Senator Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Dr. Anthony Fauci, the chief medical advisor to the President of the United States, clashed on Capitol Hill in a Senate hearing on Tuesday.
Sen. Paul and Dr. Fauci, who have previously disagreed on issues surrounding Covid-19, engaged in perhaps their most intense and personal debate yet on Capitol Hill.
The senator boldly criticized Fauci’s claim that he represents science, saying, “The idea that a government official would claim to unilaterally represent science and that any criticism of that official would be considered a criticism of science itself, is quite dangerous.”
During a previous interview with Margaret Brennan on CBS, Dr. Fauci responded to Americans who are skeptical of how he has handled the Covid-19 pandemic, stating, “They’re really criticizing science because I represent science – that’s dangerous.”
Paul highlighted the danger of Dr. Fauci’s claim to “represent science.” He said, “A planner who believes he is ‘the science,’ leads to an arrogance that justifies, in his mind, using government resources to smear and destroy the reputations of other scientists who disagree with him.”
Senator Rand Paul specifically questioned Fauci’s role in government mandates throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, saying, “Central planning, whether it be of the economy or of science, is risky because of the fallibility of the planner.”
He continued, “It would not be so catastrophic if the planner where simply one physician in Peoria, then the mistakes would only affect those patients who chose that physician, but when the planner is a government doctor, who rules by mandate, the errors are compounded and become much more harmful.”
In an interview with Laura Ingraham on Fox News after the Senate hearing, Rand Paul once again spoke against Dr. Fauci’s actions, saying, “I think he’s forgotten who he works for.” He added, “I think it’s really dangerous that he’s gotten into his head that somehow he represents all of science.”
During Tuesday’s Senate hearing, Dr. Fauci personally accused Sen. Paul of promoting violence against him. He claimed that Rand Paul was to blame for various death threats he has received, as well as a specific incident involving a man who claimed he was on his way to kill Fauci. In what may turn out to be Dr. Fauci’s worst mistake in Tuesday’s hearing, he even held up a picture from the senator’s website with a label “Fire Dr. Fauci.”
In his interview with Laura Ingraham, the senator addressed Fauci’s claims, saying, “I don’t wish any violence on Fauci. I do wish he’d be fired though.”
After Tuesday’s fiery exchange between Sen. Rand Paul and Dr. Fauci, RSBN reached out to the senator’s office for comment, to which his office replied:
“Anyone who dares to question Fauci’s smear campaign against other scientists is accused by Fauci of fomenting violence. As someone who actually was the target of semiautomatic gunfire by a Bernie Sanders supporter, I never once accused Senator Sanders of being responsible for the attack and I resent Fauci avoiding the question by ginning up the idea that his opponents are the cause of threats.”
Sen. Rand Paul’s office