Days before grilling Anthony Fauci at a Senate hearing, Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) released more than a thousand pages of Fauci’s personal diary entries and work records.
These had been made available to him by Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.—a notorious foe of vaccines.
Fauci blasted the move by the senator as an attempt at “embarrassing and intimidating” him.
As a result, Fauci did not answer a single question from any lawmakers during the entire three-hour hearing, invoking the Fifth Amendment 111 times: “On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.”
Republican senators, in turn, attacked Fauci over COVID-19 pandemic guidance—and his refusal to testify.
Senator Bernie Moreno (R-OH) gave voice to that antagonism:
“It was about six years ago today that I decided I’m going to give up my businesses, sell them all, run for office, run for United States Senate. And here I am sitting in front of you six years later, saying who the fuck do you think you were for doing that? It is a total disgrace what you did to this country.”
Moreno called Fauci a criminal and said he was more concerned about being a celebrity than helping the American people: “There is no defense of what you did. You may have had a 50+ year legacy of public service, but it ends in total and complete disgrace.”
Bernie Moreno
Moreno asked Fauci to apologize to people, business owners and military members the Senator said were harmed by COVID restrictions.
As if inconveniencing business owners was a far greater sin than taking steps to save lives.
Others blasted Moreno for his questioning, with several pointing out how he had largely remained silent when his daughter accused her ex-husband, Rep. Max Miller (R-OH), of physically abusing her. Moreno had called it a “private, personal matter.”
“Did Senator Bernie Moreno call out his son in law who beat his daughter with any of the same vigor as he did fauci?” former Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger wrote in a social media post.
Senator Gary Peters, (D-MI) the top Democrat on the committee, looked beyond the hearing to its impact on history and science:
“It’s tempting to turn one person into the scapegoat for a crisis that hundreds of officials across both the Trump and the Biden administration were responsible for handling.
“This is only going to, unfortunately, deter other scientific experts from public service to understand that this is what they would have to go through as they provide their advice to us.”
Gary Peters
Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) said that the hearing was an effort “to rewrite this history” of the pandemic: [“it is] shameful that in a country like ours, a dedicated public servant like Doctor Fauci has experienced persistent threats to his life since the pandemic because of the lies that are told about him.”
And he called the proceeding “an insult to the memory of more than one million Americans who died from COVID-19.”
Paul challenged Fauci over his Fifth Amendment right, warning him: “It’s against the law to obstruct an investigation of Congress. There will be repercussions for your refusal to testify.”
Fauci’s attorney David Schertler called the hearing part of Paul’s “public crusade” against the scientist. And he repeatedly tried to speak up after Paul threatened Fauci but was silenced by Paul.
PAUL: “You will respect these proceedings. You were told not to sit at the table. You insist on sitting at the table and we told you you would not be recognized. You are not invited here for testimony, sir. You are being disruptive.”
Schertler continued to speak with Paul, and Senator Gary Peters asked for the attorney to be given an opportunity—but was denied.
PAUL: “There’s a row behind you, sir. That’s where you were told to sit … and now you’re disrupting the proceedings.
“That’s the way you want to be remembered, and that’s what you’re going to do. You are not recognized, sir. Security, please remove him from the room.”
Upon exiting the hearing room, Schertler told reporters that Fauci “has a valid Fifth Amendment privilege and he has the right to assert it and that’s what I was trying to tell the committee.”
After the hearing, Paul told NBC News that the committee would vote next week on holding Fauci in contempt of Congress.
“We will schedule a vote. It’s already been scheduled for next week, for a vote on contempt of Congress, referral of contempt of Congress. If the vote is affirmative, it will be sent to the Department of Justice, and they will have to make a decision whether to pursue this.
“We believe that with his liability, his immunity from criminal liability, that he didn’t need to hide behind the Fifth Amendment, and that maybe the Fifth Amendment doesn’t attach when you have a pardon in place.”
The vote was expected to occur at a Department of Homeland Security business meeting scheduled for 10:00 a.m. on August 5.
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SOCRATES COMES TO THE SENATE: PART THREE (OF FIVE)
In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Medical, Politics, Social commentary on August 26, 2026 at 12:05 amDays before grilling Anthony Fauci at a Senate hearing, Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) released more than a thousand pages of Fauci’s personal diary entries and work records.
These had been made available to him by Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.—a notorious foe of vaccines.
Fauci blasted the move by the senator as an attempt at “embarrassing and intimidating” him.
As a result, Fauci did not answer a single question from any lawmakers during the entire three-hour hearing, invoking the Fifth Amendment 111 times: “On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.”
Republican senators, in turn, attacked Fauci over COVID-19 pandemic guidance—and his refusal to testify.
Senator Bernie Moreno (R-OH) gave voice to that antagonism:
“It was about six years ago today that I decided I’m going to give up my businesses, sell them all, run for office, run for United States Senate. And here I am sitting in front of you six years later, saying who the fuck do you think you were for doing that? It is a total disgrace what you did to this country.”
Moreno called Fauci a criminal and said he was more concerned about being a celebrity than helping the American people: “There is no defense of what you did. You may have had a 50+ year legacy of public service, but it ends in total and complete disgrace.”
Bernie Moreno
Moreno asked Fauci to apologize to people, business owners and military members the Senator said were harmed by COVID restrictions.
As if inconveniencing business owners was a far greater sin than taking steps to save lives.
Others blasted Moreno for his questioning, with several pointing out how he had largely remained silent when his daughter accused her ex-husband, Rep. Max Miller (R-OH), of physically abusing her. Moreno had called it a “private, personal matter.”
“Did Senator Bernie Moreno call out his son in law who beat his daughter with any of the same vigor as he did fauci?” former Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger wrote in a social media post.
Senator Gary Peters, (D-MI) the top Democrat on the committee, looked beyond the hearing to its impact on history and science:
“It’s tempting to turn one person into the scapegoat for a crisis that hundreds of officials across both the Trump and the Biden administration were responsible for handling.
“This is only going to, unfortunately, deter other scientific experts from public service to understand that this is what they would have to go through as they provide their advice to us.”
Gary Peters
Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) said that the hearing was an effort “to rewrite this history” of the pandemic: [“it is] shameful that in a country like ours, a dedicated public servant like Doctor Fauci has experienced persistent threats to his life since the pandemic because of the lies that are told about him.”
And he called the proceeding “an insult to the memory of more than one million Americans who died from COVID-19.”
Paul challenged Fauci over his Fifth Amendment right, warning him: “It’s against the law to obstruct an investigation of Congress. There will be repercussions for your refusal to testify.”
Fauci’s attorney David Schertler called the hearing part of Paul’s “public crusade” against the scientist. And he repeatedly tried to speak up after Paul threatened Fauci but was silenced by Paul.
PAUL: “You will respect these proceedings. You were told not to sit at the table. You insist on sitting at the table and we told you you would not be recognized. You are not invited here for testimony, sir. You are being disruptive.”
Schertler continued to speak with Paul, and Senator Gary Peters asked for the attorney to be given an opportunity—but was denied.
PAUL: “There’s a row behind you, sir. That’s where you were told to sit … and now you’re disrupting the proceedings.
“That’s the way you want to be remembered, and that’s what you’re going to do. You are not recognized, sir. Security, please remove him from the room.”
Upon exiting the hearing room, Schertler told reporters that Fauci “has a valid Fifth Amendment privilege and he has the right to assert it and that’s what I was trying to tell the committee.”
After the hearing, Paul told NBC News that the committee would vote next week on holding Fauci in contempt of Congress.
“We will schedule a vote. It’s already been scheduled for next week, for a vote on contempt of Congress, referral of contempt of Congress. If the vote is affirmative, it will be sent to the Department of Justice, and they will have to make a decision whether to pursue this.
“We believe that with his liability, his immunity from criminal liability, that he didn’t need to hide behind the Fifth Amendment, and that maybe the Fifth Amendment doesn’t attach when you have a pardon in place.”
The vote was expected to occur at a Department of Homeland Security business meeting scheduled for 10:00 a.m. on August 5.
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