Trump Reacts After Fauci Invokes Fifth Amendment 111 Times

President Donald Trump is weighing in after one of the most closely watched congressional hearings of the year, offering a nuanced response to a political and legal controversy that continues to fuel debate in Washington.

The president addressed both former President Joe Biden’s decision to pardon Dr. Anthony Fauci and Fauci’s decision to repeatedly invoke the Fifth Amendment during testimony before the Senate, drawing a distinction between the two issues.

Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday, Trump said he respects Biden’s constitutional authority to pardon Fauci, even as he criticized the retired public health official for refusing to answer questions before Congress.

“The most powerful thing a president has, they say, is the power of pardon,” Trump said.

“So he was pardoned by Biden, and I respect that. I know how powerful it is.”

Biden issued Fauci a preemptive pardon on his final day in office, covering potential federal offenses committed between Jan. 1, 2014, and Jan. 19, 2025.

The pardon came roughly two years after Fauci retired following nearly four decades as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and after serving as one of the nation’s most recognizable public health officials during the COVID-19 pandemic.