Another Republican on the committee, Rep. Richard McCormick of Georgia, asserted that “we now know that Fauci had secret meetings with the CIA.”
Fox News, the New York Post and other right-wing conspiracy theorists circulated the claim. And there was nothing. The subcommittee presented no evidence to support the allegation, purportedly made by a whistleblower, or to refute Fauci’s testimony that he hadn’t been to the CIA in 20 years. Fauci, now retired after leading the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for decades, appeared before the committee at a hearing on Monday and mocked the idea that he would “parachute into the CIA like Jason Bourne and tell the CIA they shouldn’t tell them about the lab leak.”
So what did the Republican committee do after the Fauci/CIA conspiracy theory collapsed? They acted like it never happened. Republican staff director Mitch Benzin announced when questioning Fauci at the hearing, “That’s not what the committee alleged.”
Why would anyone not think so?
This follows a pattern. The Select Subcommittee on Weaponization of the Federal Government was panned by right-wing media after holding several hearings that failed to produce anything but fiction about the so-called Deep State. The Oversight Committee’s investigation into Joe Biden’s “corruption” failed to find even a trace of wrongdoing by the president, forcing Republicans to quietly shelve their impeachment ambitions.
Republican House members have promised a number of shocking statements on the COVID-19 Task Force over the past year and a half.
“The evidence is mounting that American tax dollars helped develop COVID and that Dr. Fauci deliberately suppressed the lab leak claim to cover it up,” argued Nicole Malliotakis (New York).
“Dr. Fauci has made millions while many have lost loved ones, businesses and livelihoods,” said Michael Cloud (R-Texas).
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) claimed the new coronavirus was “manufactured in a lab funded by Fauci.”
The documents and testimony the committee collected over 18 months found no evidence of these wild claims, although they uncovered misconduct by grant recipients and Fauci’s advisers. The U.S. did not fund the research that created the pathogen. Fauci did not lie about the U.S. role in “gain of function” research at the Wuhan, China, lab. He did not try to cover up the lab leak claim or bribe people to deny it. He did not get rich from the pandemic – although he testified that he made about $120 a year from antibodies he developed years ago.
And when Fauci appeared before Congress on Monday, Republicans attacked him in every way they could think of.
Malliotakis reprimanded him for “cruel and horrific animal research” on beagles, piglets and rabbits at NIH.
“I don’t know what that has to do with the origins of COVID-19,” Fauci replied.
Greene didn’t care what it had to do with COVID-19. “As a dog lover, I want to say this is horrible and evil,” she said, and recommended that Fauci “go to jail.” She also reportedly called Fauci “a doctor, Mr. Fauci.” Democrats objected, and the committee sparred for several minutes over proper etiquette.
The controversy over Dr Fauci’s title (he is an MD) became even more absurd when Wenstrup emphasized in his opening statement that “I am a physician and during the COVID-19 outbreak I worked with another physician in Ohio to try to understand the pathology.”
Wenstrup didn’t mention that he is a podiatrist. Could he have been studying the effects of corona on the metatarsals?
But the constant repetition of conspiracy theories is no fun because, as Dr. Fauci testified, it has led to endless harassment of him and his family, including the arrest of two people who “are trying to kill me.” He said he needs full-time security.
But rather than focusing on lessons about masks, vaccines and school and business closures that could potentially save lives in the future, Republicans kept returning to the same conspiracy theories that are now putting Fauci’s life at risk — and Fauci kept defeating them.
He told Debbie Lesko (Arizona) “There are four or five things you said that are just not true.”
He advised Jim Jordan (Ohio) to “look at the facts.”
And to Benzin, his staff director, Fauci laughed and offered a succinct critique: “I know where you’re trying to go, but you’re not going to get there.”
