Fauci Blasted For Remarks About Cruz, Calling GOP Senators Liars: ‘Something A Cult Leader Would Say’
Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the Chief Medical Advisor to the president, faced backlash on Sunday over attacks that he launched against Republican senators.
Fauci, who made the remarks during an interview on CBS News’ “Face The Nation” with host Margaret Brennan, claimed during the same interview, “I’ve stayed away from politics my entire life.”
“Anybody who spins lies and threatens and all that theater that goes on with some of the investigations and the congressional committees and the Rand Pauls and all that other nonsense, that’s noise, Margaret, that’s noise,” Fauci said.
Later, when asked about Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) saying that Fauci should be prosecuted by the Department of Justice, Fauci responded: “Yeah. I have to laugh at that. I should be prosecuted? What happened on Jan. 6, senator?”
Fauci claimed that Republicans were trying to scapegoat him to protect former President Donald Trump and that Republicans who are attacking him are “lying.”
“And if you’re attacking me, you’re really attacking science,” Fauci claimed. “I mean, everybody knows that.”
Notable responses to Fauci’s remarks include:
Jeryl Bier, journalist: “This is not helpful in any way. This is almost word for word something a cult leader would say. This persuades no one not already in his corner.”Richard Grenell, former Acting Director of National Intelligence: “Fauci is all about politics.”Alicia Smith, political commentator: “Look, you don’t have to be some Fauci conspiracy theorist to recognize that Fauci’s utility as a trusted public health official has long since expired, and he tends to be a net negative when it comes to clarity and trust.”Steve Guest, Special Adviser for Communications for Senator Cruz: “Dr. Fauci’s flippant response underscores how he views himself as Democrat political operative first and ‘scientist’ last. Fauci lives to weaponize his white lab coat to suit his partisan aims and win plaudits from the DC swamp.”Larry Sanger, ex-founder of Wikipedia: “Fauci is a bureaucrat, not a scientist.”Matt Whitlock, political strategist: “Now I want to know what Dr Fauci thinks happened on January 6th that Senator Cruz should be prosecuted for. Genuinely don’t understand the strategy of continuing to have him on Sunday shows almost every week — the audience he can influence only continues to shrink.”Noam Blum, Tablet Magazine: “An appallingly bad thing for someone in his position to be saying. Not a shred of humility about any of the things he got wrong, had to waffle on, or later took back or equivocated. Instead goes all Fauci XIV and says ‘la science c’est moi.’ Yikes.”Dan McLaughlin, National Review: “Is Dr. Fauci under the impression that nobody is being prosecuted for Jan. 6? Or is he saying Ted Cruz should be prosecuted for speech & debate on the Senate floor?”
Lawmakers like Sens. Rand Paul and Ted Cruz have called for Dr. Fauci to step down and be prosecuted over the course of COVID-19. Fauci scoffs at such threats, calling it “noise.”
“They’re really criticizing science because I represent science. That’s dangerous.” pic.twitter.com/zLzceD2DHe
— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) November 28, 2021
TRANSCRIPT PROVIDED VIA CBS NEWS:
MARGARET BRENNAN: Why do you feel so strongly about that, about staying on the job when you become, I mean, you were personally not just rhetorically threatened, your security, your safety, your family? How did you deal with that?
DR. FAUCI: I dealt with it by focusing on what my job is. Fron the time that I went into medicine to right now, where I am at my age, my job has been totally focused on doing what I can with the talents and the influence I had to make scientific advances to protect the health of the American public. So, anybody who spins lies and threatens and all that theater that goes on with some of the investigations and the congressional committees and the Rand Pauls and all that other nonsense, that’s noise, Margaret, that’s noise. I know what my job is.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Senator Cruz told the attorney general you should be prosecuted.
DR. FAUCI: Yeah. I have to laugh at that. I should be prosecuted? What happened on Jan. 6, senator?
MARGARET BRENNAN: Do you think that this is about making you a scapegoat to deflect–
DR. FAUCI: Of course—
MARGARET BRENNAN: –From President Trump?
DR. FAUCI: Of course, you have to be asleep not to figure that one out.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, there are a lot of Republican senators taking aim at this. I mean–
DR. FAUCI: That’s OK, I’m just going to do my job and I’m going to be saving lives and they’re going to be lying.
MARGARET BRENNAN: It just, it seems, another layer of danger to play politics around matters of life and death.
DR. FAUCI: Right, exactly. Exactly. And to me, that’s- that’s unbelievably bad because all I want to do is save people’s lives. That’s what I have done for the last 50 years, 40
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