Paul promises investigation of Fauci if Republicans take Senate

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) says he plans to subpoena Anthony Fauci‘s records if Republicans retake the Senate in November’s midterm elections and he becomes chairman of a committee.

Paul stands to become chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions (HELP) Committee if Republicans flip the 50-50 upper chamber. The current HELP ranking member, Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), is retiring.

“If we win in November, if I’m chairman of a committee, if I have subpoena power, we’ll go after every one of [Fauci’s] records,” Paul said during an interview with conservative podcast host Lisa Boothe. “We’ll have an investigator go through this piece-by-piece because we don’t need this to happen again.”

During congressional hearings, Paul, a libertarian ophthalmologist, has repeatedly antagonized the nation’s top infectious diseases doctor over the benefits of masks, vaccinations and the origins of COVID-19.

Paul has alleged on numerous occasions that Fauci and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) sent funding to the Wuhan, China virology lab, which then created a supervirus that can infect human cells. He has pressed Fauci on the theory that the novel coronavirus was created in the Wuhan lab, and then somehow escaped, either because of an accident or because it was deliberately released.

While the origins of the virus are not known and under investigation, there is little evidence to suggest it was created in a lab, or with funding help from the NIH and Fauci.

Some evidence suggests there may have been a lab leak because of lax safety protocols, while other experts say it was found in nature.