so is. 90 minutes. My goodness. If you've been watching over the last couple hours and two and a half hours. 90 minutes, sorry about that. Yeah, way longer. Yeah, sorry. Two and a half hours is. You heard 121 different assertions of a Fifth Amendment right. Now what is this? You do not have to answer questions or give evidence that will be used to convict you of a crime. That's what it means. But Sean Davis is bringing up a really great point here, which is that Dr. Fauci, up until really even the morning of this testimony, has given so many different bloody interviews. Many, many, many interviews, including a three Hour long podcast that he did like last week, yet he's refusing to testify to Congress, should call into question the legal basis of his refusal to testify to Congress. Fauci gave a lengthy interview to the Scientific American. Last month, Fauci sat down for an extensive interview with the Obama Oral History Project focused entirely on his time period that covered the pardon. It was published earlier this month. In May of this year, Foushee gave a commencement address at a college in Minnesota. That week, Fauci sat down for a long podcast. Three hour podcast. It has 30 views and zero likes. This extraordinary fact pattern, in light of Fauci's pardon and refusal to speak to Congress about his behavior covered by the pardon, you're not allowed to do that. If you get a pardon, you can assert your fifth Amendment right under the rules actually of clemency. And so Dr. Fauci is in a very, very tough position right now. Obviously, you saw Dr. Fauci's lawyer get chucked out of the hearing room. That's before Bernie Moreno went hardcore and said, what the f do you think you were doing?

[Senator Josh Hawley]

Can you do me a favor in the audience and stand up? If during the time of the COVID pandemic, you were called a racist for calling the virus a Wuhan virus or the China virus, if you thought the six foot rule was total crap, if you thought the vaccine wasn't something that you should take, if you thought it was outrageous the way the mask policy was rolled out, if you were fired from your job for not taking that vaccine, including members of the military, if you thought closing school was catastrophically stupid and that you thought that during these times, saying these things made you somehow a lesser human being,

[Benny Johnson]

look at this.

[Senator Ron Johnson]

Dr. Fauci.

[Senator Josh Hawley]

Can you just turn around and look

[Benny Johnson]

at the people behind you zoom out on the room. Fauci refuses to look.

[Senator Josh Hawley]

You're not willing to do that.

[Benny Johnson]

Laura Ingram, that's not a question.

[Senator Josh Hawley]

It's not a question to your lawyers. Not a question. It's a request. All you have to do is look up from your lawyers and look at the people who were absolutely shamed for saying what we know now to be the truth. You can't even look at them. It was about six years ago today that I decided I'm gonna give up my businesses, sell them all, run for office, run for the United States Senate. Here I am sitting in front of you six years later saying, who the fuck do you think you were for doing that? It is a total disgrace what you did to this country.

[Benny Johnson]

Ladies and gentlemen, Very, very strong treatment of Dr. Fauci. He pled the fifth 121 times in a three hour hearing. This is the first time that the F bomb has been aired uncensored on Fox News. Josh Hawley probably takes the cake for the most acute line of questioning. Rand Paul and Senator Ron Johnson doing incredible work. By the way, Senator Rand Paul booked on our show tomorrow. So get ready for that. Tomorrow Senator Paul will be on announcing that he has a contempt vote scheduled for Dr. Fauci. Josh Hawley trolling Dr. Fauci, refusing to answer.

[Senator Josh Hawley]

What tie are you wearing? Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Well, nothing says honesty like taking the fifth Hun doc. Let's try something. What day of the week is it today?

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

decline to answer based upon my rights

under the fifth amendment to the Constitution.

[Senator Josh Hawley]

What color tie are you wearing?

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

decline to answer based upon my rights

under the fifth amendment to the constitution.

[Senator Josh Hawley]

What colors are carpet? And frankly, front of you.

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

decline to answer based upon my rights

under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.

[Senator Josh Hawley]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

[Senator Richard Blumenthal]

Brutal. Brutal.

[Benny Johnson]

Ladies and gentlemen, you should watch the full Josh Hall.

[Senator Ron Johnson]

It will be.

[Benny Johnson]

We'll be up. We're clipping and getting ready right now to produce the best lines of questioning against Dr. Fauci. But Republicans did a great job. Really great job. And then like obviously libtar just glazed. Just glazed him. It is this one of the saddest things I've ever seen is that like there was zero curiosity just a little bit from Fetterman there at the end. Like zero curiosity from Democrats at all about what happened here. Why? Because the opinion was to manufacture the virus in order to rig the election to get us mail in voting so that they could kick Trump out of office. That's obviously the op. Dr. Fauci was working under the guise of the Patriot Act. You can see it. Documents. We have them all. Dr. Foushee worked under the Patriot act to develop a bioweapons program here in America. The way they sold that to the taxpayers and the Congress was that this was how we prevent bioweapons. But they were actually creating bioweapons for this exact reason after the release of COVID Of course they get mail in ballots. You get the hysteria that leads to Joe Biden being ushered in. If you can rewind the clock back to the early part. The late winter of 2020, Donald Trump was romping on his way to an absolute victory. That would be all but assured. The economy was roaring. Everything was going great. There had been some bumps. Russiagate was behind him. The impeachments were behind him. Donald Trump had come out of all of it stronger and better, was in a commanding position. Democrats had no one. It was Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Joe Biden. They needed something. They had to pull the lever behind the glass. They had to break the glass and do something drastic. And this is what they did. Josh Hawley snaps on Fauci for using his fame to profit and David award.

[Senator Josh Hawley]

Do you remember, Doc,

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

on the advice of counsel, I respectfully declined to answer.

[Benny Johnson]

He answered zero questions from left, right or center.

[Senator Josh Hawley]

It was a $900,000 cash award. $900,000 cash award. And he got it because he used federal employees to get it. And this wasn't the only award, was it, Dr. Fauci? In fact, you applied for and received at least eight other federal cash prizes on federal time using federal employees and federal resources. Here they are, over my shoulder. Besides the Dan David award, you've got the Partnership for Public Service. You've got the Adelson Prize, you've got the Smithsonian award, you've got the National Academy of Medicines award, you got the CDC Foundation. In fact, you turn your staff into a full time application machine. You actually wrote to people and said, do you think maybe I'd qualify? And you got cash for all of this. And it wasn't just one or two employees, was it? In fact, you used brutal.

[Benny Johnson]

Look at this, by the way. Look at the physiognomy. Hmm. Not so chipper, are we now? Not so glib. Remember him and his. Can you get me the InStyle, the shot of Josh Hawley with the InStyle magazine behind him. I'm not sure if it's in this clip again. The hearing just wrapped seconds ago. Thank you for sticking with us through this live. Expect a lot more as we enter the 2028 presidential cycle. But I think Josh Hawley is going to have quite a hand to play in. It's been very interesting watching Holly move. But notice the InStyle. He put up the Insta. The Insta. Josh Hawley put up the. The InStyle. I want to do like show me the side to side. Can you guys send me that please? Either the asset. Yeah, there it is. Okay, thank you, guy.

[Senator Josh Hawley]

You had time to sit for InStyle magazine.

[Senator Richard Blumenthal]

Thank you.

[Senator Josh Hawley]

Here's what you were doing with your time. You could sit for InStyle magazine, but you can't answer questions for the American people. You could sit for InStyle in style.

[Benny Johnson]

So here's Dr. Fauci sitting by his pool in Georgetown with his sunglasses on. And then this is Dr. Fauci. Today, my mighty fallen.

[Senator Josh Hawley]

Eight separate federal employees on federal time using federal resources to solicit cash awards. Isn't that true?

[Benny Johnson]

Oh, man. A brutal line of questioning there. So much, ladies and gentlemen, we're going to have the full, full and complete takedown from Josh Hawley. I don't know. Maybe we'll load it. Maybe we'll just play it.

[Senator Bernie Moreno]

Would you guys.

[Benny Johnson]

Would you guys like to see it again? I think this is an excellent point. How can Dr. Fauci claim that he has a Fifth Amendment right when he is constantly doing media and press about his pardon and about the subject of that pardon. Of course, you waive your right, you get the pardon. Such a critical question. One other thing that I think is very important is that do Fouche brought a failings of lawyers, a dozen lawyers. They kept smarting off the mouth. They had to be dragged out of the room by the cops. Rand Paul, to his great credit, said, get these sniveling rat lawyers the hell out of here and had security come and physically remove Dr. Fauci's scumbag lawyers. Do you imagine. Remember, I'm the science. Remember I am the science. Says Dr. Fauci, who needs a pardon and an assertion 121 times of his Fifth Amendment privileges and then has to have his lawyers physically dragged out of the hearing room. Rat. Rat. This is his scumbag lawyer in the hallway outside being like, oh, I just wanted. I just wanted to say that he

[Senator Rand Paul]

has a Fifth Amendment right.

[Senator Tammy Baldwin]

Yeah, we get it.

[Benny Johnson]

He said it 121 times.

[Senator Richard Blumenthal]

Privilege.

[Senator Mike Lee]

And he has the right to assert it.

[Senator Marco Rubio]

And that's what you were trying to say.

[Senator Mike Lee]

That's what I was trying to tell the committee.

[Benny Johnson]

No, you weren't. You were trying to be a drama queen. He'd already said that. He said that in his opening statement. He said it 121 times. He was trying to inter. He was trying to interrupt Rand Paul and be a drama queen and get attention to himself.

[Senator Marco Rubio]

Sir.

[Senator Joni Ernst]

Why did you advise him for that?

[Benny Johnson]

By the way? These are criminal defense attorneys. Criminal defense attorneys that represented Bernie Madoff, Sam Bankman, fried other scumbags in the Senate.

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

What was it?

[Benny Johnson]

Bob Menendez, I believe. Yeah, yeah. Dirt bags. So, yeah. Mr. Mr. I am the. I am the science. Rand Paul in a great off the top rope saying, there's a binder in front of you. Is there a binder in front of

[Senator Rand Paul]

you, holder on your table, answer any questions.

[Benny Johnson]

So the binder says, effectively, that there's a rule, Section 192, Title 2 of the U.S. code. That section makes it a crime for a witness appearing on a subpoena to refuse to answer any questions pertinent to the question of inquiry. Do you have that in front of you? And what does Dr. Fauci do to

[Senator Rand Paul]

the question under inquiry? Do you have that in front of you?

[Dr. Anthony Fauci]

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully

[Dr. Fauci's Counsel]

decline to answer based upon my rights

under the Fifth Amendment by the Constitution.

[Senator Rand Paul]

Let the record record that the witness has refused to answer whether there's a folder in front of him based on his Fifth Amendment right.

[Senator Josh Hawley]

I love it.

[Benny Johnson]

I mean, listen, it's cold comfort that the room was constantly laughing, jeering, and making fun of Dr. Fauci. It's cold comfort that Republicans are able to get these jabs and barbs in and are able to, like, savage this rat doctor in front of all of us. But will he go to prison? We'll see. They're going to hold him in contempt. I mean, listen, man, if you hold him in contempt, then you absolutely can go to prison. We've seen this with Steve Bannon. We've seen this with Peter Navarro. These are. I mean, this is real. If you're in contempt of Congress and the way that Republicans were asking questions today, feel like every one of them would vote in favor of contempt, and we have the majority, so it seems like you would get a full contempt vote. You send that vote immediately to the doj, the DOJ can pick it up and can put you in jail. And that is precisely what the Nancy Pelosi did with Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro when they refused to testify on January 6th. Okay, well, it's called the Bannon rule, I guess now. Right. So will we get Dr. Fauci in prison again? Laura Ingram's. Laura Ingram's reaction here, The reaction of the entire chat and thank you chat for being so nuclear today. We're making sure we put the chats up on screen. Put your comments up on screen. Yeah, I guess maybe that's what we're going to see. So, ladies and gentlemen, we called our patriots today. I just want to do a shout out to our partners, and we sincerely appreciate the capacity to go. Go live, go long, and then also be able to. Yeah, three hours and 15 minutes. Be able to crush some of the narrative around Dr. Fauci today. I think that Rand is just getting started. Rand Paul again will be on our show tomorrow. We'll call the Patriot. Rand Paul Patriot Mobile is what we use to call Patriots. Patriot Mobile is the cell phone service provider that provides for our site, for our company, that provides for us as we are on the road, when we are on the road. Patriot Mobile is the only Christian conservative wireless provider. We talk about it a lot because we use it every single day of every single second of every single day. Patriot Mobile has one mission and that is to connect patriots across the country with the best cell phone service provider in America. And that is what they do. They contribute millions to organizations defending free speech, religious liberty and the sanctity of life. The second amendment in America's future. Give Patriot Mobile a call today and fight for our freedoms together. Patriotmobile.com Benny call 972 Patriot use promo code Benny for a free month of service this patriot mo.com Benny call 972 patriot to make the switch. Today an absolute embarrassing day for Dr. Fauci. Again. I'm, I'm, I'm pretty amazed at what happened. I just never seen anything like it. 121 different times that he pled the fifth. Ladies and gentlemen, if that doesn't show you guilt, I don't know what will. You should not feel guilt when you look at your savings account and decide how you've invested and what you've invested in. This is my daily opportunity to tell you about Advantage Gold. Advantage Gold can ensure that you are investing in something that is real. We've seen with this excursion into Iran that the markets can go insane, that things can go up and down. Oil, for instance, right now is skyrocketing once again because it looks like the war is back on. I guess we'll see what will happen to the dollar. What is happening in the markets in South Korea anyway? Things just go haywire. 10 years your dollar has been quietly losing one grocery store run at a time and everything is inflated down to its actual atoms, right? What is it made out of? If your currency is made out of paper, it'll be reduced down to the value of paper. Gold is made out of gold and that's what makes it so valuable throughout all time. It's an excellent opportunity to buy. Right now it's trading at very attractive prices. Jump on in there. Not financial advice, but stability advice. Benny 285545 Text Benny 285545 get your free gold investment kit and learn simple IRS, IRS approved way to move your 401k and IRA into physical gold and silver tax free and penalty free. Text Benny to 85545. Right now, get your free Gold investment kit and Advantage Gold today. And just one more shout out to Rumble Wallet. Rumble. The Rumble chats were awesome today. We appreciate our Rumble audience so very much. We love free speech, we love investing in free speech, we love being part of a free speech ecosystem, and we really love being able to speak our minds. It was what we do on the Internet professionally. Rumble Wallet is an excellent way for you to speak your mind and take control over your money right now. Technology has changed everything and it's changing how money works. Crypto started as a niche, but now it's going mainstream. Faster payments, more control, fewer middlemen. It's not hype where things are going. You can get started today. It's easier than you think. With Rumble Wallet, you can buy Bitcoin, hold dollar back stable coins, own digital gold backed by real gold, all in one place. A non custodial crypto wallet. Which means that you don't bank or bank on somebody else holding your assets. You control all access to your funds. Setup is simple. It connects right away to your favorite payment processing systems and bank accounts and get up and running in minutes. You can receive $10 worth of US stablecoin right now by downloading Rumble Wallet and enter my exclusive promo code. Benny 10, do it now. Scan the QR code on screen. Get rolling with Rumble wallet today. $10 worth of free US stablecoin. Limited time offer through August 14th. Rumble wallet today. Okay. Well, ladies and gentlemen, we'll get our verse of the day here. Let's hope it's about truth and prevailing with truth and the power of truth. Here we go from second Corinthians. For we must appear before judgment, seat of Christ, so that each other may receive what is due and what they have done in the body, whether good or evil. What a perfect verse, man. That is excellent verse. Appear before the judgment of Christ. No fifth Amendment plea when Christ is judging you. No fifth Amendment in heaven or hell. Your actions will be your actions. And Dr. Fauci is in his 80s, so he'll be in this seat sooner than later. What is done, good or evil, will be accounted for. You can't blame anyone when you are in this chair. You can't squirm or cry. No lawyers will step in to save you. It will be your actions and your actions alone. You'll be judged before God Almighty and he knows them all. So, ladies and gentlemen, make sure your soul is right, your heart is steady, and that you march forward with us onto victory. The judgment that is Assured the victory that is assured for us and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Thank you for watching today. Godspeed.

[Benny Johnson (Rap Segment)]

Then freedom on your TV screen Stand up strong battle through the night the Benny shows here Bringing liberty to light from the speeches to debates Benny sharp like a blade coming through the lies Watch the truth cascade with the warrior's heart this man never fades. You know it's primetime when Betty invades From saving the nation to stories untold the Betty shows a storm See the truth unfold Stay in the loop Let freedom take hold. Something of the lips, soul never soul it's the Benny show where the truth gonna be Faith and freedom on your TV screen Stand up strong battle through the night the Benny shows here Bringing liberty to life, liberty to light Bring a liberty to light. Liberty to light. Bringing liberty to life from the speeches to the gates Benny sharp like a blade coming through the loud. Watch the truth cascade with the warrior's heart this man never fades you know it's prime time a Benny invades from saving the nation to stories untold the Benny shows a storm see the truth unfold Stay in the loop Let freedom take hold. Salt and all the libs Soul never soul. It's the Benny show where the truth gonna be Faith and freedom on your TV screen Stand up strong battle through the night the Benny shows here Bringing liberty to light. Bringing liberty to light. Bringing liberty to light. Bringing liber eat a light Bringing liberty.

[Senator Joni Ernst]

The United States Soccer Federation presents the U.S. soccer Podcast. The place where I, Megan Klingerberg, a

[Senator Marco Rubio]

World cup expert, teaches as you everything

[Senator Joni Ernst]

that you need to know for this summer's World Cup.

[Benny Johnson]

How special is it that we've been able to follow this young group of guys?

[Senator Joni Ernst]

It's been such a roller coaster of emotions.

[Representative Ritchie Torres]

You can feel the intensity, quite a

[Benny Johnson]

bit of time, energy, effort, everything along the way on these guys making the country proud. And I think they will this summer.

[Senator Marco Rubio]

The U.S. soccer Podcast presented by Henkel. Follow and listen on your favorite platform.