Sign up HERE to our DC Insider newsletter - your guide to what's rockingSee more Daily Mail on Google - save us as a Preferred SourceBy VICTORIA CHURCHILL, US POLITICAL REPORTER Published: 14:06 BST, 29 July 2026 | Updated: 14:59 BST, 29 July 2026
Dr Anthony Fauci is refusing to answer any questions about COVID-19 origins during an explosive hearing where he blasted Republicans' 'unhinged obsession' with him. In the opening round of questions, Fauci pleaded the Fifth Amendment to avoid self-incrimination.'On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution,' Fauci told Kentucky Republican Senator Rand Paul numerous times in the opening round of questions.During his opening statement, Fauci earlier accused Paul of having an 'unhinged obsession' with him.'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,' Fauci noted.'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,' Fauci continued.'Any reasonable person who has followed his unhinged obsession with me would readily come to the same conclusion,' he added.One of Fauci's attorneys, David Schertler, was asked by Chairman Paul to leave the committee hearing and was escorted out by Capitol police as he attempted to speak on behalf of his client. Dr. Anthony Fauci testifies during a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on Wednesday Committee Chairman Senator Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican, delivers his opening statement as former NIH Director Anthony Fauci testifies before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing on Wednesday David Schertler (C), the attorney for former NIH Director Anthony Fauci (R), is removed from the hearing room at the direction of committee chairman Paul during a hearing before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs CommitteeFauci's personal diaries were released earlier this week, showing how he delighted in his interactions with celebrities as America went through the death throes of the early COVID-19 pandemic.The director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, who also became chief medical advisor to Joe Biden, achieved a fame of his own during lockdowns in 2020.Fauci's diaries were published by his longtime adversary, Kentucky Senator Paul.Paul accused Fauci of revealing 'his love for the newfound fame COVID brought him' before publishing a paragraph the Senator says is of him 'fangirling' over explaining Amazon's virtual assistant Alexa to Barbra Streisand.'She wanted to know if it was okay to get mRNA vaccine. I told her yes,' Fauci wrote of the 'great call.'He then spoke about listening to Streisand's music on the Alexa device before saying the longtime star 'really did not know what Alexa was.'He then admitted to having 'butt called' her later the same day, only to discover Streisand had been planning to call him anyway to ask about differences between the Moderna and Pfizer jabs.During that call, he said he demonstrated how the Alexa worked by asking her to play Streisand songs.
