Last week, Senator Rand Paul mauled America’s lawn gnome, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases caudillo Dr. Anthony Fauci in a hearing on the Wuhan virus.

Paul warned Fauci that eventually, he would be held personally accountable for his role in funding the so-called “gain of function” research carried out in the Wuhan Institute of Virology, a facility run by the Chinese military subject to US or international oversight.

This is the exchange.

While Senator Paul came prepared, all Fauci had was legalistic expositions on how the Wuhan virus could not be a virus reported in the scientific literature when literally no one was making that claim. Then he went into a tortured bout of denial involving his definition of “gain of function” research. And he yelled neener-neener a lot while he impotently twitched. Paul followed up the hearing by sending a criminal referral to the Department of Justice accusing Fauci of lying to Congress (Fact Check: he did). See Sen. Paul to Ask for a Criminal Referral From DOJ, Alleging That Fauci Lied to Congress.

As I reported in The Left and Right Can Agree That Dr. Fauci Was a Disingenuous and Evasive Little Weasel in His Answers to Senator Rand Paul, even the Washington Post was not buying what Fauci was selling.

In response, Fauci ran, tail tucked to his fangirl network, MSNBC, where he boldly proclaimed that Paul had slandered him. This is the whole clip; the key part is in the tweet below.

"I don't take any pleasure in clashing with a senator," Dr. Fauci says after heated exchange with Sen. Paul, adding that Paul was "completely out of line" and "made some inflammatory and, I believe, slanderous remarks about lying under oath." pic.twitter.com/aSvnYd3ndI

— MSNBC (@MSNBC) July 21, 2021

This is just nonsense. For something to be slander, it has to be false. Nothing Paul said was remotely incorrect, much less false. Paul was only “out of line” in the context of the tongue baths that Fauci usually receives when he emerges from his sycophantic cocoon to make a pronouncement. Paul treated him like he’d treat any other third-tier bureaucrat and called him out on his lies and failures. Nothing Paul said was inflammatory. Fauci was one of the funders of gain-of-function research carried out by the Chinese military…apparently, that was thought to be a good idea by Fauci, which should indicate that his capacity to reason is not all that swift. The “scientific consensus” is that the Wuhan virus was genetically engineered and probably originated in the Wuhan Institute for Virology. The jury is still out on the process by which the virus jumped from lab to the world’s population. My personal theory is that this was deliberate and a test run to evaluate Western response mechanisms to a biological attack, but that is a story for another day. All in all, Paul’s only crime was lèse majesté. He just wasn’t obsequiously deferential to Fauci. I’d be willing to concede could’ve handled the situation with more tact, but after the past year we’re at the point where the people who deliberately inflicted misery and death on the American people don’t rate consideration of their feelings.

Wisconsin Ron Johnson has this exactly right.

“He’s culpable. He’s lying and he needs to be held accountable.”

Bingo. Right on all counts. Fauci is at least partially responsible for the development of the Wuhan virus. His actions need to be examined because he had an irresolvable conflict of interest between protecting the American people and hiding his culpability for the pandemic. For far too long, Fauci has coasted from one blunder to another by using a fawning press, a sycophantic staff, and employing the clout provided him by the billions of dollars in research funds administered by him to silence any dissenting voices in the scientific community, see Rand Paul Points Out How Fauci Intimidates Other Scientists Into Silence.

As we learn more and more about the genesis of the Wuhan virus, the more we will know about the role of  Fauci and his organization in this debacle. If the GOP takes back the House and Senate next year, which, at this point, looks like a better than 50-50 proposition, and men like Rand Paul assume leadership roles, we will be able to call to public account the bureaucrats with so much blood on their hands.