Rand Paul Grills Dr. Fauci For Trying To Suppress Lab-Leak Theory

White House chief medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci and Republican Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul engaged in yet another explosive exchange at a Senate hearing Tuesday.

Fauci and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) director Rochelle Walensky were testifying before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions about the Biden Administration’s COVID-19 response. Paul began to ask Fauci why he had attempted to suppress the lab-leak theory by dismissing the work of various scientists who were exploring the possibility, and Fauci got fired up in response.

“I think, in usual fashion, Senator, you are distorting everything about me,” Fauci said. “There you go again. You just do the same thing every hearing. You’re absolutely incorrect, as usual, Senator. You are incorrect, almost everything you say—”

“Well no, you deny, you deny, but the emails tell the truth of this. This wasn’t the only time. Your desire to take down those who disagree with you didn’t stop with Harvard, Oxford and Stanford,” Paul interjected. “You conspired with Peter Daszak, who you communicated with privately, and other members of the scientific community that wrote opinion pieces for Nature … 17 signed a paper that called it conspiracy theory, the idea that the virus could’ve originated in the lab. Do you think words like ‘conspiracy theory’ should be in a scientific paper?”

Paul was referring to emails which show Fauci and colleagues dismissing the lab-leak theory and coordinating to publish articles and make public comments endorsing that view. Scientists from Harvard, Oxford and Stanford who were open to the theory were called “fringe” and dismissed by Fauci allies.

“You keep distorting the truth, it is stunning how you do that,” Fauci replied. “You’re going back to that original discussion when I brought together a group of people to look at every possibility with an open mind. So not only are you distorting it, you are completely turning it around, as you usually do.”

“Senator, we are here at a committee to look at a virus now that has killed almost 900,000 people. And the purpose of the committee was to try and get things out how we can help to get the American public,” he continued. “And you keep coming back to personal attacks on me that have absolutely no relevance to reality.”

Fauci denied ever calling the lab-leak theory a “conspiracy theory” and argued Paul was distorting his emails. Paul then turned to questioning Fauci’s pandemic response and support for certain vaccine and mask mandates. (RELATED: ‘Try To Cover Your Ass:’ Rand Paul Demands Fauci Resign For Refusing To Admit To Funding Gain Of Function Research In Wuhan)

“More people have died now under President Biden than did under President Trump,” Paul went on to say. “You are the one responsible. You are the architect. You are the lead architect for the response from the government, and now 800,000 people have died. Do you think it’s a winning success what you’ve advocated for government?”

“If you look at everything that I said, you accuse me of in a monolithic way, telling people what they need to do,” Fauci rebutted. “Everything that I have said has been in support of the CDC guidelines: wear a mask, get boosted, get vaccinated—”

“You’ve advocated to make it coercive,” Paul interrupted. “And you’ve advocated that it be done by mandate. You’ve advocated that your infallible opinion be dictated by law.”

Rather than directly answer the questions from Paul, either about the coordination to suppress the lab-leak theory or about his advocacy for mandates, Fauci then pivoted to accusing Paul of attacking him for political reasons.

“You personally attack me, and with absolutely not a shred of evidence of anything you say … he’s doing this for political reasons,” Fauci said.

“What happens when he gets out and accuses me of things that are completely untrue, is that all of a sudden that kindles the crazies out there, and I have threats upon my life, harassment of my family and my children, with obscene phone calls because people are lying about me.”

Fauci then appeared to blame Paul for instigating an assassination attempt against him. (RELATED: Rand Paul Says Fauci ‘Ignores The Science, Causes Hysteria And Creates Fear’)

“Just about three or four weeks ago on Dec. 21, a person was arrested who was on their way from Sacramento to Washington, D.C., at a speed stop in Iowa. And the police asked him where he was going, and he was going to Washington, D.C., to kill Dr. Fauci,” he explained. “And they found in his car an AR-15 and multiple magazines of ammunition, because he thinks that maybe I’m killing people. So I ask myself, why would Senator want to do this? So go to Rand Paul’s website, and you see ‘Fire Dr. Fauci’ with a little box that says ‘contribute here’ … so you are making a catastrophic epidemic for your political gain.”

At that point, Democratic Washington Sen. Patty Murray, the committee chair, cut off both men to move to questions from other committee members.

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