Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas., is calling for Anthony Fauci to be held in contempt and sent to jail after his Senate hearing on Wednesday for his alleged dishonesty about COVID-19
to both Congress and the American people.
Fauci said “Although it pains me to do so, because of the respect I have for the legislative branch of government, and my decades-long record of cooperating with Congress, under the advice of my attorneys, I will invoke my right under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution to refrain from answering your questions” before the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, after being subpoenaed by Kentucky senator and committee chair Rand Paul.
Cruz said, “Dr. Fauci ought to think about what it says about the end of his career, that what he will be remembered for the most is pleading the Fifth more than 100 times.”
Cruz continued, “Years from now, they’ll look back and say, ‘What collective madness overtook this country?'” to Fox News Digital.
He said, “He’s been the most damaging bureaucrat in the history of America.”
Cruz also said Fauci “has had contempt for Congress and contempt for the American people for decades.”
“His diary shows that he deliberately lied to the American people over and over and over again,” the Texas senator added.
According to Cruz, “In his diary, he wrote early on that it was clear that the COVID virus did not come from the wet market in Wuhan, and then he turned around and said exactly the opposite thing on national television.”
Cruz said, “In his diary, he brags about convincing Democrats in New York and California to shut schools down and yet he goes on TV and says, ‘Oh, I wasn’t for shutdowns.'”
A separate GOP senator also escalated his rhetoric on Wednesday. Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama said, “I promise you one thing: we will find out if there’s a possibility that we can bring him to Alabama, to put him in front of a court and a jury, to see if we can put this guy in prison,” speaking of a potential future role as governor.
Tuberville also said Fauci “killed millions of people and he lied through his teeth” and “should be locked up before he leaves this building today and put in prison, and then put on trial in front of the American people.”
He continued, “We lost 20 to 30,000 people in Alabama alone, and I hope every one of them sues this Dr Fauci, puts him in court.”
In the viral moment that sparked Wednesday’s senatorial outcry, Fauci declined to answer any questions before the Senate committee focused on the coronavirus pandemic, after being subpoenaed by committee chair Rand Paul. Fauci said, “Given Senator Paul’s obvious obsession with calling for my prosecution, his repeated slanderous comments about me, and recently his publicly releasing my unredacted personal diary aimed at embarrassing and intimidating me, the only conclusion I can reach is that the sole reason he is 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.'” Rand Paul said the committee will vote on a contempt resolution against Fauci next week.
Paul scheduled the vote on whether to hold Fauci in contempt for Aug. 5.