Dr. Anthony Fauci arrived at a high-stakes Senate hearing on Wednesday with a single, modest goal: Survive. The former top government scientist felt he accomplished that mission, people close to Fauci told CNN.
Invoking his Fifth Amendment right to not self-incriminate more than 100 times, Fauci gave Senate Republicans a myriad of clips to share on X, but deprived them of any new opportunity to fulfill their vows to prosecute him for perjury. He refused to be drawn back into long-running battles over Covid-19 and its origins.
And instead, his allies argued, Fauci’s silence turned public scrutiny back on the lawmakers who have pursued him for years, attempting to find clear evidence that he’d mishandled the Covid crisis. In fact, some of those allies said Fauci’s unredacted Covid-era diary that Paul released days earlier — which included his unvarnished and occasionally unflattering notes on his private conversations and colleagues — may have proved more embarrassing and damaging to Fauci’s public standing than the hearing itself.
“They overplayed their hand,” said one of the people close to Fauci. “And I think the majority of the country saw it for what it was.”
The marathon hearing only seemed to intensify the six-year battle between Fauci and GOP Sen. Rand Paul, and the Kentucky senator pledged a vote next week on holding the 85-year-old scientist in contempt over his refusal to testify. But Fauci’s advisers had concluded in the lead-up to his congressional appearance that he had no other choice but to repeatedly invoke the Fifth Amendment, the people close to Fauci said, as the Trump administration has shown an eagerness to target political foes, even based on at-times flimsy evidence.
