back at it again

'Why would a senator want to do this?': Fauci accuses Rand Paul of 'distorting everything about me'

President Biden's chief medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) were at each other's throats yet again, this time during a Tuesday Senate hearing in which the nation's top health officials testified regarding the government's response to the Omicron variant.

Speaking before the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions committee, Fauci accused Paul of "distorting everything about me" and "coming back to personal attacks on me that have absolutely no relevance," The Independent reports. Paul had asked Fauci about past conversations and communications he had with scientists regarding the origins of COVID-19, per C-SPAN.

Tensions came to a head, however, when Fauci responded directly to Paul without interruption, arguing the senator's "completely untrue" statements about the doctor embolden "the crazies out there" and distract from "what we're all trying to do here today," which is "get our arms around the epidemic and pandemic." 

"So I ask myself why would a senator want to do this?" Fauci said. "So go to Rand Paul website and you see 'Fire Dr. Fauci' with a little box that says 'contribute here.' You can do $5, $10, $20, $100." Fauci held up a printout of the campaign website. The senator's website currently calls for Fauci to be fired, but it does not, at the moment, appear as was presented during the hearing, Mediaite notes.

"So you are making a catastrophic epidemic for your political gain," Fauci concluded, before Paul replied, "You have politically attacked your colleagues and in a politically reprehensible way you've attacked their reputations."

Watch the full, fiery exchange below: