Rand Paul to introduce amendment to remove 'petty tyrant' Fauci from his position as NIAID director
Paul has frequently challenged Fauci's leadership during the pandemic
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., told "Jesse Watters Primetime" on Monday that he will introduce an amendment before the Senate this week to remove Dr. Anthony Fauci from his position as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).
Paul, a medical doctor himself who frequently has challenged Fauci's leadership throughout the pandemic, said he is seeking to decentralize Fauci's role so that no "petty tyrant" can "monopolize" political influence in the name of public health. Fauci has been the director of the NIAID since 1984.
RAND PAUL INTRODUCES AMENDMENT TO ELIMINATE FAUCI'S POSITION
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"Tomorrow we will have a health committee meeting and … I will present an amendment, get a vote on eliminating Anthony Fauci’s position. I think we should eliminate his position, divide it into three and appoint three new directors that will be approvable by the Senate," Paul told Jesse Watters.
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., clashed with Dr. Anthony Fauci, White House chief medical adviser and director of the NIAID, during a Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee hearing. (Photo by GREG NASH/POOL/AFP via Getty Images) (GREG NASH/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
"The problem with having only one person and having everything go before him for like 40 years is that he has monopolized power and created a culture not conducive to scientific inquiry. You need people who question. That’s what science is – about questioning and putting forth your hypothesis and trying to prove it with experiments. But he has shown – Dr. Fauci and Dr. Collins, have both shown that they will get into the mud. If you don’t agree with their political opinions, they will go after you."
Paul pointed to a leaked email exchange between Fauci and then-head of the National Institute of Health (NIH) Francis Collins who apparently colluded on a way to discredit the experts and doctors promoting the herd immunity approach to deal with COVID-19. The emails showed Fauci and Collins planning to arrange a "devastating takedown" of the doctors behind the Great Barrington Declaration.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}COVID LOCKDOWN LESSONS LEARNED - FAUCI AMENDMENT WOULD MEAN NO MORE HEALTH ‘DICTATOR IN CHIEF’
"When a person like Dr. Fauci controls $5 billion worth of money, it’s not good that we have a really petty tyrant who wants to take down the people he disagrees with," Paul said. "And that’s not conducive to scientific inquires. So It’s long past time that we remove him from government…and then one person wouldn’t have a monopoly of so much power this they could use against their enemies."
WASHINGTON, DC - NOVEMBER 04: Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) questions National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci during a Senate hearing. Paul called on Fauci to resign and accused him of lying about the work done in a lab in Wuhan, China. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images | AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Paul said that while he doesn't anticipate any support on the amendment from his Democratic colleagues, he does believe the "dam is breaking on the Democrat side" on COVID more broadly.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"When you see old guys in the Senate, these old Democrats finally listening to Biden without their masks on, but they want your 4-year-old to wear a mask, people aren’t believing this anymore," Paul said. "The public is smarter than these people, and it’s starting to show. I think it’s starting to break their will towards authoritarianism. It’s only a matter of time, but we can’t give up on trying to get our freedom back."
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Paul said he also plans to force a vote on the Senate floor to repeal mask mandates for air travel, telling Watters it's time his colleagues publicly acknowledge that "nobody believes these masks work."