Dr. Anthony Fauci has put up with a lot the last two years. He’s the nation’s top immunologist, and yet he’s had to navigate working with a president who did his best to downplay a once-in-a-century public health crisis. Then there’s all the Republican lawmakers who give him a hard time. Rand Paul is his biggest nemesis, and though his patience frequently wears thin with the Kentucky senator, at least he’s never got caught calling him names. But that did happen with another Republican lawmaker.
HOT MIC MOMENT: After clashing with GOP Sen. Roger Marshall, Dr. Fauci was caught muttering, “what a moron,” followed by “Jesus Christ.” pic.twitter.com/merKU3BGAJ
— Mediaite (@Mediaite) January 11, 2022
As per The Hill, during a Senate hearing about COVID-19, Dr. Fauci took some hostile questioning from Roger Marshall, a relatively obscure GOP senator from Kansas who, of course, was one of the lawmakers who disputed the 2020 election results. Marshall accused the doctor of withholding his finances from the public.
“I don’t understand why you’re asking me that question,” a mystified Dr. Fauci responded. “My financial disclosure is public knowledge and has been so for the last 37 years or so.”
Marshall then claimed that “big tech giants are doing an incredible job of keeping [his finances] from being public.”
“All you have to do is ask for it,” Dr. Fauci replied, adding, “You’re so misinformed, it’s extraordinary.”
Dr. Fauci then leaned away from the microphone, but it wasn’t hard to hear what he said next: “What a moron,” he said, adding, “Jesus Christ.”
Marshall later released a statement about being called an idiot by one of the nation’s top doctors. He still accused him of hiding his finances, adding, “Calling me a moron during a Senate hearing may have alleviated the stress of the least trusted bureaucrat in America, but it didn’t take away from the facts.”
It was a stressful day for the normally relatively calm Dr. Fauci. At the same hearing, he had to deal yet again with Rand Paul, but this time he came with receipts, accusing him of fundraising off the pandemic with merchandise such as T-shirts that say “Fire Dr. Fauci” and put partial blame on him for all the right-wingers who want to murder him for trying to bring the pandemic to a close.
(Via The Hill)