Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) is the latest Republican lawmaker to turn up the heat, demanding answers on the origins of the Chinese coronavirus following reports that unelected bureaucrats obstructed investigators looking into the Wuhan lab leak theory during the Trump era, and ultimately calling for Dr. Anthony Fauci’s firing.
Blackburn explicitly called for Fauci, who serves as a White House medical adviser, to be fired following the emergence of revealing emails showing how Fauci handled the pandemic behind the scenes and, in many cases, expressing different views privately.
Blackburn revealed her thoughts on emails between Fauci and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, specifically, during an appearance on Fox Business.
“What we do know is that definitely Dr. Fauci and Mark Zuckerberg were in cahoots on this and it certainly deserves a look and an investigation from Congress,” the Tennessee senator said, adding:
What we also know is Dr. Fauci was running a PR campaign. He was not giving the American people accurate scientific information. He was cherry-picking different facts to help him in a PR campaign. So maybe he should leave his post and go work for an ad agency to try to do PR campaigns.
Blackburn continued, calling it “despicable”:
Indeed, the Fauci emails reveal the correspondence between Fauci and the Big Tech CEO, with Zuckerberg thanking Fauci for his “leadership” and flagging him on the social media platform’s rollout of its coronavirus information hub to promote what he described as “authoritative information from reliable sources” — sources deemed “reliable” by the social media giant, of course.
“As a central part of this hub, I think it would be useful to include a video from you because people trust and want to hear from our experts rather than just a bunch of agencies and political leaders,” Zuckerberg continued.
Fauci responded, calling the proposal “terrific,” emphasizing the importance of reaching “as many people as possible” and convincing them to “take mitigation strategies seriously”:
Blackburn said Fauci ultimately has “so many more” questions to answer but floated one, specifically: “Why did Fauci downplay the idea that COVID-19 leaked from a Wuhan lab?”:
Blackburn is not the only Republican lawmaker calling for Fauci’s removal. In an op-ed posted over the weekend. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) called on President Biden to make good on his promise to “choose science over fiction” and fire Dr. Fauci.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) has arrived at a similar conclusion, suggesting the American people “don’t have trust” in the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases chief.
“I mean everything we’re finding there, how can the president— and I know the American people don’t have trust in Dr. Fauci,” McCarthy said during an appearance on Breitbart News Saturday. “Let’s find a person we can trust. Take politics aside. I mean we’re talking about American lives here.”
“We’re talking about an administration that shifted course when they first came in, the Biden administration, and gave millions of dollars back to the World Health Organization that lied to the world that is controlled by China,” he continued.
“We watched that they changed the direction when we were standing up to China to appease China now,” the Republican leader added. “This is the wrong direction, and I don’t believe anybody in America can trust that to get to the bottom of it.”
Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS) agreed, telling Breitbart News Saturday exclusively that Fauci’s “damning” emails demonstrate he should resign.
“He was withholding information and not being forthright with the President of the United States and with the American people. My dad taught me that when you lose the reputation, he’s going to be a very ineffective adviser to the president and certainly very ineffective to the American people right now,” he said, adding, “I think Dr. Fauci should do the right thing and resign, and I’m sure they’re planning his retirement party right now as we speak.”