SAY WHAT? - House Republicans who never learn followed the reality-defying lead of their Felon-in-Chief Monday by harassing and vilifying Dr. Anthony Fauci, who saved thousands of lives with an expedited COVID vaccine, charging him with stealing Americans' "freedoms," making millions from Big Pharma, murdering puppies and committing "crimes against humanity" - the last from Three Names Klan Mom, who furiously spurned his title of "doctor" and "so-called SCIENCE." Clean up at freak show in Aisle 7.
In his first Congressional testimony in two years, Dr. Fauci voluntarily appeared before a House Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, which has spent 15 months "investigating" our sorry-ass response to the pandemic and trying to prove that U.S.-funded, probs-Fauci-led research in China helped give rise to it. The esteemed immunologist, 83, headed the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) for nearly 40 years, advising every U.S president since Reagan and directing research on HIV, AIDS, Ebola, Zika, and COVID-19. As a calm, cultured, knowledgeable man of science with multiple medical degrees, he's been a "bright, blazing' target for MAGA morons outraged that he made children - children! - wear masks and declined to endorse the lunatic injecting of bleach as a DIY COVID cure. Thus did he trudge to D.C. to be grilled by the clueless likes of an assistant, sexual-assault-complicit wrestling coach and a shrieky CrossFit, Space Laser enthusiast who "lacks the brainpower God gave a turnip" and gets her ideas from QAnoners with "not always ideologically consistent" screen names like FauciIsANazi and HeilTrump88.
The hearing opened on a suitably somber note for a global, once-in-a-lifetime pandemic that killed over a million Americans. "You and your agency made mistakes, Dr. Fauci," intoned Chairman Brad Wenstrup, R-Ohio. "What happened? We all need to be held accountable." Claiming "Americans were aggressively bullied, shamed and silenced for merely questioning or debating issues such as social distancing, masks, vaccines or the origins of COVID," an increasingly strident Wenstrup charged Fauci oversaw "one of the most invasive regimes of domestic policy the U.S. has ever seen." (Maybe 'cause it was one of the most invasive epidemics the U.S. has ever seen? Just askin'...). In response, Democrats led by ranking member Raul Ruiz noted that in over a year of frantic scavenging on the taxpayers' dime - including seeking access to Fauci's personal email and phone records - Repubs haven't found "a shred of evidence to substantiate these extreme allegations." At the same time, while using Fauci as a scapegoat for Trump's grotesque failures, they've also missed a vital opportunity to prepare for whatever next deadly, future crisis inevitably hovers.
In a forceful, dignified opening statement, Fauci insisted he has "nothing to hide." He called the GOP allegation he'd influenced scientists to fudge their findings or deny a possible link to a Wuhan lab leak by bribing them with millions of dollars in grant money "absolutely false and simply preposterous," and he brought receipts: an email in which he encouraged them to report their data to higher-ups. He also noted he'd helped develop a vaccine in an unprecedentedly short time. Finally, his voice breaking, he decried the "troublesome" death threats against himself and most painfully his wife and three daughters; ranging from harassment by email and text to "credible" reports leading to arrests of at least two people "clearly on their way to kill me," the threats required 24-hour protective services - and they're ongoing, and still do. As proof of the still-looming dangers of MAGA zealots, some observers noted the unexplained presence at the hearing of "a couple of J6 nutters" - some of the good people on all sides, though one was eventually led out - showboating and making faces behind Fauci as he choked up about what his family has endured.
From there, the tawdry clown car packed with "troglodyte idiots" and ignorant crackpots playing doctor quickly went off the rails. Cue a coke-like-fueled Gym Jordan, known for his performative denseness confronting Fauci on Americans' "liberties assaulted" by diabolical mask-wearing and social-distancing - the last time he screamed at him, "When will Americans get their freedoms back? Give me a date!," Maxine Waters coolly advised, "Shut your mouth." This week, he yelled about Biden and Zuckerberg allegedly trying to downplay a possible Wuhan leak before Fauci asked, "What does this have to do with me?" So it went. Rep. Nicole Malliotakis theatrically swung and missed on the NIH's reported $710 million in royalties from Big Pharma since COVID. How much has he gotten, she asked. Zero, he said, though he added he does get "$122 a year for a monoclonal antibody I created 27 years ago." Arizona Rep. Debbie Lesko also dismally failed on the same topic. Fauci pointed out she'd said 4 or 5 things "that were just not true," she sputtered, squawked, feebly shot back, "Well, we have emails to prove it"; a placid Fauci replied, "No, you don't."
Still, it took braying three-toed sloth, grandstander, and Gazpacho police lady MTG, who wants to defund New York state for finding Trump guilty of 34 felonies, to turn it into a true shitshow by pointedly calling Fauci "Mister" because "his medical license should be revoked and he belongs in jail." His "crimes": "Children - "children! - all over America were forced to wear masks...muzzled in their schools, and then they were forced to work from home because of your so-called science." Rebuked for her "inappropriate" lack of decorum, she shrieked if it was "appropriate" for Americans "to be abused like that" before galloping on - "I don't need your answer" - to wave puppy pictures and spew Fauci murdered beagles while "director of the NIH"- "As a dog lover, I want to tell you this is disgusting and evil" - an evident reference to research in Tunisia where scientists mistakenly listed the NIH, which Fauci never ran, as a funder before correcting it, but not before a manic #FauciLiedDogsDied deluge helped along by Don Jr's "Fauci Kills Puppies" T-shirts. Fauci, mildly: "What do dogs have to do with anything we’re talking about today?" She also blamed him and his "repulsive evil science" for "the poor (men) injected with syphilis" in the notorious 1930s Tuskegee experiments, when Fauci wasn't born, snarling this proves "this government (doesn’t) have decorum to the American people" and, "You belong in prison, Dr. Fauci."
'The Medical Big Lie': Jamie Raskin Torches Republicans At Hearing With Dr. Fauciwww.youtube.com
Whew, said many. One observer compared the vicious tirade to "this legitimate wild animal masquerading as a human being - I fully expect her to just devour a child on camera live one day." One retort: "I think that's jolly unfair to wild animals." Even Wenstrup, after interjecting several times, snapped, "Gentlelady, suspend," aka, likewise, shut your mouth. House Democrats duly spoke up for the good doctor, starting with Rep. Jared Moscowitz, who also asked helpful questions about U.S. preparedness, the supposed topic of the day. "I saw a member of this committee question whether or not you represent science," he respectfully told Fauci. "I did want you to know most Americans don't think she represents Congress." A deadpan Jamie Raskin also often interrupted MTG's ravings. To the "Mister" not "Doctor" nonsense: "Just in terms of the rules of decorum, are we allowed to deny that a doctor is a doctor just because we don’t want him to be a doctor?" To the issue of Fauci hiding evidence from Wuhan despite 38 years in his illustrious position: "I assume you've never been accused of trying to start a disease before, is that right?" Fauci: "Correct."
Raskin got serious when it came to Republicans who, after years of peddling a dangerous political Big Lie, now insist on still hawking an equally dangerous medical Big Lie whose "runaway political rhetoric" turns the much-respected, life-saving Dr. Fauci into "a comic-book super villain." This, never mind their real-life villain who's long championed revenge - "I love getting even when I get screwed by someone" - who told Americans during COVID to inject bleach - "What do you have to lose? - even as he rejected any responsibility for the outcome, whose malignant hubris and deep stupidity reportedly killed hundreds of thousands of Americans, and who's now a doddering, conniving, vengeful madman seeing imaginary fans. "I want to join my colleague from Florida in apologizing to you that (some) in the House want to drag your name through the mud," he told Dr. Fauci. "They're treating you like a convicted felon....Actually, you probably wish they were...They treat convicted felons with love and admiration."
Ending the hearing, California Rep. Robert Garcia apologized to Fauci about what "might have been the most insane hearing" he'd attended. "I am so sorry you just had to sit through that," he said. "That was completely irresponsible." Garcia, who said both his parents died in the pandemic, called Fauci "an American hero" whose team "has done more to save lives than all 435 members of this body on both sides of the aisle." Later, he also called Greene "a national embarrassment." But she and her shameless, envious, know nothing, learn less GOP, intent on making the competent Fauci "an avatar of the retribution they are seeking" if the convicted felon returns to power, isn't having it. Especially after Fauci went on CNN post-hearing to assail Greene by name and note the result, "like clockwork," of her disgorging malevolent fictions like "the deaths of X number of people (were) because of policies (I) created." "When you have performances like that unusual performance by Marjorie Taylor Greene...Those are the kinds of things that drive up the death threats, because there's a segment of the population (who) believe that kind of nonsense."
First up, the people who spew it. Greene still hasn't shut up. "The mainstream media lies about everything," she raved. "(They're) an extension of the Democrat (sic) party and the Intelligence Community. And they’re all working together so they can keep a commie-level grip on power." (We wish.) Later, she bemoaned she too gets death threats "ALL THE TIME" but has to pay for her own security, and besides people hate Fauci not from her words but "the FACT that his ridiculous non-scientific tyrannical policies DESTROYED peoples lives and he's a narcissistic asshole and liar." The hearing was "nonstop bullshit antics" from Democrats who "don't have anything (and) are responsible for the (Trump-era) lockdowns, forced vaccinations, people committing suicide and all the horrors this country lived through during COVID." Plus bioweapons, murdered animals, convicted felon George Floyd, getting RICH off of (sic) patents" - it's almost like she doesn't hear anything said to her - "and Mr. Fauci calls all of that SCIENCE!! Mr. Fauci belongs in prison for crimes against humanity!!!" Also, it seems, "humidity." Stop the hateful stupid, please, we wanna get off.
(Abby Zimet has written CD's Further column since 2008. A longtime, award-winning journalist, she moved to the Maine woods in the early 70s, where she spent a dozen years building a house, hauling water and writing before moving to Portland. Having come of political age during the Vietnam War, she has long been involved in women's, labor, anti-war, social justice and refugee rights issues. Email: [email protected]. This article was first featured in CommonDreams.org.)
