Fauci Pleads the Fifth, Gets Skewered As a Narcissist

Anthony Fauci refused to answer all questions during Wednesday’s congressional hearing on his handling of Covid-19. He invoked the Fifth Amendment, including when asked to acknowledge a folder in front of him. But that didn’t stop some committee members from tearing into “America’s doctor.”

Fauci’s demeanor was unlike anything the world saw when he led America’s disastrous response to Covid-19. Whereas he once masqueraded as the face of science and confidently barked decrees for everyone to mask up, lock themselves indoors, and take an experimental injection, the man looked defeated and depressed on Wednesday. His head hung low and his facial muscles sagged as he incurred repeated onslaughts. Fauci looked like a con man who’d been discovered and whose only remaining agenda was survival.

No Right to Plead the Fifth

Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) said Fauci had no right to plead the Fifth because he has been pardoned. He was referring to a blanket grant of clemency issued by the Joe Biden administration just as that presidency was ending. The pardon covers a decade and no particular crimes. Some reports suggest the Justice Department is looking into whether it was legal, but there has been no real indication there’s any real interest in going after Fauci.

Hawley told Fauci:

You don’t have any rights under the Fifth Amendment because you’ve been pardoned, as you very well know. As the Supreme Court has been clear for a century or more. Brown v. Walker, 1896: “When he has been pardoned he may not stand upon his privilege.” You know that. Your lawyers sitting behind you now, shifting nervously in their chairs, they know it. This isn’t about the Constitution. This isn’t about the law. This is about contempt. Contempt for this body and contempt for the American people.

Speaking of Fauci’s lawyers, David Schertler was kicked out for disrupting the hearing. He repeatedly tried to speak without being recognized by the chairman, Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.). It appeared he was trying to disrupt the momentum of the beating his client was taking.

Terrible Things

Hawley spent a good deal of his time making the case that Fauci got rich while people suffered. He said the reason Fauci refused to answer questions is because he “did all kinds of terrible things.” Hawley again:

It is because during the pandemic you got rich, didn’t you? You got rich while people were dying. Hundreds of thousands of Americans, over a million in the end, and you were getting rich. And not only were you doing that, you were using federal employees with taxpayer money to apply for and solicit cash prizes for you personally. Cash prizes totaling over a million dollars. You did all of that during the pandemic, didn’t you?… You got over $1 million in cash awards during COVID, during a 12-month, 24-month span during COVID — a million bucks you knocked down in cash money using federal resources. Now you’re worth more than $12 million. You’ve got a pension that in its first year paid out north of $400,000 a year. A million people dead, you’re getting rich.

Hawley explained, with the help of illustrative poster boards, how Fauci’s underlings solicited federal cash awards, including one that amounted to $900,000, for their boss. “You turned your staff into a full time application machine,” said Hawley. Fauci’s staff pressured ethics agencies to allow Fauci to win the cash prizes, which netted him more than $1 million, according to Hawley. “Now you’re worth more than $12 million,” added Hawley. The senator pointed out that what Fauci did was illegal, saying, “Federal law, as you very well know, prohibits the solicitation of cash awards or other personal benefits for federal employees.”

Gain of Function

Fauci was forced to show up before the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security by subpoena. Paul wants to know why the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases lied by consistently denying that he funded gain-of-function research. Paul told Fox News a few weeks ago that the transparency by Health and Human Services, the parent agency of NIAID, under Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., has provided documentation that suggests beyond a reasonable doubt that Fauci funded gain-of-function and that he knew early on that many credible scientists and America’s top intelligence agencies believed the virus came from a lab.

Paul is also responsible for the public release of hundreds of pages out of Fauci’s diary during his time as leader of America’s Covid response. Fauci mentioned this during his short opening statement, the only time he said anything other than pleading the Fifth. He accused Paul of having an “unhinged obsession” with him. Paul has, indeed, behaved like a dog who got hold of a bone he refuses to let go of. But his doggedness is a service to all Americans.

Power Trip

Fauci’s diary entries show a man who was obsessed with himself, a man who reveled in media attention and the cultish fawning he received at the time. Fauci meticulously documented his media appearances. You can read more about that in our previous reporting here.

Hawley drew this conclusion about Fauci:

At the end of the day, it wasn’t just about the money, really, was it? It was really about a power trip. I can tell you from reading your emails now, from looking at what you did, how you used your employees. Somewhere along the line, it became all about you. You became a narcissist and a megalomaniac and a liar. And you’ve lied to the American people, and you’ve lied to this body, and you’ve disgraced your profession by doing it. You called yourself the most famous scientist in the world. You’ve done more to harm science than anybody in my lifetime. And I hope you’ll go home and write that in your diary.

The committee will vote next week on whether to hold Fauci in contempt for his refusal to answer questions.