One answer, no answers

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MARY REICHARD, HOST: It’s Thursday the 30th of July.

Glad to have you along for today’s edition of The World and Everything in It. Good morning, I’m Mary Reichard.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown.

First up: Dr. Fauci takes the hot seat.

As you heard a few moments ago, the Senate Homeland Security Committee subpoenaed Dr. Anthony Fauci to testify yesterday.

REICHARD: Lawmakers asked him about private journal entries that appear to undermine his public statements during the COVID-19 pandemic. But they didn’t get the answers they were looking for.

WORLD’s Harrison Watters reports from Washington.

AUDIO: [Reporters peppering Fauci with questions as he enters.]

HARRISON WATTERS: Fauci returned to Congress with an entourage of lawyers and, critically, a full pardon. President Joe Biden signed it preemptively on his way out of office, barring the door to future criminal charges.

Chairman Rand Paul of Kentucky said that doesn’t absolve Fauci from answering questions about his public service.

RAND PAUL: While you concluded publicly that COVID occurred naturally, your private record tells a different story.

Last week, Chairman Paul released Fauci’s digital diary. The entries contain a mix of previously private updates on COVID-19 and notes about media appearances and publicity. In an entry from January 2020, Fauci recalls appearing at a White House press briefing. He later got a call.

PAUL: Your hand-picked virologist warned that the virus appeared to have been manipulated in the lab.

Fauci went on to investigate his institute’s funding of the Wuhan lab where Chinese researchers were doing gain of function research. That process can involve altering — often enhancing — a virus in a lab, making it more infectious or dangerous so scientists can study it.

He privately concluded “we could not let this go.” But in public statements, Dr. Fauci downplayed the very same theory.

PAUL: Your primary concern was hiding the fact that you had approved the funding for this dangerous research.

In his opening statement, Dr. Fauci said he respected Congress, but accused Sen. Paul of having a personal vendetta against him, and said he would not provide any answers.

That did not stop Republican lawmakers from grilling him. Florida Senator Rick Scott.

RICK SCOTT: Have you deleted, destroyed, or instructed anyone to destroy records after learning Congress is investigating these matters?

FAUCI: On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.

But Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley said Fauci has no Fifth Amendment shield against self-incrimination, because he was in no danger of being prosecuted.

Supreme Court precedent from 1896 holds that pardoned individuals can be compelled to testify to Congress.

HAWLEY: This isn't about the Constitution, this isn't about the law. This is about contempt, contempt for this body and contempt for the American people.

Hawley also questioned Fauci about multiple cash awards he received as a public official, including one for nearly $1 million. While federal officials can be eligible for some public service awards, Hawley questioned the ethics of Fauci’s staff inquiring about his eligibility.

HAWLEY: You cannot use federal resources, federal dollars, federal employees, federal offices, federal email, federal time to solicit cash awards, and you did all of it, and the worst part is, thousands of people were dying while you were doing it.

Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman took a different approach. The Democrat admitted he was wrong to dismiss the lab leak theory as a conspiracy theory while serving as Lt. Governor.

FETTERMAN: I think that the next time our nation's facing something like this, we are not to become, you know, as I might have been, blinded by the partisan idea that maybe the truth might come from a side that's different than than you are…

Meanwhile, other Democrats didn’t question Fauci at all. They instead made speeches questioning the second Trump administration’s spending cuts, workforce reductions, and response to outbreaks of measles and food-borne parasites.

What happens next for Fauci isn’t clear. Though he declined to answer questions, when his attorney made multiple attempts to speak, Chairman Paul ruled him out of order.

PAUL: Security, please remove him from the room. [Applause]

Paul later told reporters that Fauci’s attorneys are in uncharted legal waters by advising him to plead the Fifth when he’s been pardoned.

PAUL: I think the courts will have to figure out whether or not, if you have a complete pardon, whether you have a liability against incrimination.

Senator Hawley said more needs to happen before Congress can move on from Dr. Fauci. He told WORLD that he’ll work to limit financial incentives for government employees going forward.

HAWLEY: We need to get the truth so that we can make sure this never happens again. And tomorrow, I will introduce legislation to bar all federal employees from soliciting cash prizes or taking cash prizes while they are in office.

Next week, the committee will vote on whether to hold Dr. Fauci in contempt of Congress. If a majority of the full Senate agrees, the Justice Department would then decide whether to prosecute.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Harrison Watters in Washington.

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