Trump Reacts After Fauci Invokes Fifth Amendment 111 Times

Trump’s comments came only hours after Fauci testified before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

During the hearing, Fauci invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination 111 times rather than answering questions from Republican lawmakers.

In his opening statement, Fauci argued the hearing was politically motivated and accused committee chairman Sen. Rand Paul of seeking to build a criminal case against him.

“The only conclusion I can reach is that the sole reason he is calling me before this committee is to get me to say something, anything, that could vindicate his repeated public pledges that I end up, in his words, ‘behind bars,’” Fauci said.

Before the hearing began, Paul released thousands of pages of Fauci’s diary entries spanning 2019 through 2022, covering much of the federal government’s response to the pandemic.

Following the hearing, Paul announced he intends to ask the committee to vote next week on holding Fauci in contempt of Congress.

Trump sharply criticized Fauci’s decision to invoke the Fifth Amendment.

“Terrible,” the president said when asked about the testimony.