Sen. Ted Cruz calls again for criminal probe after Dr. Fauci dismisses critics as “anti-science”

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tx.) and Dr. Anthony Fauci continue to lock horns after a Sunday interview where Fauci laughed at the idea of him being prosecuted for his testimony on gain-of-function research. 

"I have to laugh at that,” Fauci said to CBS News' Face the Nation. “I should be prosecuted? What happened on January 6, senator?”

Fauci is the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Sen. Cruz had called for a special investigation into Fauci’s testimony before Congress on gain-of-function research, which conflicts with a report by the National Institutes of Health on Oct. 20 admitting it had funded research on the potential of coronavirus passing from bats to humans at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

“It’s a crime to knowingly lie to Congress,” Cruz tweeted on Oct. 27. “I asked AG Garland if he'd appoint a special prosecutor to investigate Fauci.”

In the same interview, Fauci said that there was “a distinct anti-science flavor” to criticisms, and that he was being targeted out of convenience.

“So it’s easy to criticize,” Fauci explained. “But they’re really criticizing science, because I represent science. That’s dangerous.”

Cruz responded on Twitter later on Sunday, calling Fauci “an unelected technocrat who has distorted science and facts in order to exercise authoritarian control over millions of Americans.”

Fauci is an unelected technocrat who has distorted science and facts in order to exercise authoritarian control over millions of Americans.

He lives in a liberal world where his smug “I REPRESENT science” attitude is praised.

Here are the facts:

— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) November 28, 2021

“No amount of ad hominem insults parroting Democrat talking points will get Fauci out of this contradiction,” he said, referring to how the NIH report contradicts Fauci’s testimony before Congress that “the NIH has not ever and does not now fund gain-of-function research” in the Wuhan lab.

Cruz then doubled down on his call for the Justice Department to look into the matter. “Fauci either needs to address the substance—in detail, with specific factual corroboration—or DOJ should consider prosecuting him for making false statements to Congress,” he said.

No amount of ad hominem insults parroting Democrat talking points will get Fauci out of this contradiction.

Fauci either needs to address the substance—in detail, with specific factual corroboration—or DOJ should consider prosecuting him for making false statements to Congress.

— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) November 28, 2021

Sen. Rand Paul, a physician, also blasted Fauci for “absolute hubris” during the interview.

“It’s astounding and alarming that a public health bureaucrat would even think to claim such a thing, especially one who has worked so hard to ignore the science of natural immunity,” said Paul, who has declined the vaccine citing natural immunity.

The absolute hubris of someone claiming THEY represent science. It’s astounding and alarming that a public health bureaucrat would even think to claim such a thing, especially one who has worked so hard to ignore the science of natural immunity. https://t.co/rcDezphVRR

— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) November 28, 2021