Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) questions top infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci during a Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee hearing on Capitol hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., July 20, 2021. J. Scott Applewhite/Pool via REUTERS

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Politics

TRENDING VIDEO: Fauci, Paul have fierce back and forth at hearing

Jul 20, 2021

Ben Burke Producer

By Ben Burke (Producer)

In a back-and-forth we’ve seen before, Dr. Anthony Fauci and Senator Rand Paul had another heated exchange. Dr. Fauci and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky testified in front of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee Tuesday morning. The video above shows some of the back-and-forth.

It started with Senator Paul insinuating the U.S. helped fund research at a Chinese lab that could have sparked the COVID-19 outbreak. “Dr. Fauci, knowing that it is a crime to lie to Congress, do you wish to retract your statement of May 11th where you claimed that the NIH never funded ‘gain-of-function’ research in Wuhan,” Paul asked.

“Gain-of-function” research is the practice of enhancing a virus in a lab to study its potential impact in the real world.

“Senator Paul, I have never lied before the Congress, and I do not retract that statement,” Fauci responded. “This paper that you were referring to was judged by qualified staff up and down the chain as not being ‘gain-of-function’.”

Fauci went on to say the study the senator mentioned referenced a different sort of virus entirely from the one responsible for the coronavirus outbreak.

“Senator Paul, you do not know what you’re talking about, quite frankly,” Fauci said. “And I want to say that officially, you do not know what you’re talking about.”

Paul said all he was alleging was “that ‘gain-of-function’ research was going on” at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, “and NIH funded it”. However, Fauci accused Paul of “Implying that what we did was responsible for the deaths of individuals”.

“I totally resent that,” Fauci said. “If anybody is lying here, Senator, it is you.”

It was the latest in a series of clashes between Paul and Fauci about the origins of the virus. U.S. Intelligence agencies are currently exploring theories that an accidental leak from that lab could have led to the pandemic.

Tags: Pandemic

Sen. Rand Paul, (R) Kentucky: “Dr. Fauci, knowing that it is a crime to lie to Congress, do you wish to retract your statement of May 11th where you claimed that the NIH never funded ‘gain of function’ research in Wuhan?”

Dr. Anthony Fauci, NIH National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases: “Senator Paul, I have never lied before the Congress, and I do not retract that statement. This paper that you were referring to was judged by qualified staff up and down the chain as not being ‘gain of function’. Senator Paul, you do not know what you are talking about, quite frankly. And I want to say that officially, you do not know what you are talking about.”

Sen. Rand Paul, (R) Kentucky: “It’s a dance and you’re dancing around this because you’re trying to obscure responsibility for four million people dying around the world from a pandemic.”

Dr. Anthony Fauci, NIH National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases: “If the point that you were making is that the grant that was funded as a sub award from EcoHealth to Wuhan created Sars-Cov-2. That’s where you are getting. Let me finish.”

Sen. Rand Paul, (R) Kentucky: “We don’t know. (Dr. Fauci: Well, wait a minute.) We don’t know if it did come from the lab, but all of the evidence is pointing that it came from the lab and there will be responsibility for those who funded the lab, including yourself.”

Dr. Anthony Fauci, NIH National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases: “I totally resent the lie that you are now propagating, Senator, because if you look at the viruses that were used in the experiments that were given in the annual reports that were published in the literature, it is molecularly impossible.”

Sen. Rand Paul, (R) Kentucky: “No one’s saying those viruses caused it, (Dr. Fauci: it is it is molecularly…) no one is saying that those viruses caused the pandemic. What we’re alleging is that ‘gain of function’ research was going on in that lab and NIH funded it. …You can’t get right away from it. It meets your definition, and you are obfuscating the truth.”

Dr. Anthony Fauci, NIH National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases: “I’m not obfuscating the truth. You are the one. (Chairman Murray: The senator’s time is expired. But I will allow the witness to.) Let me just finish. I want everyone to understand that if you look at those viruses and that’s judged by qualified virologists and evolutionary biologists, those viruses are molecularly impossible.”

Sen. Rand Paul, (R) Kentucky: “No one is saying they are. No one’s saying those viruses caused the pandemic. We are saying they are gain of function viruses because there were animal viruses, that became more transmissible in human. And you funded it.”

Dr. Anthony Fauci, NIH National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases: “And you… (Sen. Paul: Admit the truth.) and you implying (Chairman Murray: Your time has expired. And I will allow witnesses who come before this committee to respond.) And you are implying that what we did was responsible for the deaths of individuals. I totally resent that…If anybody is lying here, senator, it is you.”