Trump says Fauci ‘always tried to protect China’ in fiery COVID rant
US President Donald Trump renewed his criticism of former top infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci on Wednesday (July 29), just hours after Fauci invoked
US President Donald Trump renewed his criticism of former top infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci on Wednesday (July 29), just hours after Fauci invoked the Fifth Amendment and declined to answer questions before a Republican-led Senate committee investigating the federal government's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. In a post on Truth Social, Trump defended his administration's pandemic response and blamed former President Joe Biden for restoring Fauci's influence after he left office. "Many more people died of Covid under the Biden Administration than under the Trump Administration," Trump wrote, describing Operation Warp Speed as "a spectacular success" and claiming it was "one of the most successful things ever done by an American President." Trump also reiterated his longstanding assertion that COVID-19 originated from a laboratory in Wuhan, China, and accused Fauci of opposing that view.
Fauci invokes Fifth Amendment Earlier on Wednesday, Fauci declined to answer senators' questions after being subpoenaed to testify before a Republican-led committee chaired by Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky. Invoking his constitutional right against self-incrimination, Fauci said he was acting on the advice of his attorney. In his opening statement, Fauci accused Paul of being determined to prosecute him. "The only conclusion I can reach is that the sole reason he is calling me before this Committee is to prompt me to say something, anything, that could vindicate his repeated public pledges that I end up, in his words, 'behind bars,'" Fauci said. Fauci added that invoking the Fifth Amendment was a difficult decision but one he believed was necessary under the circumstances.
Rand Paul releases Fauci's pandemic diary Ahead of the hearing, Paul released more than 1,000 pages of Fauci's personal diary from the COVID-19 pandemic years. Posting on X, the Kentucky senator claimed the diary showed that "what Fauci wrote privately and what he told the country are two different stories." Some entries detail Fauci's uncertainty during the early stages of the pandemic as scientists raced to understand the virus. Much of that material had previously appeared in Fauci's 2024 memoir and public interviews. Fauci's attorney, David Schertler, dismissed Paul's allegations as "false and disgraceful" and said all legal options were being considered. Debate over COVID origins continues The hearing is part of a years-long Republican effort to investigate the origins of COVID-19 and examine whether US-funded research in China contributed to the outbreak.
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