A Senate hearing on the COVID-19 pandemic boiled over into rancor and accusations of lying Tuesday morning when Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) accused Dr. Anthony Fauci of lying about the origins of the virus, only to have Fauci dress down the senator in spectacular fashion.
The Senate Health Committee was meeting to discuss U.S. efforts against COVID when Paul suggested that Fauci could be jailed for allegedly giving false testimony about whether or not Congress had funded a lab in Wuhan, China, that some have cited as a possible source for the deadly coronavirus. Paul’s remarks drew this response from Fauci:
“Senator Paul, I have never lied before the Congress. And I do not retract [my previous] statement.”
Paul continued to push:
“You take an animal virus and you increase its transmissibility to humans. You’re saying that’s not gain of function?”
Fauci replied:
“That is correct. And Senator Paul, you do not know what you are talking about, quite frankly. And I want to say that officially. You do not know what you are talking about.”
The Kentucky Republican interrupted:
“They took animal viruses that only occur in animals and they increased their transmissibility to humans. How you can say that is not gain of function.”
Fauci:
“It is not.”
Once again, Paul suggested Fauci was lying:
“It’s a dance and you’re dancing around this, because you’re trying to obscure responsibility for four million people dying around the world from a pandemic.
“All of the evidence is pointing that it came from the lab and there will be responsible for those who funded the lab including yourself.”
But the doctor was more than ready for the senator’s cheap shots, telling him:
“I resent the lie that you are now propagating. Because if you look at the viruses that were used in the experiments that were given in the annual reports that were published in the literature, it is molecularly impossible.”
At that point, Paul began shouting:
“No one is saying those viruses caused the pandemic! What we’re alleging is gain of function research was going on in that lab and NIH funded it. It meets your definition and you are obfuscating the truth.”
That’s when Fauci utterly destroyed the senator, pointing his finger at him as he told him:
