Republicans plan Fauci investigation after midterms

Republicans in the House and Senate plan to launch investigations into Dr. Anthony Fauci should the GOP seize the majority in either chamber after the midterm elections in November.

“One way or another, if we are in the majority, we will subpoena his records and he will testify in the Senate under oath,” Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul said, according to The Hill.

Paul, himself an ophthalmologist, has been a longstanding critic of Fauci and the nation's lockdown policies stemming from the coronavirus. The Kentucky Republican last week announced he would send a criminal referral to the Department of Justice over lies Fauci alleged told Congress during questioning.

Paul will likely become the chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee should Republicans take the majority, The Hill noted. In the lower chamber, Paul has his would-be counterpart in Ohio Republican Rep. Jim Jordan, the probable leader of a Republican-led House Judiciary Committee.

Jordan told Just the News in March that he would pursue investigations into "[a]ll the lies from the misinformation, the disinformation from [Dr.] Fauci and the CDC." He further alleged "they knew from the get-go [coronavirus] came from the lab, likely came from a lab, gain of function likely done, and our tax dollars were used."

The Republicans have long suggested that the coronavirus likely originated at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China and that American taxpayer dollars partially funded the research conducted there. While federal officials and media alike have routinely denounced that theory as misinformation, considerable evidence exists supporting it, including FBI emails showing the bureau itself launched an inquiry into the lab.

In early July, congress banned federal funds from supporting labs in China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran.