Tag: Sen. Paul

Fauci: Paul doesn’t know what he’s talking about

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Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) on Tuesday escalated his ongoing feud with the nation’s top infectious diseases doctor Anthony Fauci about the role the National Institutes of Health (NIH) played in funding controversial research in Wuhan, China.

The two traded barbs during a tense exchange, triggering a shouting match in which Fauci accused Paul of lying in order to further his agenda. 

During a Senate Health Committee hearing about the federal COVID-19 response, Paul said the NIH funded illegal gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which created a highly dangerous and transmissible virus able to infect humans. Gain-of-function is a controversial method where researchers make a pathogen more infectious, often to develop more effective treatments and vaccines. Continue reading.

‘Completely incorrect’: Rand Paul gets obliterated after accusing Fauci of helping to ‘juice up’ viruses

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Sen Rand Paul (R-KY) once again attacked Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, with another grandstanding performance during a Senate hearing on the COVID-19 health crisis.

Taking up conspiracy theories spread by former White House trade adviser Peter Navarro, the Kentucky Republican spoke over Fauci after accusing him of helping to fund Chinese research into viruses that led to COVID-19.

Paul claimed that Dr. Ralph Baric, a virologist in the U.S., has been collaborating with scientists at a Wuhan virus laboratory, and that the research was funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health. Continue reading.

Rand Paul gets schooled by scientists — including one he cited — after lashing out at Anthony Fauci again

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“Sorry Dr Fauci and other fearmongers, new study shows vaccines and naturally acquired immunity DO effectively neutralize COVID variants. Good news for everyone but bureaucrats and petty tyrants!”

— Sen. Rand Paul in a tweet, March 21, 2021

That Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky often disagrees with infectious-disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci is well known.

Recently, the pair clashed at a Senate hearing when Paul, a Republican, argued against mask recommendations for people who have had covid-19 or have been vaccinated against it.

At the hearing, Fauci, President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser, pushed back against Paul’s characterization of wearing masks as “theater.” Continued caution is advised, Fauci said, as scientists study the new variants now circulating in the U.S. and other countries. Continue reading.

Pandemics and gun violence are real life, not ‘theater’

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And the word is not the insult Rand Paul and Ted Cruz seem to think it is

Perhaps Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky needs a refresher course on the meaning of the word “theater.” His GOP colleague Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas could listen in.

The former recently initiated a verbal brawl with Dr. Anthony Fauci, the infectious disease specialist who has been providing information and advice to guide Americans dealing, along with the rest of the world, with a deadly pandemic. The latter accused anyone proposing the consideration of gun restrictions, in light of two horrific mass shootings in the space of a week, of “ridiculous theater.”

Now, I realize the term “theatrical” can be used as an insult hurled at someone accused of exaggeration, but what is happening in America is a fact. So let me offer my own definition: “Theater” is the thrill of escaping from it all in a darkened hall with a group of strangers, to see and hear professionals act or sing or dance, and to be uplifted by the experience, if only for an hour or two. Continue reading.

Fauci clashes with Rand Paul over masks

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The nation’s top infectious diseases doctor Anthony Fauci on Thursday clashed with Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) over the need for people to continue wearing masks once they’ve already been infected with or vaccinated against COVID-19.

“You’re telling everyone to wear a mask,” Paul said. “If we’re not spreading the infection, isn’t it just theater? You have the vaccine and you’re wearing two masks, isn’t that theater?”

“Here we go again with the theater,” an exasperated Fauci responded. “Let’s get down to the facts.” Continue reading.

Rand Paul’s questions of transgender nominee were ‘obscene,’ says advocate

Rachel Levine — the Biden administration’s pick to be assistant secretary of Health and Human Services — was grilled during her confirmation hearing by Sen. Rand Paul about trans health care. The Kentucky Republican falsely equated transgender youth seeking medical care to “genital mutilation.” 

If confirmed, Levine would be the highest-ranking transgender political appointee in the federal government. 

Paul did not ask similar questions of Vivek Murthy, who was also testifying before the Senate HELP Committee on Thursday to be surgeon general. Continue reading.

‘You’re saying we’re all liars!’ Rand Paul melts down on ABC when confronted with election ‘lies’

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Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) became annoyed with an ABC host on Sunday over the suggestion that former President Donald Trump’s defenders are all “liars” about the results of the 2020 election.

“This election was not stolen,” ABC host Georgia Stephanopoulos began his interview with Paul by noting. “Do you accept that fact?”

Paul, however, refused to respond with a straight answer.

“The debate over whether or not there’s fraud should occur,” Paul opined. “But, yes, were there people who voted twice? Were there dead people, illegal aliens who voted? Yes. And we should get to the bottom of it.” Continue reading.

Rand Paul gets hammered after making bogus claim that the election ‘was stolen’

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During a Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing on Wednesday, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky and fellow Republican Christopher Krebs — who formerly led a cybersecurity office at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security — expressed very different views on the security of the 2020 presidential election. Krebs, during his testimony, emphasized that the election was quite secure, while Paul echoed the baseless claims of widespread voter fraud that President Donald Trump’s campaign and legal team have been promoting. And Paul’s comments are getting a lot of reactions on Twitter.

Paul told Krebs and senators on the Senate Homeland Security Committee, “If you’re saying that it’s the safest election based on no dead people voted…. no people broke the absentee rules, I think that’s false. And I think that’s what’s upset a lot of people on our side — is that they’re taking your statement to mean, ‘Oh well, there was no problems in the elections.’ I don’t think that you’ve examined any of the problems that we’ve heard here.”

Paul insisted, “The fraud happened. The election, in many ways, was stolen.” Continue reading.

Fauci finally loses his patience with Rand Paul

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Whenever Sen. Rand Paul and Anthony S. Fauci appear at the same hearing together, they are bound to clash. In May, they tangled over children’s susceptibility to the coronavirus. In June, Paul attacked Fauci for not being more optimistic about the coronavirus, saying that Fauci wasn’t the “end-all” and that he should be more humble about what he didn’t know.

Through it all, Fauci has been characteristically diplomatic. But on Wednesday, he seemed to reach his breaking point.

Paul (R-Ky.), as he often has, questioned the strict mitigation measures that states across the country had undertaken. He accused Fauci of being too laudatory of New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D), noting that Cuomo’s state experienced one of the worst outbreaks in the world. Continue reading.

Paul clashes with Booker, Harris over anti-lynching bill

The Hill logoSen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) clashed with Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Kamala Harris (D-Calf.) on Thursday, deepening the stalemate on anti-lynching legislation. 

Paul tried twice to amend House-passed legislation that would make lynching a federal hate crime, saying that as currently written it would designate “any bodily injury including a cut, an abrasion, or a bruise, physical pain, illness or any other injury to the body” as lynching.

“I take it seriously and this legislation does not. … The Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act should be adopted with my amendment which would apply the criminal penalties for lynching only and not other crimes,” Paul said. Continue reading.