Democratic Senator Praises Fauci During Tense Hearing, Reads Famous Teddy Roosevelt Quote In Tribute

[0:06] Thank you Dr. Fauci for coming on out in front of this committee. I know it's not what you [0:14] would want. It's not what you deserve. I just want to say and start by just saying thank you [0:21] to you for your service to this nation. I didn't know much about you prior to the pandemic. I [0:32] came to learn about you from how many Americans did but I also had the opportunity to talk to you [0:38] and engage with you as someone who is a member of the Select Committee on the Coronavirus Crisis [0:43] over in the House of Representatives. When I learned about your background, 38 years as the [0:50] Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, appointed by President Reagan, [0:57] served under seven Presidents, four Republicans and three Democrats, I admire that greatly. I myself [1:07] had a chance to serve in the Executive Branch serving government under both a Republican [1:13] President and a Democratic President and I believe that we need more of that, more of that type of [1:20] work, a place where we can understand our jobs not as coming from a place of partisanship and politics [1:27] but that of just public service. And right now I feel the hyper-partisanship growing in this country [1:35] in dangerous ways. I feel it much more present here on the Hill than I did back when I served as a [1:41] non-partisan career public servant at the State Department and I worry about it. I worry about what [1:48] kind of trajectory we're on as a country and what this causes when it comes next for public service [1:56] and those willing to step up for our nation. And it's not just in the attacks but we see it brought [2:03] out with the cuts to funding, to the firing of federal workers, to the demonization of their [2:10] motivations, people calling our public servants criminals, thinking that they are there solely to [2:19] undermine others that are trying to engage. I look at it right now, you know it's not just that the [2:28] people are being attacked, our public servants being attacked, but that it's undermining the very [2:33] nature of the work of governance. You know these cuts to HHS funding, to NIH funding, to the grants, [2:42] cuts to the researchers doing the critical work to find cures and medicines. These firing, these cuts, [2:50] they're creating a chilling effect, honestly, a chilling effect for the next generation of people [2:56] who might consider stepping up to serve our nation, to be the next generation of researchers who now are [3:04] wondering whether or not this is the right thing for them to do at a time when they see some of their [3:11] colleagues or those that they looked up to being attacked, their funding being cut. Researchers that [3:17] I talked to who are now either leaving the country or considering leaving the country to do their work [3:23] because of the sheer unpredictability of America, that this nation so great, so powerful, has now been [3:31] crippled with this sense of unpredictability and unreliability. That is not the type of country that [3:39] I hope we strive to be. I've raised this because these attacks upon Dr. Fauci, it's not just about him, [3:47] it's sending signals to others, others who are thinking about serving our country, our scientists, [3:53] our doctors, our healthcare professionals, our researchers, trying to show to them that if you [4:00] don't get in line with the politics, that you will also potentially be subject to attacks. And from [4:09] the work that he has done from HIV AIDS to Ebola to COVID, you know, we've seen him try to engage in [4:16] these crises. They're not easy, especially when it's a novel disease, when you don't know what comes next, [4:23] a lot of unknowns, having to make decisions without the full breadth of knowledge we always wish we had [4:28] in hindsight. But there is nothing perfect, no perfect clarity when it comes to pandemics, [4:34] when it comes to crises. I worked in national security and wars and crises. I made judgment calls, [4:41] gave my best advice to generals, to ambassadors, even to a president. Did I get it all right? No. [4:49] Did I do my best? I did everything I thought I could with the information that I had. The public [4:56] servants, they do this work because they love this country and that they strive to improve it. It's [5:04] not an easy job, but it is because there is so much at stake in our country. But these public servants do [5:12] it because they are in the arena. I just want to end by just reading a portion of this because I think [5:19] it's important as we're thinking about how to be able to treat public servants through this country [5:26] to think through this. And in the words of Teddy Roosevelt saying, it's not the critic who counts, [5:31] not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have [5:37] done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by [5:43] dust and sweat and blood, who strive valiantly, who errors but comes short again and again, who spends [5:50] himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumphs of high achievement, [5:55] and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly so that his place shall never [6:01] be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat. Thank you for your service, [6:08] Dr. Fauci. I yield back.