Dr. Anthony Fauci Says He's Unfazed By GOP Pledge To Investigate Him Over COVID

Dr. Anthony Fauci on Tuesday said Republican threats to investigate him if the GOP wins control of the House in Novembers election werent a factor in his decision to retire from government at the end of the year.

Fauci announced this week that he would step down from leading the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and as chief medical adviser to President Joe Biden .

Fauci, the face of the governments pandemic response through the Donald Trump and Biden administrations, has been vilified and threatened with violence for stressing vaccines and other public health safety measures.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy vowed to hold [Fauci] accountable if Republicans retake power in the House, accusing him of being responsible for closing schools and businesses during the height of COVID.

Dr. Fauci lost the trust of the American people when his guidance unnecessarily kept schools closed and businesses shut while obscuring questions about his knowledge on the origins of COVID.

He owes the American people answers. A @HouseGOP majority will hold him accountable.

Kevin McCarthy (@GOPLeader) August 22, 2022","type":"rich","meta":{"author":"Kevin McCarthy","author_url":"https://twitter.com/GOPLeader","cache_age":86400,"description":"Dr. Fauci lost the trust of the American people when his guidance unnecessarily kept schools closed and businesses shut while obscuring questions about his knowledge on the origins of COVID.He owes the American people answers. A @HouseGOP majority will hold him accountable. 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Dr. Fauci lost the trust of the American people when his guidance unnecessarily kept schools closed and businesses shut while obscuring questions about his knowledge on the origins of COVID.

He owes the American people answers. A @HouseGOP majority will hold him accountable.
Kevin McCarthy (@GOPLeader) August 22, 2022

Fauci told CNN s New Day his decision to retire had been a long time coming.

I have nothing to hide and I can defend everything Ive done so that doesnt faze me or bother me, Fauci said. My decisions of stepping down go back well over a year.

Dr. Fauci will be stepping down as Director of NIAID and Chief White House Medical Adviser in December. He joins New Day for his first TV interview since making the announcement: pic.twitter.com/Og9qJKIqaE

New Day (@NewDay) August 23, 2022","type":"rich","meta":{"author":"New Day","author_url":"https://twitter.com/NewDay","cache_age":86400,"description":"Dr. Fauci will be stepping down as Director of NIAID and Chief White House Medical Adviser in December. 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Dr. Fauci will be stepping down as Director of NIAID and Chief White House Medical Adviser in December. He joins New Day for his first TV interview since making the announcement: pic.twitter.com/Og9qJKIqaE
New Day (@NewDay) August 23, 2022

Other right-wing figures also seized on Faucis announcement to deliver a fresh thrashing.

Fox News personality Tucker Carlson called him a dictator and a dangerous fraud, a man who has done things that in most countries, at most times in history, would be understood perfectly clearly to be very serious crimes, according to the Daily Beast .

Carlson previously called the infectious-disease expert an even shorter version of Benito Mussolini.

Fauci told CNNs Kaitlan Collins he welcomes oversight and would consider testifying before GOP-led committees, but said hes only been subjected to character assassination.

Id be happy to cooperate so long as we make it something that is a dignified oversight, which it should be, and not just bringing up ridiculous things and attacking my character, he said. Thats not oversight.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) used a Senate hearing earlier this year to accuse Fauci of supporting National Institutes of Health funds for Chinas Wuhan Institute of Virology, located near the live animal market where COVID was first discovered in humans.

Fauci told CNN the coronavirus remains the biggest public health threat.

Weve got to do better than what weve done and hopefully weve learned important lessons through this painful two-and-a-half-year experience that weve been through, Fauci said.