GOP sees opening to revive attacks on Fauci after release of email trove

 

Dr. Anthony Fauci has been a political lightning rod since the early days of the pandemic, lionized by the left as a beacon of truth in an administration that badly mismanaged the pandemic and villainized by the right as a misguided, spotlight-seeking bureaucrat seeking to undermine former President Donald Trump.

But with the release of a trove of Fauci’s emails this week, Republicans’ attacks on the nation’s top government infectious-diseases expert have gone into overdrive. On conservative news channels, Fauci — who now serves as President Joe Biden’s pandemic adviser — has been pilloried as a liar who misled the American people about the origins of COVID-19 to protect the Chinese government. In Congress, Republican calls for his resignation have grown louder, as have demands for new investigations into the origins of the virus.

“Given what we know now, I don’t know how anyone can have confidence that he should remain in a position of public trust and authority,” said Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), a potential presidential hopeful who is calling for Fauci’s resignation and a full congressional inquiry.

The moves by Republicans represent a new effort to find a reliable foil in the first few months of the Biden administration, as they have struggled to turn public sentiment against the new president. So far, Biden has enjoyed widespread job approval, buoyed by the public’s broad backing of his handling of the pandemic, which 71% of Americans support, according to a recent Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll.

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Fauci, who has a security detail because of ongoing threats and who did not respond to a request for comment for this story, has repeatedly defended his work, saying he received thousands of emails and has never ruled out any theory.

“As I have said many times, we seriously considered a lab leak a possibility. However, significant new data, extensive analyses, and many discussions led to the conclusions in our paper. What the email shows, is a clear example of the scientific process,” he tweeted amid the backlash.

“It’s just science,” he later added. “Boring, I know, but it’s quite a helpful thing to have in times of uncertainty.”

The former president disagrees. While in office, Trump, who disdained the scientist’s popularity, frequently flouted Fauci’s recommendations on battling COVID-19 by playing down the severity of the pandemic and often touting unproven scientific remedies, including a malaria drug and even injecting disinfectant. And he frequently tried to undermine Fauci’s credibility by refusing to acknowledge the evolution in scientists’ understanding of the virus and how it spread, which informed guidance about policies like masking.

Trump is expected to yet again go after Fauci when he returns to the public stage in a speech in North Carolina on Saturday night. He sees the emails as further vindication that he was right about the doctor, according to an adviser who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe private conversations.

“There are a lot of questions that must be answered by Dr. Fauci,” Trump said in a statement this week. “What did Dr. Fauci know about ‘gain of function’ research, and when did he know it?

“Gain of function” refers to enhancing the severity or transmissibility of a virus.

House Republican Whip Rep. Steve Scalise said on Fox Business Network on Thursday that Fauci “needs to be brought in under oath to answer questions” about the emails, while Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), now the No. 3 Republican in the House, blasted out a fundraising email with the subject line “FIRE FAUCI.”

“Anthony Fauci’s recently released emails and investigative reporting about #COVID19 origins are shocking. The time has come for Fauci to resign and for a full congressional investigation into the origins of #COVID19 — and into any and all efforts to prevent a full accounting,” Hawley tweeted after recently voting along with Scalise and Stefanik to block a full congressional investigation into the origins of the Jan. 6 insurrection.

But the White House has made clear that it is standing with Fauci, despite the onslaught of criticism.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki this week praised Fauci as “an undeniable asset in our country’s pandemic response,” and Biden felt compelled to poke his head back into a room full of reporters he’d departed Friday to say that he was, indeed, “very confident in Dr. Fauci.” In a sign of support, Fauci will join first lady Jill Biden for a visit Sunday to a vaccination clinic in New York.

Biden administration officials and allies point to polling showing that Fauci is still one of the country’s most trusted public health communicators. Privately, they see the GOP’s focus on Fauci as a ploy to energize their base that likely will not resonate with moderate voters. And they are happy to compare Fauci’s record on public health with Trump’s.

“A note to Fauci critics,” tweeted Andy Slavitt, Biden’s outgoing senior COVID-19 adviser. “For years, he has been working tirelessly on the development of the mRNA vaccine in anticipation of a potential major viral outbreak. And on Jan 11, 2020, his team downloaded the gene sequence & on the 13th began work on the vaccine.”

“So keep it down,” he wrote.