Two years after retiring from his position as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Dr. Anthony Fauci returned to Capitol Hill this week for a surprise sequel to the political insanity of the COVID-19 era. Fauci, who became the public face of the pandemic response under both President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden, was no doubt eager to leave the vitriol behind — to no avail.
On Monday, the Republican-led House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, formed over a year ago to investigate the origins and government response to COVID, grilled Fauci on whether he attempted to suppress the theory that the disease emerged from a Chinese lab. The former health official denied this, as well as the idea that U.S. funding and research in virology had helped create COVID, and was thus hidden from the public under his watch. Democrats on the subcommittee blasted Republicans for not presenting a “shred of evidence to substantiate these extreme allegations.”
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), in typical fashion, took the hearing from tense to disruptive. She declared Fauci “does not deserve to have a license” to practice medicine, and that he “should be prosecuted for crimes against humanity.” She advocated prison time.
Refusing to use his title (“You’re not ‘Doctor,’ you’re ‘Mister’ Fauci,” she said, rather proud of herself), Greene accused Fauci of making up distancing and masking rules, personally breaking such rules, funding cruel experiments on dogs, being bought by Big Pharma, and more. He used, according to her, “repulsive, evil science.” Greene’s lurch from one accusation to another was so abrupt that Fauci at times did not know how to respond, and at other times began to dispute her claims, but was quickly cut off. Democrats on the panel and even the Republican chairman pushed back on the collapse of decorum, and one Democrat declared Greene was spreading lies. Watch the exchange here.
Other MAGA loyalists like Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) echoed Greene’s comments. On X, Boebert shared an article from the rightwing publication Daily Mail, which Greene had referenced, that accused Fauci of inventing the six feet rule. Boebert wrote that “they” — presumably, some mix of scientists and Democrats — had “banned people from social media for life” for speaking against COVID policies, ruined people’s businesses and children’s education, and more. “Fauci’s prosecution cannot come soon enough,” she concluded.
Fauci is unlikely to remain in the national conversation for long, returning to his private life while rightwing crosshairs drift elsewhere. This is a sudden blip, not a sudden yet permanent return to the spotlight. The subcommittee’s report will arrive in late 2024, no doubt right before the election to stir up the conservative base. While some far-right members of Congress speak of prison for political opponents, they do not typically point to actual, specific violations of established law, or provide hard evidence thereof. While the report remains to be seen, Greene, Boebert, and others appear at this time to be following this pattern.