The infectious disease expert spoke after a hearing in which the Georgia lawmaker said he belongs in prison
Published June 4, 2024 11:49AM (EDT)
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) holds up a photograph of Dr. Anthony Fauci, former Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, while questioning him during a hearing of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic at the Rayburn House Office Building on June 03, 2024 in Washington, DC. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., hijacked the House Oversight Committee meeting on Monday to lambast Dr. Anthony Fauci over has response to the COVID-19 pandemic, resorting to all sorts of name-calling and bizarrely insisting that the retired medical professional is “not a doctor.”
Fauci, former head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, was summoned to the hearing as part of a effort by Republicans to push conspiracy theories about the origins of and response to the pandemic, Raw Story reported. Theories included that there was no scientific evidence for social distancing and that the real origins of the virus were still unknown because of an international cover up.
Greene kicked things up a notch when she told the doctor, who served under former President Donald Trump, that he “belonged in prison” because of his “crimes against humanity,” The Independent reported.
Greene added that Fauci experimented on beagles with disease-causing parasites, something that she simply couldn’t bear “as a dog lover” (she was referencing a scientific study that had received an NIAID grant).
“I want to tell you this is disgusting and evil, what you signed off on, and these experiments that happened to beagles paid for by the American taxpayer,” she told Fauci. “And I want you to know that Americans don’t pay their taxes for animals to be tortured liked this.”
After the hearing, Fauci appeared on CNN with Kaitlin Collins to set the record, calling Greene’s attack on him an “unusual performance” but noting that there is a “segment of the population out there that believe that kind of nonsense.” He blamed Fox News and public figures like Greene for him still receiving death threats, two years after leaving government service.
