Dr. Anthony Fauci should face prosecution for testifying under oath before Congress that he did not send taxpayer dollars to Wuhan to conduct gain of function research after his denials were contradicted by the National Institutes of Health, Rep. Devin Nunes said Sunday.
"Our committee did a year-long investigation and we talked about it back in May, when we put out an official report, so he was clearly on notice then," the California Republican said on Fox News' "Sunday Morning Futures With Maria Bartiromo," where he appeared with former acting director of national intelligence Ric Grenell.
But after that, Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, testified twice under grilling by Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., that the funding didn't happen.
"That's simply not true," said Nunes. "He's long been on notice, he knows this, and now the question is, is will the Department of Justice do anything about it."
This week, a letter from NIH Principal Deputy Director Lawrence Tabak to the House Committee on Oversight and Reform reveals that EcoHealth, a New York-based non-profit did not comply with a mandated report that would have brought a supplemental review from the agency.
Grenell agreed that Fauci should be held accountable for his testimony, as he has been "unequivocal in denying this."
"This is a real problem," he said. "He not only doubled down, tripled down, but he promised that unequivocally this wasn't even close and it wasn't a spin. I think this is total deception...we just saw nine Republicans, nine of Devin's colleagues get so outraged at someone not showing up to Congress in the form of Steve Bannon. They should be at the forefront of now protecting Congress' integrity."
He continued that it's "really scary for the United States" if the Attorney General Merrick Garland doesn't prosecute Fauci immediately.
Further, the Republicans who have voiced outrage at Bannon's refusal to appear before the committee investigating the Jan. 6 incidents at the Capitol have "decided to be for the Democrats," said Grenell.
"They are Republicans, but they are so inconsistent in how they view issues," he said. "They're still in this Trump derangement syndrome. They're so outraged that [Donald] Trump is still the leader of the party. He's going to come back. He's gonna be the nominee, and so what have they decided to do, these nine Republicans? They're still trying to stick it to Republicans. It's really outrageous."
The two also discussed the ongoing supply chain issues, with Grenell accusing the Biden administration of not taking on the Chinese in hopes of growing the United States' manufacturing base because it is too afraid of what China knows about President Joe Biden, based on his son's laptop.
Meanwhile, Biden can't "put together a coherent sentence on what his plans are" for protecting Taiwan against China.
"Our Navy is now smaller than the Chinese Navy," he said. "China's economy could quickly surpass our economy…[the administration] seems to be extremely scared to say anything bad about China."
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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