Dr. Anthony Fauci should have resigned a "long time ago" because of his missteps during the COVID-19 pandemic, Rep. Bruce Westerman said Thursday on Newsmax after the contentious Senate hearing confrontation between the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky.
"As a member of Congress, I quit listening to Dr. Fauci months ago because he could never seem to get his story straight," the Arkansas Republican said on Newsmax's "John Bachman Now." "I think we needed new leadership there long ago."
Meanwhile, government rules taking effect Thursday through the Occupational Safety and Health Administration will require tens of millions of people to be fully vaccinated by Jan. 4 or get tested weekly for the virus. Companies that don't comply with the order face fines of up to $14,000 per violation, according to OSHA.
President Joe Biden previewed the new requirements in September. It's not clear how many employees haven't gotten their shots.
Westerman said he opposes the vaccine mandates like he does all others.
"I've already written a letter and had the whole Arkansas delegation sign onto it and sent it to the Department of Education trying to be preemptive and telling them not to create any kind of school vaccine mandate," said Westerman. "We shouldn't be requiring people to take a vaccine that they don't want to take."
He added that he has had the vaccine and believes it works, and he knows from talking to hospitals in his state that almost everyone being treated for COVID-19 is unvaccinated.
"But it's still people's choice on whether they want to take a vaccine or not," Westerman said. "The mandate with the federal government and government contractors is causing a lot of problems.
"People are walking off their jobs and refusing to take the vaccine, and this is what we've got these huge supply chain issues. People can't find labor. And now the federal government rolls in with the heavy hand and a wide brush thing."
Westerman also said Thursday that he doesn't think the funding bill for Biden's Build Back Better agenda will end up passing, even by Christmas, and that Tuesday night's GOP election wins were a referendum on what the Democrats are doing.
"I thought that finally, they're going to back off of this, but it shows you how tone-deaf they are, that yesterday they decided to double down," he said. "I believe it was five Democrats who wrote a letter to [House Speaker Nancy] Pelosi saying they won't vote on it until there's a CBO (Congressional Budget Office) score. Who knows when CBO is going to get a score, and I'm pretty sure that Democrats don't want to see that score."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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