House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer recently told Fox Business host Stuart Varney that he doesn’t know if Anthony Fauci should be arrested, but he “like(s) the idea.”
I’ll spare him the confusion — he should.
Fauci, the good doctor as he is known throughout the cult of journalism, has lied so often before Congress that one has to imagine it’s like breathing to him.
Comer (R-KY) had referenced one of those lies in particular in which Dr. Fauci claimed during this week’s latest testimony that he never made up social distancing rules during the pandemic.
READ MORE:
Thanks, Doc: Fauci and Dems Signal Shift in COVID Messaging at Congressional Hearing
Fauci used semantics in his defense, arguing that a Daily Mail headline specifically suggesting he admitted to having “made up” the six-foot rules was not accurate.
While perhaps not using that exact phrase, his transcript of testimony before the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic earlier this year makes it quite clear that it was, in fact, made up.
“It sort of just appeared,” he said of the distancing rule, adding that he “was not aware of studies” supporting the implementation of such a rule.
Hence, made up.
Fauci, in a hearing on Monday, backpedaled as swiftly on that as he could, pointing the finger of blame at the CDC.
"The CDC was responsible for those kinds of guidelines for schools, not me,” the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and former chief medical advisor to President Biden said.
“So when I said that, it just appeared. It appeared. Was there any science behind it? What I meant by no science behind it is that there wasn't a controlled trial. That said, compare six foot with three feet with ten feet. So there wasn't that scientific evaluation of it.”
Again, made up.
“I don't know that I said he should be arrested, but I like the idea,” Comer said on Tuesday. “At the end of the day, if you lie to Congress, that's a felony.”
“Everyone knows that Doctor Fauci was the lead instigator in the spacing distance,” the congressman added.
And he’s right.
As the nation’s leading medical advisor and the public face of the pandemic response, Dr. Fauci repeatedly advised Americans to keep six feet apart.
In fact, he insisted that social distancing and mask-wearing should have been pushed harder for the asymptomatic at the very onset of the disease appearing in America.
“Had we known that then, the insidious nature of spread in the community would have been much more of an alarm and there would have been much, much more stringent restrictions in the sense of very, very heavy, encouraging people to wear masks, physical distancing or what have you,” he said.
NEW - Fauci says "much, much more stringent restrictions" should have been imposed in response to asymptomatic COVID transmission.pic.twitter.com/llxcUWErzi
— Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) July 25, 2022
So focused on the message of social distancing was Fauci that he intimately detailed why kids in school were allowed to be three feet closer to other kids than they were with teachers.
“So, now children, as long as they continue to wear masks, will be in school at three feet,” he explained in March of 2021.
“That doesn’t mean from the teachers, because they still have to be six feet from the teachers, and the teachers still need to be six feet from each other,” Fauci added. “But the children, three feet from each other, is going to be okay from now on.”
Hmm. That sounds made up, quite frankly.
Here is the doctor telling ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos that “all” Americans should not only be social distancing, but they should be wearing masks outdoors, another fabricated rule that had no bearing on the spread of the disease.
Dr. Anthony Fauci to @GStephanopoulos: “Wear masks all the time when you're outside. Social distancing, six feet at least. Avoid crowds...There's no question about that so that's something that's not really arguable.” https://t.co/JgCvhTifYS pic.twitter.com/hf4nrSqr0M
— Good Morning America (@GMA) July 28, 2020
Fauci was such an avid supporter of the six-foot distancing rule that he bragged about convincing former President Donald Trump not to drop the guidance in 2020.
“We argued strongly with the president that he not withdraw those [social-distancing] guidelines after 15 days but that he extend them—and he did listen,” Fauci said.
Trump let the social distancing recommendations expire shortly thereafter.
Dr. Fauci: “Connecticut has maintained the very important things to stay ahead of the virus--universal using of masks, avoiding crowded places, maintaining six feet distance and good hand hygiene." pic.twitter.com/j7ypTmUGSy
— Governor Ned Lamont (@GovNedLamont) August 4, 2020
The list of instances in which Fauci himself, separate from the CDC, told Americans they needed to be socially distanced is so prevalent that it’d be impossible to cite every such scenario.
While there are many, many individuals who need to be held accountable for their actions during the pandemic at the CDC, Fauci can’t slide away from his own responsibility.
His guidance destroyed businesses. His guidance destroyed children’s education. Grocery stores forced customers into one-way aisles in their stores in order to comply.
And Fauci was to blame.
“The damage that Dr. Fauci did to our nation is indeterminable,” Comer said.
“This is not only something that shut down tens of thousands of businesses in America and ran the debt up as a result ... it destroyed public education,” he added.
“Kids couldn't be in school because of the six-foot social distancing requirements that Dr. Fauci championed.”
Comer, who chairs the committee Fauci lied to, may “like the idea” of his arrest. But he needs to do more to hold him accountable. More than simply talking about it with Stuart Varney.
It isn’t even vaguely the first time Dr. Fauci has lied to Congress, either.
This past August, Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) made a criminal referral to the Justice Department seeking an investigation and possible criminal charges against Fauci for lying under oath.
The referral surrounded testimony given by Fauci regarding gain-of-function research at China’s Wuhan virus lab in 2021.
In May of 2021, he testified before Congress that “The NIH has not ever and does not now fund gain-of-function research in the Wuhan Institute of Virology.”
An email later released to the public, however, showed Fauci confirming a year prior to his testimony that research in Wuhan was of the gain-of-function variety, if not directly funded by the NIH.
That email – written weeks before a federal COVID emergency was declared - shows the doctor stating flat-out that “scientists in Wuhan University are known to have been working on gain-of-function experiments to determine that molecular mechanisms associated with bat viruses adapting to human infection, and the outbreak originated in Wuhan.”
🚨BREAKING🚨
— Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic (@COVIDSelect) July 13, 2023
New emails reveal that Dr. Fauci was aware of risky gain-of-function research occurring in Wuhan, China prior to the emergence of COVID-19.
Why didn’t he tell the American people?@COVIDSelect is demanding answers👇 pic.twitter.com/pvxtaCRB5s
“In a subsequent hearing, I warned Dr. Fauci of the criminal implications of lying to Congress and offered him an opportunity to recant his previous statements,” Paul wrote in a letter to District of Columbia U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves.
“In response, Dr. Fauci stated that he had ‘never lied before the Congress’ and ‘d[id] not retract that statement,'” the Kentucky Republican continued. “Dr. Fauci’s testimony is inconsistent with facts that have since come to light.”
Nothing ever came of that criminal referral. The lack of accountability is why Anthony Fauci continues to lie.
But if Paul can make a criminal referral, so can Comer and the committee. It’s not enough to say you “like the idea” of arresting Fauci.
Grow a set and make it happen. There are countless Americans who had their lives ruined by this man and his arbitrary and ultimately incorrect guidelines who would “like” to see it happen as well.
Read more of RedState's COVID investigative reports at these links:
NEW: Senate Report Concludes COVID-19 Pandemic Was Likely Caused by Lab Leak in Wuhan
10 Facts About the Origin of SARS-CoV-2 Everyone Needs to Know
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