Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky raised questions Thursday about Dr. Anthony Fauci’s part in what he said was a “cover-up” of the origins of COVID-19.
Fauci, the former head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, is to appear before the House Oversight Committee’s Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic in January. Fauci’s net worth climbed by $5 million during the pandemic, also faced questions about the funding of so-called “gain of function” research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV). (RELATED: ‘Shouldn’t Let It Happen Again’: Rand Paul Sounds The Alarm Over Return Of COVID Hysteria)
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“It took us about three years to finally say that we’re not going to send any more money to their Wuhan lab, but that’s after me badgering them for years and years,” Paul told Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo. “Even in January of 2020, when the — the epidemic or pandemic is rip-roaring throughout Wuhan, they’re still telling our scientists, doesn’t look like it’s transmitted from human to human. They knew that in November or December, they already knew that was being transmitted, and it was reaching a crescendo and then we’re still denying it, and we kind of expect to cover up in a totalitarian country, but we wouldn’t expect it in our country. But immediately Anthony Fauci joined the Chinese government in covering it up, not only for them, but covering up his involvement in this.”
“When Wenstrup’s committee brings Anthony Fauci forward for testimony, for a deposition, they need to get to the bottom of, was he the top of the chain? Was he the top of the food chain with the cover-up, or was there someone else?” Paul said, referring to Republican Rep. Brad Wenstrup of Ohio, who chairs the select subcommittee. “There are now indications that somehow the CIA thought that this came from the lab, as I do, and they voted six to one, the analysts that came from the lab, but then they were reversed. Were they reversed because Anthony Fauci was visiting the CIA and influencing them, or was it the reverse? Was Anthony Fauci visiting the CIA, and someone high up in the CIA was influencing Anthony Fauci?”
Paul and Fauci clashed multiple times over COVID-19, including about the origins of the virus.
“He’s been under deposition before in the Missouri v. Biden case, and I think he said, ‘I don’t recall’ more than Bill Clinton ever has, and so whether or not we’ll get the truth from him, hopefully, they’ll have the data to probe into exact truthful or untruthful answers by looking back and having him look at data that they have to impeach him,” Paul said. “But we do need to get to the bottom of this because this could happen again. And I think Anthony Fauci has never really fully accepted and taken the guilt, not only for the funding, but just for the terrible judgment.”
Fauci did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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