Former White House Chief Medical adviser for the Trump and Biden administrations and former head of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), Dr. Anthony Fauci, was conveniently forgetful when pressed during a closed-door hearing Monday for his role in the COVID-19 pandemic, medical doctor and Georgia Republican Rep. Rich McCormick told Newsmax.
"He's tied up in his own inconsequential actions," McCormick tells "Rob Schmitt Tonight" on Tuesday.
"If you look at what he did, if he didn't read it, he signed it," the congressman adds, referring to Fauci's endorsements of millions in grants. "Or if he just doesn't remember, or if he's just ignorant of science altogether, he has a problem."
Recalling Fauci's evasiveness during the hearing, McCormick says, "it was embarrassing to watch him play — just playing with his lawyer and trying to stall on every question — avoid every question. It's obvious something was up, and he didn't have any answers for us — couldn't be honest with us — couldn't face the real science now that he's open to it."
"He knows damn well what he was doing, and he knows what he did to basically bribe people to get the wrong answers all along."
Appearing alongside McCormick, Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y., who was also present at yesterday's Republican-led House Select Subcommittee hearing on the COVID-19 pandemic, says that Fauci appeared to play semantic games during the hearing by changing the definition of gain of function research.
"Certainly, he was playing semantics with the definition of gain of function. He was trying to work his way around that definition multiple times to say that the U.S. did not provide any funding for gain of functioning at the Wuhan Lab. Interestingly enough, he also said that he does not 'recall' the 'details' of the millions of dollars worth of grants he signed off on.
"Matter of fact," Malliotakis adds, "one of the things that our committee uncovered was that money went to the New York Blood Center, and then ... made its way as a subcontract to the Chinese communists — People's Liberation Army. So our tax money actually went to the army of the Communist Chinese, and for what purpose? We would like to know."
During an appearance on the former "Mehdi Hassan Show," Fauci changed the definition of gain of function within moments of the same interview.
Gain of function, Fauci said, only includes enhancing viruses "highly likely to be known to be very transmissible giving morbidity and mortality in humans."
Moments later, he states that the U.S. did not fund gain of function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology according to the "operative definition of what gain of function research was" when "studies were done that were funded through a United States organization, with a sub-award to EcoHealth Alliance" that "was looking at bat viruses looking to infect humans."
During a deposition in Nov. of 2022 published by the New Civil Liberties Alliance, Fauci again, when pressed, appeared quite forgetful on the details of his role in the COVID-19 pandemic.
Nick Koutsobinas ✉
Nick Koutsobinas, a Newsmax writer, has years of news reporting experience. A graduate from Missouri State University’s philosophy program, he focuses on exposing corruption and censorship.
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