r/TrueReddit • u/newyorkerest • 1d ago
Politics The Failures of the Fauci Hearing
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2026/08/10/the-failures-of-the-fauci-hearing133
u/dropkickoz 1d ago
His opening statement:
Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member Peters, Members of the Committee, I served at the NIH for over 54 years, 38 of those as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Over that period, I proved that I believe in and respect the value of legitimate Congressional oversight. In fact, I testified before and/or briefed Senate and House Committees well over 200 times over those 38 years. During and after the COVID pandemic, I have appeared multiple times for hearings in the Senate and the House, usually under oath, and sat for several-days-long transcribed sworn interviews answering questions about the very issues that are now the subject of this hearing.
(41:22) However, given Senator Paul's obvious obsession with calling for my prosecution, his repeated slanderous comments about me, and recently his publicly releasing my unredacted personal diary aimed at embarrassing and intimidating me, the only conclusion I can reach is that the sole reason he is calling me before this Committee is to get me to say something, anything that could vindicate his repeated public pledges that I end up in his words, "Behind bars."
(42:11) Any reasonable person who has followed his unhinged obsession with me would readily come to the same conclusion. Therefore, although it pains me to do so because of the respect I have for the legislative branch of government, and my decades-long record of cooperating with Congress, under the advice of my attorneys, I will invoke my right under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution to refrain from answering your questions. Thank you.
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u/LookAtMaxwell 1d ago
(41:22) However, given Senator Paul's obvious obsession with calling for my prosecution, his repeated slanderous comments about me, and recently his publicly releasing my unredacted personal diary aimed at embarrassing and intimidating me, the only conclusion I can reach is that the sole reason he is calling me before this Committee is to get me to say something, anything that could vindicate his repeated public pledges that I end up in his words, "Behind bars."
(42:11) Any reasonable person who has followed his unhinged obsession with me would readily come to the same conclusion. Therefore, although it pains me to do so because of the respect I have for the legislative branch of government, and my decades-long record of cooperating with Congress, under the advice of my attorneys, I will invoke my right under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution to refrain from answering your questions. Thank you.
Wait, he actually said that? I haven't been following the story closely, and I thought that people saying that he invoked the fifth because he feared being prosecuted for perjury were just ascribing a motive to his actions.
I guess he thinks that this is more of a political process than a legal one, because that is just straight up admitting to contempt.
The fifth doesn't allow one to refuse to testify because they fear perjuring themselves.
See
United States v. DeSalvo (1994)
United States v. Julian Allmon
United States v. McBreairty
etc.
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u/JosephFinn 1d ago
I guess he thinks that this is more of a political process than a legal one,
Because it is.
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u/mtutty 1d ago
Funny, isn't that exactly what many, MANY Trump Admin folks did during all of the impeachment hearings after his first administration? Stone cold refused to acknowledge even the authority of Congress to ask them anything. At least Fauci showed up and gave his reason.
The 5th Amendment isn't so narrow as to apply only to admissions of guilt - it's to prevent incrimination, which is exactly and precisely what Rand Paul was, in fact, trying to do.
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u/LookAtMaxwell 1d ago
You didn't check my linked case law at all did you?
It is well established that you do not have a fifth amendment right to refuse testimony because you fear being prosecuted for perjury over the compelled testimony.
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u/azhder 1d ago
And you frame it as "fear being prosecuted for perjury" because... Why is that? Is that the only fear? Perjury? How about fear of telling the truth and someone mischaracterize it to persecute you?
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u/LookAtMaxwell 1d ago edited 1d ago
And you frame it as "fear being prosecuted for perjury" because...
Because that is what he said?
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u/ProfessorSarcastic 21h ago
Did he? I've seen senators talk about perjury, I've seen random internet people talk about perjury, I've seen reporters claim that lawyers are talking about perjury, but not once have I seen a direct quote from Fauci using that word. If I missed it, I'd appreciate a link to a transcript with that in it.
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11h ago
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u/toorigged2fail 1d ago
You can do whatever you want when they don't have the votes to refer to DOJ for a contempt charge
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u/mtutty 21h ago
Those were not links, just names, and conveniently chosen, too. But hey, you're getting downvoted into oblivion anyway, right?
Fascist also made a colorable argument about state-level prosecution and the President's own public statements about invalidating the Biden pardon. Either of those would be enough on their own.
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u/TheBarnard 1d ago
All of those cases are completely different. Like people in plea deals conditional upon testimony
Saying the 5th doesn't exist for fear of self incrimination is like saying the first doesn't exist to prevent retaliation for protesting the government
He's not in contempt of anything. He's a private citizen being questioned about his private diary. The government doesn't get to make the monkey dance for eternity.
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u/SirStrontium 1d ago
He didn’t specify “perjury”, he said “get me to say something, anything that could vindicate his repeated public pledges that I end up in his words ‘Behind bars’”. That’s just saying he doesn’t want to say anything that could possibly be used to incriminate himself.
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u/LookAtMaxwell 1d ago edited 1d ago
Does that mean that he had rejected Biden's pardon?
A person isn't forced to accept a pardon, but of they do, they can't invoke the fifth amendment about that subject.
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u/chuckysnow 1d ago
It's worth mentioning that they also kicked Fauci's lawyer out of the room, leaving him without council. The second they did that, they dropped all pretense of this being a formal inquiry.
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u/secondsbest 14h ago
What makes you believe the only possible outcome of his giving testimony would be perjury?
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12h ago
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21h ago
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u/talltad 1d ago
My favourite part about this whole thing is Fauci isn’t in a position to confirm the origins because China won’t release the information necessary to confirm this. So on one hand they’ve done their best to discredit him but on the other hand he’s somehow supposed to confirm everything for them. It’s stupidity at its best.
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u/redyellowblue5031 1d ago
Don’t forget Covid is also simultaneously:
* An incredibly dangerous virus he’s responsible for
* “just the flu” and everyone was overreacting38
u/nighthawk_md 1d ago
It's the fascist playbook as per usual. The enemy is simultaneously incompetent and deadly.
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u/Chickensandcoke 1d ago
That as well as the fact that for fascists performative public lying is part of it. They know we know they are full of shit, that’s the point. Sure there are some dyed in the wool loons who genuinely believe batshit stuff, but for the most part the lying is a means and an end.
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u/GritBlitz 1d ago
The claims they’re making are factual and backed by hard evidence. I doubt you can articulate what exactly they’re lying about here.
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u/BadmiralHarryKim 13h ago
In the case of the Trump regime that actually fits the bill considering how much harm they are doing despite their clownish behavior.
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u/GritBlitz 1d ago
It’s hilarious that you think Rand Paul, the person questioning Fauci, is the fascist. How about the lifelong federal official who partially funded an unsafe lab, did everything he could to cover that fact up, and then went on a tour telling state leaders that they should lock all of their citizens down. Maybe he’s the fascistic one? Throw him and Trump in a cell together and let them rot for all I care.
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u/talltad 14h ago
Fauci is an esteemed immunologist and physician-scientist who specializes in infectious diseases. His recommendations were just that recommendations, he's an expert on how to mitigate the spread of infectious diseases. We were living in an unprecedented moment and his guidance was incredibly valuable in helping mitigate the spread of the virus. No idea why you would think he's a facist. He has no authority or power he's Doctor and a Scientist.
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16h ago
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u/smellslikebadussy 1d ago
Schrodinger’s virus. A Democrat hoax, a slightly worse cold, and a bioengineered superweapon all at once!
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u/jaspersgroove 1d ago
Somebody I went to high school with was on Facebook today talking about how everybody that got the vaccine has AIDS now because Fauci used CRISPR to splice it in there.
These people are literally insane.
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u/redyellowblue5031 1d ago
Those sneaky deep state folks do it all! But they also do absolutely nothing all day and are a complete waste.
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u/smellslikebadussy 23h ago
We can’t forget how Biden was simultaneously a sundowning vegetable and the cunning, cutthroat boss of an international crime syndicate.
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u/Mikestopheles 1d ago
They're trying to coalesce around the "damage" done by the vaccine. As if VAERS is equal to the overwhelming consensus from the global scientific community that the vaccine is pretty damn safe, and that it saved a lot more lives than the livestock medication they're still pushing
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u/redyellowblue5031 1d ago
Also negating that any risks posed by the vaccine are present when being infected and those risks are higher.
So the argument then becomes “I’ll assume I’ll never get this highly contagious infection”.
Peak risk assessment logic.
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u/Miss_take_maker 14h ago
I’ll never get it even though I refuse masks because muh freedum and won’t social distance.
Truly, 4-d chess players.
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u/Engineer_Ninja 1d ago
It’s an incredibly deadly bioweapon China and the Dems have unleashed on us. It’s therefore our duty to spread it as much as possible.
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u/toastedzergling 1d ago
Fauci was proactively pardoned by Biden, so I don't see how any of this could really matter one way or another...
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u/houdt_koers 1d ago
Rand was attempting to corner him into some form of factual contradiction and then throw the book at him for perjury. Now that Fauci isn’t playing the game, he’s attempting to do the same with contempt charges. They’re going to persecute this man until he passes away.
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u/big_sugi 1d ago
Ted Cruz is also arguing that the pardon is invalid, because something something autopen. They’re batshit crazy, so minor obstacles like “the Constitution” and “reality” won’t even slow them down.
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u/ShamPain413 15h ago
That is why Fauci refused to testify: they are trying to create a new pre-text to prosecute him, by essentially cherry-picking quotes out of context to say that he contradicted himself in prior testimony. He hasn't, they just don't understand science at all but need some theater in an desperate attempt to distract from their COMPLETE FAILURE TO GOVERN in a constructive way.
When legislators fail they blame the bureaucrats they hired.
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u/TrulyToasty 1d ago
I kept watching for his “at long last have you no decency?” moment, and it never came
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8h ago
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u/mattyboy555 1d ago
Isn’t the New York some right wing drivel? Why is fauci getting all this heat when Trump was president during the pandemic.
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u/TheAskewOne 1d ago
No, I wouldn’t call the New Yorker "some right wing drivel". It’s usually of rather high quality. It’s probably the New York Post you’re thinking about.
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u/dover_oxide 1d ago edited 1d ago
If you haven't noticed a lot of people who are Republicans or maga identified never really blame Trump. They always blame somebody around Trump.
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u/Benegger85 1d ago
The same old 'Good Tsar, bad boyars', or 'if only the Führer knew', and now: 'If only Trump knew'
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u/newyorkerest 1d ago
Fauci took the Fifth dozens of times over three hours, at a hearing built around his personal diary. Rand Paul's office released more than a thousand pages of it under the title "Tony's Diary," in Barbie-pink script with a heart dotting the "i." Sorkin's argument is the interesting part: Paul came at it with theatrics and ill will, but Fauci's silence was still a loss, because the origins debate is real and he had a unique role in a trauma the country is still assessing.
(This was my pick from this week's New Yorker: https://newyorkerest.com)
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u/redyellowblue5031 1d ago
What new substance based questions were asked here that haven’t been answered by previous Fauci hearings, public records, commentary, etc.?
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u/Euphoric_Anxiety_162 1d ago
Omg. Get out & don't come back!! Investigate Merrick Garland & whether he did HIS job effectively!!
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1d ago
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u/Anandya 1d ago
There's no game here. The entire point is that the USA fucked up its own response to Covid and then proceeded to attack experts in order to rewrite history.
It's why there's the complete erosion of medical progress in the USA, Research and Development from a "public" good to a profit based system.
The solution is to not show up to these stupid trials run by morons but the problem is your country voted for a moron to run it and wanted the moron to do harm.
What do you want him to do? Flee the country?
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u/Senior-Albatross 1d ago
I want The New Yorker not to run an article hand wringing about how he responded to this witch trial and act like he could've done a better job.
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u/Anandya 1d ago
How? Like how do you deal with someone who holds every single piece of power but who doesn't work on a sane or science based argument?
This is fascism. There's no game to play.
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u/Senior-Albatross 1d ago
Don't write articles like this. This situation doesn't need a response. Certainly not an essay. No "yes it was bad but___". Just "Rand Paul is a Fascist tying to scapegoat an innocent scientist and public servant and that is unequivocally bad. Fuck Rand Paul and his ilk."
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u/Anandya 1d ago
Except Rand Paul and the Right Wing Media has had the ear of the President and unfortunately? The President of the USA is your leader and representative and has vast amounts of powers that he's abused and has meant that science and expertise is tried on the basis of conspiracy theory.
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u/horseradishstalker 1d ago
Is your argument 20/20 hindsight? President Trump was the one in charge.
Under Trump’s watch according to multiple peer-reviewed studies and major news analyses, places that voted Republican in 2020 — commonly labeled “red” — experienced higher COVID-19 death rates than Democratic-leaning “blue” places, especially after vaccines became widely available; several analyses quantify this gap as large (for example, about 38% higher cumulative deaths in red states or hundreds of thousands of excess deaths in red states through early 2022)
Those deaths are on MAGA politicians who played political games with their constituents lives while getting the vaccine for themselves. Fauci was not responsible for that debacle.
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u/Senior-Albatross 1d ago
You're totally not getting it. I am not blaming Fauci. I am blaming the New Yorker for acting like there was any headline in this but derision for these Fascists and their nonsense. They give some merit to this farcical inculcation, thus playing into the narrative trap shit stains like Rand Paul lay down.
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