Rep. Darin LaHood, R-Ill, told Newsmax that Dr. Anthony Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has a lot of explaining to do about the origin of COVID-19.
LaHood, a member of the House Select Committee on China, made his comments on Thursday during an interview on "Wake Up America."
Asked if Dr. Fauci would testify, he replied. "He should. I think there will be multiple subpoenas issued on the House and Senate side. I think he has an obligation and responsibility to come before the American people. Taxpayers paid his salary. He has a lot of explaining to do with these new allegations that have come out."
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., had told Newsmax on Tuesday that Fauci persuaded fellow scientists to drop their theory that COVID-19 originated from a lab leak and turn to his theory that it began from a wet market — then used the paper they wrote on it as part of a cover-up in the early days of the pandemic.
And LaHood noted: "Republicans for the last three years have been saying that it needed to be looked into regarding the lab leak in Wuhan. But we also have to remember at every level the Chinese have been deceitful about what happened.
"When the COVID-19 outbreak first happened, they blamed it on the U.S. military. That's what they first did. Secondly, they were not cooperative with the World Health Organization. I would argue they manipulated them. They lied about the amount of COVID deaths that occurred. And they said there was no obvious lab leak that occurred.
"The bottom line is they can't be trusted. And over a million Americans died because of COVID. How do you prevent a future pandemic when you don't know the genesis of this one? And we need to get to the bottom of that."
Asked why the White House, Democrats, and many in the corporate media are still shying away from the lab leak theory, he said: "I don't know how they can continue to go down this path of believing China. That's the other thing, if you in fact don't believe this has come out of a lab, then you're relying on China. That on every level can't be trusted. They've lied. They've been deceitful. And to give them any credibility is really laughable. So, I think it will be interesting to see how the administration will defend China and what they did here.
"We've got to get to the bottom of it. We have to expose what exactly occurred here."
About NEWSMAX TV:
NEWSMAX is the fastest-growing cable news channel in America!
Jeffrey Rodack ✉
Jeffrey Rodack, who has nearly a half century in news as a senior editor and city editor for national and local publications, has covered politics for Newsmax for nearly seven years.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.