Cruz Calls for Charges Against Fauci After Hearing

On Wednesday, Senator Ted Cruz was among the first to advocate for criminal charges against former White House medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci. This came after Fauci invoked the Fifth Amendment a staggering 111 times during Senate hearings related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Dr. Fauci really ought to consider the end of his professional life. He’ll likely be remembered for pleading the Fifth over a hundred times,” Cruz (R-Texas) shared with Fox News Digital.

“He is arguably the most toxic bureaucrat in American history…He ought to be hated. He should face perjury charges and spend time in prison,” he added.

Fauci, who is 85 and formerly directed the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), appeared before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, led by Chairman Rand Paul (R-Ky.). However, he chose not to reveal any details about his decisions during the federal government’s COVID-19 response or his involvement in funding tests on dangerous pathogens in China, which is where the outbreak began.

Despite having received a comprehensive pardon from former President Joe Biden covering 11 years of work, Fauci opted to exercise his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination—this decision infuriated Republican lawmakers.

“I believe Anthony Fauci has shown disrespect towards Congress and the American public for decades,” Cruz stated. “His diary indicates that he repeatedly deceived the public… Early entries reveal he acknowledged that the coronavirus didn’t originate from the Wuhan wet market, but later he contradicted himself on national television.

“He also boasts in his diary about persuading Democrats in New York and California to close schools, yet he later claimed on TV that he didn’t support such closures,” Cruz remarked.

“The school closures that he took credit for might be the most devastating public policy we’ve seen in many years,” Cruz said. “The educational setbacks will follow our children for their entire lives. They will deal with the repercussions of Fauci’s corrupt and untruthful government shutdown even when they’re in their 90s.”

On the other side of the aisle, Senator John Fetterman from Pennsylvania, part of Paul’s committee, suggested that his Republican colleagues may have gone too far by allowing Fauci to respond to questions in a mechanical fashion for a full three hours. He noted that while accountability is essential, humiliating an 85-year-old man isn’t necessary.

“Do we really need to make him say ‘fifth’ 111 times?” Fetterman questioned in an interview with NewsNation’s “Cuomo.”