WATCH: Fauci walks away when pressed on Fifth Amendment, pandemic regrets
Dr. Anthony Fauci declined to answer Fox News Digital’s questions outside his home Thursday, walking away when asked whether he regretted pleading the Fifth Amendment during a contentious Senate hearing or his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Do you regret the way you handled the hearing, pleading the Fifth so much?” Fox News Digital asked Fauci.
Fauci’s silence came one day after he declined, on the advice of his attorneys, to answer questions before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, chaired by Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky.
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“Although it pains me to do so because of the respect I have for the legislative branch of government, and my decades-long record of cooperating with Congress under the advice of my attorneys, I will invoke my right under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution to refrain from answering your questions,” Fauci said in his opening statement.
The former White House COVID adviser was questioned over his response to the pandemic and his policy decisions, and was accused of funding gain-of-function research in Wuhan, China.
Paul argues Fauci’s invocation of the Fifth Amendment was unsupported because Biden pardoned him and said the committee will vote next week on a resolution to hold him in contempt of Congress.
“The Fifth Amendment is to claim immunity from self-incrimination,” Paul said on “The Will Cain Show” on Wednesday. “But if you’ve already been given immunity, you can’t self-incriminate unless you lie.”
Fauci also stayed silent when asked if he regrets the decisions he made as the public’s health leader during the pandemic.
“Is there anything you would do different on COVID sir?” Fox News Digital asked after Fauci refused to answer questions about his Senate hearing.
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Paul released more than 1,100 pages of Fauci’s pandemic-era diary entries before the hearing, arguing they revealed discrepancies between Fauci’s private notes and public statements.
One entry documented an early discussion in which several scientists considered whether features of the virus could have been deliberately inserted. Fauci subsequently publicly favored a natural origin.
Fauci also said publicly that he was not responsible for rallying schools to shut down during the pandemic. But he wrote in his diary that he influenced both New York and California government officials to lock down their state’s school systems.
Paul, with the support of other GOP senators, has announced that he is seeking contempt charges against Fauci following his refusal to answer questions in Wednesday’s hearing.
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