Fauci's lawyers BLAST contempt vote: 'CRUDE POLITICAL STUNT'

[0:00] Okay, Bill, so the Department of Justice says it will review the contempt vote against Dr. Anthony Fauci that just happened here live in the last hour. [0:08] This comes after Senate investigators got a hold of Dr. Fauci's COVID-era phone, the government phone. [0:15] They have it. [0:16] Here is committee chairman Rand Paul just moments ago speaking with reporters. [0:20] A million Americans died, and I think they deserve to know the truth. [0:24] Anthony Fauci has advocated for dangerous gain-of-function research for two decades now. [0:30] The question why is not a question that he can have liability for. [0:34] He was given a pardon. [0:36] Interestingly, the pardon starts in 2014. [0:39] That's when the funding of the lab in Wuhan started. [0:42] So I think he should answer questions. [0:44] As far as pleading the fifth when you have a pardon, all you have to do is tell the truth. [0:48] Just not commit a new crime. [0:50] But if we were to grant him immunity from telling the truth, of what value, you know, would his testimony be? [0:56] Fauci's lawyer responded to the vote today, saying in part, quote, [1:00] Today's partisan committee vote is a crude political stunt intended to punish Dr. Fauci for exercising his constitutional rights. [1:09] The Senate should reject Senator Paul's meritless and politically motivated contempt resolution. [1:15] That's coming from Fauci's lawyer. [1:17] Let's bring in former New York Times reporter Alex Berenson. [1:20] So, Alex, we watched it all live here on Fox News. [1:23] What's your top-line takeaway and then your reaction to his lawyer? [1:28] So, my top-line takeaway is it's difficult to know whether Tony Fauci is actually at legal risk here, okay? [1:35] He probably has the right to take the fifth because he could face state or local prosecutions, [1:40] and the fifth doesn't just apply to federal rights. [1:43] So, he's probably got a pretty good case for taking the fifth legally. [1:46] That's different than morally or societally or ethically. [1:50] We all want what Rand Paul wants. [1:52] We want him to answer some questions about what he actually thinks about gain-of-function research now. [1:58] Would he still support what he supported before the pandemic? [2:03] Whether he actually believes the lockdowns that he pushed so hard were necessary. [2:08] We want him to be honest. [2:09] We want him to answer questions. [2:11] I don't... [2:11] The guy's 85 years old. [2:12] I don't want Tony Fauci to go to jail. [2:14] Now, look, I know there's a lot of readers on my sub-stack who want Tony Fauci to go to jail. [2:18] I just want him to tell the truth, and I wish we could get to that point. [2:23] And if threatening to throw him in jail is what it takes to answer questions honestly, [2:27] then do that. [2:28] But let's get him to answer. [2:29] I don't know if the Trump team wants to pursue it that far and prosecute Fauci. [2:33] Maybe they do, maybe they don't. [2:34] We had a guest on last hour suggested give him blanket immunity. [2:37] Yep. [2:38] Do that, and then maybe you get the answers then. [2:40] What do you think of that? [2:41] I think that's a great idea. [2:42] Let's get him to a place where he can answer honestly. [2:48] And by the way, I think he also owes people an apology for his clear love of fame and celebrity [2:54] in 2020 and 2021 as people were dying, as people in nursing homes were not being allowed [2:59] to see their children and grandchildren, as kids were getting their schools taken from them. [3:03] What was he worried about? [3:04] Well, a lot of him was worried about Joan Baez and Julia Roberts and Barbara Streisand butt-dialing him. [3:09] It's absurd, and he should apologize for that stuff. [3:12] And if a grant of immunity is what it takes to get us there, let's do it. [3:16] But I'm not suggesting you give him immunity so that he escapes culpability. [3:20] I'm trying to get us ready for the next pandemic to make sure that we're defended as well as we can. [3:25] Go ahead. [3:26] It wasn't just vanity, Alex. [3:27] It was also the villainization of so many people, average Americans. [3:32] You could not question anything that the government was doing or what was happening or where COVID began. [3:37] I want to play this montage of Anthony Fauci talking about the wet markets when this all happened. [3:42] Watch. [3:42] They said it was something like 24 cases in this wet market. [3:48] This was jumping from an animal to a human in the context of the wet market. [3:52] The origin was from the Wuhan wet market. [3:56] But by 2023, government agencies started to believe that this might have been a lab leak. [4:01] In fact, the FBI said for quite some time now, they had assessed that the origins of the pandemic are most likely a potential lab leak. [4:09] 2023, again, the U.S. Energy Department felt the same way. [4:12] 2025, the CIA assesses with low confidence, though, that a research-related origin of the COVID-19 pandemic is more likely than a natural origin. [4:21] I think one of the worst things to come out of this, out of COVID, not just the millions of Americans that died, obviously, and all the families that were broken up. [4:29] But it created this mistrust that has not left our system, and there's been no accountability for it. [4:37] Not one person has had to answer for it. [4:40] Look, you're absolutely correct. [4:42] I want to go back to something you said about the silencing, because that affected me personally. [4:47] The Biden administration and senior Pfizer officials colluded to get me off Twitter. [4:51] They forced Twitter to ban me in August 2021. [4:54] Really, it was only thanks to Substack and Fox, honestly, that I was able to keep talking. [4:58] But they took away my biggest voice. [5:02] And to see that nobody's apologized, nobody's even admitted that happened. [5:05] I mean, the Trump administration admitted it happened a couple months ago. [5:09] But nobody who was involved has told the truth. [5:11] So, yes, like, there is so much for them to be honest about. [5:15] And to see Fauci take the fifth, I think it's stirred up a lot of emotions, even in people who, you know, [5:20] who maybe aren't as aware of every detail of what happened, because we all lived through this, you know, as we were saying before, off air, we've all wanted to forget about it. [5:30] But we can't forget about it, because it was a bad, traumatic time, and we need to reckon with it. [5:35] People couldn't say goodbye to their grandparents. [5:36] That's right. [5:37] People were posting when he was taking and pleading the fifth, invoking the fifth, over and over again. [5:41] People online were posting pictures of their grandparents behind a glass wall. [5:46] We all forgot about it. [5:47] We all forgot about it. [5:48] But it changed us. [5:48] But we didn't really forget, and we haven't really had the chance to forgive or move past it. [5:55] The best thing that could happen would be a real conversation between Rand Paul and Tony Fauci. [5:59] Well, we're still living with it in many ways. [6:01] Alex, thank you for your courage. [6:02] Bill, thanks for having me. [6:03] Thanks for coming back here today. [6:04] Thanks, Alex. [6:04] Thanks. [6:04] Be sure to like and subscribe for all the Fox News latest on YouTube and catch full shows streaming now on Fox 1.