‘What a moron. Jesus Christ’: Fauci is caught on hot mic attacking Senator Marshall for suggesting he’s hiding his finances after Rand Paul accused him of using government resource and $420,000 salary to destroy scientists who disagree with him
Daily Mail
Dr. Anthony Fauci was overheard on a hot mic calling a Republican senator a ‘moron’ after a particularly heated line of questioning during a Senate Health Committee hearing on Tuesday.
Kansas Senator Roger Marshall was demanding that President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser disclose information about his financial assets, noting his hefty government paycheck.
An exasperated Fauci told him multiple times that his financial disclosures are public knowledge.
After Marshall’s time was up, the infectious disease expert could be heard sighing: ‘What a moron, Jesus Christ.’
He and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky appeared before the Senate panel to defend the Biden administration’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic as it nears the end of its second year.
During the contentious hearing Fauci also accused Republican Senator Rand Paul of personally attacking him for ‘political gain, distorting ‘everything’ he says’ and inspiring ‘crazies’ to want to kill him during another tense battle.
Marshall began his off-topic exchange with a blown up check made out to Fauci for $434,312 and demanded he present his already-public financial disclosures — implicitly accusing the longtime medical expert of possible insider trading.
‘I don’t understand why you’re asking me that question. My financial disclosure is public knowledge and has been so for the last 37 years or so,’ Fauci replied.
Fauci, like most senior government officials, is bound by law to disclose his financial information on an annual basis. There have never been any evidence reported that Fauci has run into trouble with the statute or neglected to follow it.
Marshall pressed him again, ‘But the big tech giants are doing an incredible job of keeping it from being public. We’ll continue to look for it. Where would we find it?’
‘All you have to do is ask for it. You’re so misinformed. It’s extraordinary,’ a bewildered Fauci said.
But the senator was undeterred.
‘Why am I misinformed? This is a huge issue. Wouldn’t you agree with me that you see things before members of Congress would see them, so that there’s an air of appearance that maybe some shenanigans are going on,’ he said.
An exhausted Fauci exploded: ‘What are you talking about?’
Marshall claimed his office couldn’t find Fauci’s financial disclosures.
During the hearing the White House chief medical adviser erupted at his nemesis Paul for suggesting he was using his $420,000 salary, the highest in the federal government, to ‘take down’ scientists he disagrees with and for calling him ‘lead architect’ in the pandemic response that’s led to 800,000 Americans dying under President Biden.
Paul, who has called for Fauci to be fired and prosecuted, referenced emails published by Republican lawmakers on Tuesday containing an exchange between Fauci and his boss, Dr. Francis Collins, in which they dismiss a report that the pandemic originated in the Wuhan lab.
He accused Fauci, 81, of ‘using government resources to center and to destroy the reputations of other scientists who disagree with him.’
‘Do you really think it’s appropriate to use your $420,000 salary to attack science? Paul asked.
Fauci then flew into a rage, told Paul he was ‘completely incorrect’ and mentioned a California grocer who was arrested while travelling to D.C. with an AR-15 and threatening to kill him.
