Dr. Anthony Fauci will testify Wednesday before the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee in a hearing expected to be highly combative, marking another confrontation with Chairman Sen. Rand Paul, who has long sought to blame the former official for the Covid-19 pandemic and flaws in the U.S. response.
The 85-year-old retired head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases did not appear voluntarily. Paul subpoenaed him in June after Fauci declined, citing past clashes and the senator’s calls for his prosecution and jailing. In a letter to Paul, Fauci’s lawyers wrote that the request “arises within a context that cannot be ignored — the context of repeated public and absolutely baseless pronouncements by you, a sitting United States Senator, that Dr. Fauci should be prosecuted and jailed.”
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| Anthony Fauci |
The entries detail Fauci’s frequent media appearances and rising public profile, including interactions with celebrities and dozens of journalists (among them some from CNN).
They also record his growing concerns about Covid-19, frustrations with the government response, and strained relationships with officials in both the Trump and Biden administrations.
Even before the national Covid-19 shutdown, Fauci had wondered whether he had testified before Congress more than any other official. As the longtime public face of the government’s infectious-disease efforts, he appeared on Capitol Hill roughly 250 times over his career to address threats including the HIV/AIDS crisis and Ebola.