FINALLY: Anthony Fauci GRILLED By Congress On LAB LEAK, Vaccines, Masking Rules; Watch

[Music] Anthony fouchi is testifying at a fiery Congressional hearing this Monday morning the former head of the National Institute of allergy and infectious diseases at the NIH and exmed adviser to the president is speaking on the origins of covid-19 before the GOP Le house select subcommittee on the coronav virus pandemic this will be the first time that he speaks before Congress since retiring last year and it follows a pair of contentious hearings before the subcommittee that raised some questions over the level of oversight and conduct that went on in his agency especially during the covid-19 pandemic ranking member on the subcommittee Jamie Raskin called out the GOP Le effort to implicate fouchi let's listen now bring you the medical big lie making the outlandish claim that Dr fouchy was responsible for causing covid-19 and here is fouchy himself in the beginning it was felt that in fact it did prevent infection and thus transmission but that was proven as time went by to not be a durable effect yeah definitely had positive effect for many people especially those that were vulnerable but we knew from the trials that people that got vaccinated still were subject to getting covid so was the covid vaccine 100% effective I don't believe any vaccine is 100% effective here to discuss further what is happening at this hearing is Katherine Ian correspondent at Vanity Fair so glad to have you back with us great to be here thanks for having me so they're covering you know a range of topics that Dr fouchy has uh weighed in on over the years um I you saw some back and forth um over you know his guidance on social distancing and masking and and how durable the protection for the vaccines uh was whether that was going to prevent um transmission but of course you know the with the recent um news that this top Deputy of of fouches has now admitted to foring uh Foy requests in a way that is I think deeply or should be at least deeply legally problematic if nothing El you know changing specific um uh characters in emails so that they would not be discoverable by reporters who had questions um you know all of this speaks to whether fouchi has tried to Shield himself from accountability so I wonder what you make of that line of questioning thus far well look I mean there's been a fundamental lack of transparency from the NIH to start with regarding the response to the pandemic but particularly particularly regarding the question of Co 19's Origins I mean what's very clear to me from my reporting is that Western governments uh our own Canada's Fran's all felt like they had some kind of exposure because of the collaboration that they did with the Wuhan Institute of orology that is not to say that our taxpayer dollars necessarily caused this pandemic there's just way too much we still don't know but but but it's clear that the NIH and the niid which Dr fouchy Led Led um has behaved in a way uh in an effort to Shield themselves from possible accountability and that is just becoming clearer with every pass day what is your main takeaway as someone who's been watching these proceedings closely today obviously we played a couple of Clips but have been uh filming this morning and haven't been as uh scrutinizing as closely as you have what what is the tone here are the questions as sort of politically divided as we've come to expect with more sort of supportive less um interrogative questions from Democrats versus Republicans what's the tone been like well I mean obious viously you know fiery um uh really uh lit uh but I do think that there are you know very serious line of questions that are being pursued um you know Dr fouchi speaks very well he presents very well um he definitely has his own perspective on this um but you know I think there there has been a sense at least from you know Democrats on the committee that that there they recognize that there are real questions here that need to be asked yeah there was uh you know Fury from Democrats um over what uh morens the deputy said about about Foya the Biden's own health department has decided to stop working with Eco Health Alliance because of those um uh because of the lack of oversight there so I was actually a little taken aback to hear uh Jamie Rasin for instance having such a a how you know how dare Republicans crucify this wonderful public servant uh kind of approach to it so is it that some Democrats are trying to say that well yes there were problems with with niad or with Eco Health Alliance but those are somehow totally roped off from from Dr fouchy uh himself because he's still there's still some media desire although I think this is Shifting right to portray him as this is this you perfect pandemic hero you know that's not the and anyway the disagreements over what policies were implemented and all of that those are at least policy disagreements I mean some of this is with the with the cover up and the and the oversight stuff I mean this is this is much more basic fundamental potential criminal liability for um for for people who stonewalled fo investigations look this is this is real and this is serious this is not just you know partisan politics and you know watching this and Reporting on this one of the most notable shifts has been that Democrats on the committee are beginning to really take this seriously uh you know one of the things that's absolutely hindered origin investigations from the start is the lack of bipartisanship you know that the idea that this was somehow just a you know Republican uh Crusade and I frankly I think the Republicans have been much less effective when they look like they're just nakedly trying to get fouchy I mean that has not been productive but the testimony uh the hearings with theer dashik and with David morens were in my view significant turning points because they've really clearly laid bare that there was just lack of accountability and lack of any possible insight into what was happening at the Wuhan Institute of furology and an active effort to evade foyer requests um uh so so this gets way more serious um it doesn't answer the question about Origins but what it clearly shows is that investigation is required it's merited um and we all have a lot more to learn about what actually happened behind the scenes yeah yeah I mean it's interesting that there is less of a partisan divide apparently in these hearings although something that just happened is that Marg Taylor green um held up a picture of some dogs uh some beagles that apparently been experimented on in a lab um pinning trying to pin animal testing to fouchy fouchi responded saying what does dogs have anything to do with what we're talking about today that does seem sort of like a more attenuated politicized sort of attack um there has also been a lot of discussion around this question he got about whether or not he received any um uh pharmaceutical payments uh like Kickbacks uh while he was in his position and he answered just a flat no and I see some Democrats saying they're coming for him but it's not working he's resisting pretty well I mean what what do you make all of that yeah so first of all joy let me just say I am the most Ardent dog lover uh and I put down my beloved dog two weeks ago very ill so yeah so I'm an Ardent dog lover but the beagles um you know who deserved every good thing in the world are a sideshow to the questions that really matter here and frankly any question in my view of pharmaceutical Kickbacks or I just that to me is just a political stunt and a sideshow that is not the central question here the central question here is research uh risky research that uh us taxpayers funded in part through uh the N niid uh and a kind of research that Dr fouchi and Dr Francis Collins uh had long supported uh but when you pull back the curtain what we discover is they had much less insight into what was happening in the Wuhan Institute of Urology what was happening with US taxpayer dollarss whether there was security and safety whether the uh people's Liberation Army were in fact using some of those techniques to uh to pursue possibly military ends um we really don't know the answers to any of those questions but the point is our own government didn't know the answers to any of those questions when they funded this stuff um and that's really what we need to drill down on because somewhere in there uh is going to be answers to what sparked this pandemic and let me just say I mean I've spoken with very prominent scientists who are like why does it matter you know whether we ever find out where this pandemic came and it matters hugely I mean it matters uh for the future it matters for accountability purposes uh and it matters because how are we going to protect ourselves from the next next pandemic until we figure out what caused the last one yeah why does it matter I've heard that as well is the most baffling question of all to me if there were no Stakes to it I would still be intellectually curious don't you know don't we want to understand great and important and destructive events in human history what caused them but of course there also are tremendous stake and that's true if it if it came from you know an animal wet Market as well that would compel some some different policies I think there certainly legitimate safety questions about those regardless you know both of these potential Origins seem seem like things Public Health policy could confront to leave us all safer and better off so this this attitude that oh well it doesn't matter I I I just do not understand at all maybe it and it it's not even the case that it doesn't matter to these scientists right they're saying oh it doesn't matter but it matters to their to their research and to their accountability just just as you said well we will continue to monitor um this hearing and likely discuss it more in the show tomorrow thank you so much for being with us thanks for having me

Channel: The Hill

Views: 59,753

Keywords: Rising, Progressive, Progressive Politics, Democrats, Democratic Party, Republicans, GOP, Republican Party, Anthony, Fauci, Testimony, Capitol Hill, Vanity Fair, Covid-19, Pandemic, Coronavirus, Lab leak theory, China, Xi Jingping, Wuhan lab

Id: 1Ie5iQQdKsc

Length: 11min 38sec (698 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 03 2024