Former White House chief medical adviser Anthony Fauci said the “levels of vitriol” in the county and in Congress, especially Tuesday’s incident with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), are “ really very regrettable.”
Facui joined CNN’s Kaitlan Collins to discuss her Monday testimony before the House Select Subcommittee on Oversight and Accountability on the Coronavirus Pandemic. He was the face of the government’s COVID-19 response while leading the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
“I have testified literally hundreds of times over the last 40 years in Congress and there have always been differences of opinion, differences of ideology, criticisms and things like that,” Fauci said.
“But the level of violence that we see now, just in the country in general, but that actually occurred during this hearing, was really unfortunate because the purpose of the hearings [is] trying to figure out how we can do better so that next time, if and when we face a pandemic, we are better prepared and can benefit,” he continued.
Fauci testified before the committee on Monday for the first time since retiring. He said his goal is to help leaders identify mistakes made during the COVID-19 pandemic and correct them for the future.
“That’s not what we saw today, as the clip you showed with Marjorie Taylor Greene shows,” Fauci said. “I mean, unfortunately it wasn’t about trying to do better.”
During the hearing, Greene refused to recognize him as a doctor, referring to him as “Mr. Fauci.” She questioned Fauci about why the American people “deserve to be abused” by him and said: “You are not ‘Dr.’, you are ‘Mr.’ Fauci’ in my few minutes.”
Fauci told the committee and Collins that he and his family still receive death threats for their role in trying to take action during the pandemic. He said there is a pattern to the threats, whether from Fox News or “someone in Congress” who claims he is responsible for widespread COVID deaths.
“So that’s the reason I still get death threats, when you have performances like that unusual one from Marjorie Taylor Greene in today’s audience,” he said. “These are the types of things that increase death threats because there is a segment of the population that believes this type of nonsense.”
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
