Fauci rips Cruz over Jan. 6 when asked about DOJ prosecutions

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Dr. Anthony Fauci shot back at Sen. Ted Cruz, who called for the Justice Department to prosecute Fauci for allegedly lying about funding gain-of-function research.

The director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases quipped about the Capitol riot on Jan. 6 when asked about Cruz, one of several GOP lawmakers who has attacked him.

“Yeah. I have to laugh at that. I should be prosecuted? What happened on Jan. 6, senator?” Fauci quipped during an appearance Sunday on CBS News’s Face the Nation.

UPDATE: CRUZ AND PAUL RESPOND TO FAUCI IN WAR OF WORDS OVER ‘SCIENCE’

Cruz was one of the GOP senators who committed to challenging the results of the 2020 election in the lead-up to Jan. 6. Although the riot disrupted the process of counting the electoral votes, President Joe Biden’s victory was soon affirmed.


Cruz is also one of the Republican lawmakers who has accused Fauci of lying to Congress about funding gain-of-function research at a lab in Wuhan, China, where COVID-19 cases were first reported in 2019. His colleague, Sen. Rand Paul, referred Fauci to the Justice Department for prosecution. No charges have been levied.

The NIH said last month that one particular group under scrutiny, EcoHealth Alliance, violated grant rules in failing to report research findings on mice becoming sicker when infected by a certain bat coronavirus. The nonprofit group contends it did meet reporting requirements.

Fauci has denied that the National Institutes of Health funded risky gain-of-function research, and the NIH rejected claims that it provided money that went towards such work led to the pandemic, but critics including Paul contend the NIH letter confirms that the Wuhan lab collaborator had indeed been conducting gain-of-function research.

Gain-of-function research is defined by the Department of Health and Human Services as research “that improves the ability of a pathogen to cause disease” to “enable assessment of the pandemic potential of emerging infectious agents.” It warns these studies “may entail biosafety and biosecurity risks.”

Fauci argued the GOP is engaging in a “dangerous” game by attacking him and, by extension, science.

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“Anybody who’s looking at this carefully realizes that there’s a distinct anti-science flavor to this…” Fauci said. “They’re really criticizing science because I represent science. That’s dangerous. To me, that’s more dangerous than the slings and the arrows that get thrown at me.”

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