New York, July 30 (IANS) Anthony Fauci, the face of the US fight against the Covid epidemic, dramatically invoked a Constitutional provision to refuse to answer questions before a Senate panel where he was pilloried by Republicans.
During a tense hearing about his role in relation to the Covid epidemic on Wednesday (local time), he invoked the Constitution’s Fifth Amendment clause against self-incrimination about 100 times to ward off Republican attempts to trap him in contradictions that could be used to prosecute him for perjury.
Republican Rand Paul, who heads the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and called him to testify, has threatened to declare him in contempt of the Senate, which could lead to his prosecution.
Once hailed a hero for leading the campaign against Covid, the 85-year-old Fauci has run afoul of President Donald Trump and a powerful section of the Republican Party, which is against vaccines and influences party leaders.
Paul “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, ‘behind bars’,” Fauci said during the nationally televised hearing.
Concurring with him, Democrat Senator Margaret Hassan said, “It must be enormously frustrating to know that this hearing is designed to entrap you.”
Former President Joe Biden had given him a pardon before leaving office, but he could be vulnerable to prosecution by states or, perhaps, through the Senate.
During the hearing, Republicans and Democrats clashed, with Republican Senator Bernie Moreno using a four-letter curse word against Fauci.
Democrats later staged a walkout.
Paul ordered Fauci’s lawyer out of the hearing, telling him he could not speak up for the scientist.
In what seemed like Kafkaesque proceedings, Republican Senator Josh Hawley taunted Fauci, asking him the colours of his tie and the carpet in the room.
Fauci repeated his standard response about the Fifth Amendment to those questions also.
Fauci was the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) that was in-charge of the battle plan against Covid during Trump’s first term, and he also served as the chief medical advisor to Biden.
He was often on TV during the pandemic, many times alongside Trump, explaining the various aspects of the pandemic and giving advice to the people and government officials.
The briefings were watched by millions around the world.
Trump said on Truth Social that he had “inherited Fauci” and “disagreed with him on a lot”.
Fauci had advocated closing down vast swaths of the US, including schools, to prevent the spread of Covid, which has angered many.
“I would’ve had to close down the whole country if I listened to him,” Trump said.
Preparing for the hearing, Paul released thousands of pages from Fauci’s diary covering 2019 through 2022, the years of the pandemic.
Among the matters Paul was looking for answers to was whether Covid originated in a Chinese laboratory in Wuhan or occurred naturally.
Notes in Fauci’s diaries appeared to consider both possibilities.
Trump posted on Truth Social that he “said from the beginning that the Virus came from the Wuhan Laboratory in China. Fauci strongly disagreed, always trying to protect China”.
Grants to Chinese laboratories given by Fauci’s institute for virus research were also raised by Republicans.
Fauci has maintained that they did not conduct research on viruses that could be linked to Covid, and this was repeated at the hearing by Democrats.
Another issue raised by the Republicans is his advice for the closures, especially of educational institutions, which has impacted students’ learning.
Some of them have also questioned Fauci’s directions on the Covid vaccine.
–IANS
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