Sen. Rand Paul removes Fauci's lawyer from hearing

[0:00] you're not recognized you're not recognized if you are unruly you will be removed from the [0:08] proceeding you are not you are not recognized and you you are not recognized sir sir you are not [0:15] recognized you are not recognized security we will we'll hold off but you will respect these [0:25] proceedings you were told not to sit at the table you insist on sitting at the table and we told you [0:30] you would not be recognized you are not invited here for testimony sir you are being disruptive [0:39] would you behave this way in a courtroom no because the judge would put you in jail i can't do that [0:44] today but i can have you escorted from the premises so i would say sir sit quietly and don't say [0:49] another word i said sit quietly you are not recognized another word and you're gone so [1:01] mr chairman i'd like to hear uh what the uh the attorney has to say he is not recognized by the [1:06] committee or the chair if he speaks again he will be removed from the room this testimony is from [1:13] anthony fauci this is not a game with his lawyers he can advise his lawyers can give him advice he's got [1:20] a half dozen here they're all allowed to talk to him yes all right but the attorneys are not recognized [1:27] in fact the attorney was told not to sit at the table and he's not obeying that recommendation [1:31] there's a row behind you sir that's where you were told to sit and you're not and now you're [1:36] disrupting the proceedings and so look this is the way anthony fauci wants to be remembered for a [1:41] lawyer not listening to the rules that's the way you want to be remembered and that's what you're [1:45] going to do you are not recognized sir uh security please remove him from the room let the record [2:25] state that dr fauci will still have the advice of the other half a dozen attorneys that he brought along [2:30] today senator peters thank you mr chairman the uh the covet 19 pandemic is not the first or the last [2:43] public health crisis to impact our nation in december 2022 i released a report that identified [2:50] significant failures in our federal government's preparedness and initial response to covet 19. [2:59] this report contained uh 17 key findings it's a very large report which i have right here it [3:05] contains 17 key findings and corresponding recommendations including the need to invest in [3:10] sustainable domestic manufacturing capabilities for critical medical supplies build the infrastructure [3:17] needed to surge testing capacity for infectious diseases and robustly fund public health emergency [3:24] preparedness and responses across all levels of government unfortunately multiple administrations [3:32] including the current trump administration have failed to fund or to reform our health preparedness [3:40] this is something that i would hope the committee in the future would investigate it needs to be taken [3:46] a look at it also feels like a new public health threat is hitting us every month there's a foodborne [3:53] parasite affecting thousands of people in michigan and across the country and our federal agencies [4:00] still haven't fully pinned down the source of that outbreak measles cases in this country are the [4:08] highest they've been in 35 years more children are getting sick and even hospitalized from this preventable [4:16] disease over a thousand people have died from the ebola virus in africa and we don't know how widespread [4:23] this crisis actually is we have a hunter virus scare on a cruise ship and though it hasn't made headlines [4:31] in the way that the screw worm threatening our food security has i remain concerned about bird flu that is [4:37] also spreading and could one day cause a pandemic this is also something this committee should be [4:43] investigating and holding hearings on since january 2025 the trump administration has taken a number of [4:49] actions to drastically weaken our ability to fight infectious diseases and biological threats that [4:55] endanger americans these actions are both incomprehensible and are also inexcusable they [5:03] include slashing funding for public health and infectious disease research cancelling contracts for cutting edge [5:09] vaccine technology shutting agencies responsible for tackling infectious diseases around the world firing [5:16] thousands of federal employees with keeping our communities and our medicines and our food supply [5:21] safe and injecting political appointees in what should be non-political grant making functions that is [5:29] something this committee should be looking at i could go on i could go on on all the topics that we need [5:33] to be looking at moving forward to protect this country we're not doing that in this committee that's [5:38] what this committee was designed to do it's what it has done throughout history it has done it in a bipartisan way [5:43] we should get back to that and think about the future of this country and keeping this country safe [5:49] when a crisis like covet 19 strikes we have an obligation to examine what went right and what [5:55] went wrong to provide accountability for the american people congress certainly has done that between [6:01] the house and senate nearly 20 different committees 20 different committees including this committee as i [6:07] mentioned have conducted oversight of the covet 19 pandemic conducting transcribed interviews holding [6:14] dozens of hearings and released more than 10 reports today's exercise unfortunately is a stark departure from [6:21] those largely bipartisan legitimate efforts the chairman has shut the minority out of participating equally [6:28] in these efforts withheld information selectively released documents actions that completely undermine [6:34] the credibility of this investigation i will enter a record without objection mr chairman a letter that i sent to [6:40] you that detailed all of those areas that we have concern with and where we were shut out without [6:45] objection we'll provide other details as well i think today's hearing unfortunately does real damage [6:53] it's turning tempting to turn one person into the scapegoat for a crisis that hundreds of officials [6:58] across both the trump and the biden administration were responsible for handling it does so in a way that it [7:06] people that are facing death threats this is only going to unfortunately deter other scientific experts [7:14] from public service to understand that this is what they would have to go through as they provide [7:19] their advice to us we're not going to make our nation safer and i hope that we can restore the [7:25] by doing these kinds of activities and i hope that we can restore our legitimate bipartisan oversight [7:31] that's going to help strengthen our public health and pandemic preparedness and other homeland [7:36] priorities that's what this committee needs to focus on it hasn't the last year and a half let's hope it [7:43] does in the future thank you mr chairman