Dr. Anthony Fauci, during a Senate hearing Tuesday, blamed Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) — an actual survivor of an assassination attempt — for death threats he has received, without any direct evidence of the senator inciting violence.
Fauci took accused Paul of inspiring death threats by “crazies out there” against him, as Paul — a medical doctor — continued to grill the public health bureaucrat about his handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
“What happens when he gets out and accuses me of things that are completely untrue is that all of a sudden that kindles the crazies out there and I have threats upon my life, harassment of my family and my children with obscene phone calls, because people are lying about me,” Fauci said, before describing an unfortunate incident.
“The police asked him where he was going and he was going to Washington DC to kill Dr. Fauci,” he said. “They found in his car, an AR-15 and multiple magazines of ammunition because he thinks that maybe I’m killing people.”
Paul responded to Fauci by reminding the doctor that political violence is not acceptable, recalling the 2017 political violence where Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) was shot by James Hodgkinson, a Bernie Sanders supporter, during a Republican congressional baseball practice. Paul, who was present and a target during that shooting, has reported that the now-deceased attacker shouted, “This is for health care!”
“It’s disappointing for you to suggest that people who dare to question you are responsible somehow for violent threats,” Paul said.
Paul also reminded the doctor he was the subject of death threats during the 2020 riots in Washington, DC.
But Paul’s defense of himself was not enough for Sen. Tina Smith (D-MI), who suggested Fauci had been targeted by the Republican via a “concerted and coordinated campaign of disinformation and distortion.”
“I think we just need to be honest here,” she claimed. “This is being done by some members of the Republican Party that are using it for fundraising.”
Smith’s reference to fundraising was in respect to Paul’s “Fire Dr. Fauci” fundraising initiative, which Fauci described during the hearing as “making a catastrophic epidemic for your political gain.”