Fauci DENIES he shut out Trump CDC director over lab leak theory
Dr. Anthony Fauci said Thursday that former CDC director Dr. Robert Redfield was “absolutely false” when he claimed he was sidelined for his support for the COVID lab leak theory.
Fauci also insisted he was “completely open” to the origins of COVID-19, though to this day he said “the evidence more likely weights one, namely a natural event,” over the virus leaking out a laboratory in Wuhan, China.
Fauci defied the Fox News Channel Thursday afternoon to appear on Your World with Neil Cavuto and was asked about the testimony Redfield gave Wednesday before the House GOP-led committee on COVID.
Redfield claimed he was barred from speaking with leading virologists “because I was told they wanted one story and I clearly had a different point of view.”
That call was organized by a group of evolutionary virologists to discuss the possibility that this could actually be a virus that has actually been manipulated. So I didn’t list anyone on that call, nor that I’m hiring anyone [off],’ Fauci said to Cavuto.
Dr. Anthony Fauci said Thursday that former CDC director Dr. Robert Redfield was ‘absolutely false’ when he claimed he was sidelined for his support for the COVID lab leak theory
Former CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield testified Wednesday before the House GOP-led House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic and said he did not speak to prominent virologists because he supported the COVID lab leak theory
He also said Redfield’s complaint makes no sense because “half of the people on the line believed it could be a lab leak.”
“So his rationale for why he was disbarred is an invalid rationale,” Fauci said. “So it’s a real shame that he made those statements. He’s a good guy, I’ve known him for years, I’m so… I’m just really a little concerned about why he said that, which wasn’t true at all.’
Fauci, who retired from government in December, has become the political right’s best punching bag for the US’s COVID response, despite serving under both Republican President Donald Trump and Democratic President Joe Biden.
Redfield was CDC director during the Trump administration and held that position during the start of the pandemic.
Rep. Jim Jordan, a member of the oversight committee who participated in the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic meeting on Wednesday, made a number of claims about Fauci including the COVID-19 which “definitely came from” a lab using US tax dollars to fund function gain research.
Jordan insisted that Fauci leave Redfield out of the calls to cover that up.
“What was Dr. Fauci doing? He tried to cover his butt,” Jordan claimed. “That’s why he did what he did to the exclusion of a brilliant man running our CDC kept him out of the loop,” Jordan said of Redfield.
Workers unload fish at the Wuhan market in April 2020. Fauci denounced the Chinese for immediately cleaning up the wet market where the original COVID outbreak took place, suggesting this was a cover up
With Cavuto, Fauci said he would testify for Jordan and for the commission.
“Of course I would Neil, I’ve told you that before, I’d love to testify,” the retired government official said.
But he also went after Jordan’s performance at the hearing.
“And that circus that went on at the hearing about accusing me of trying to somehow convince people was really very inappropriate and had nothing to do with reality,” Fauci argued.
Fauci argued that there was a Chinese cover-up, but that it started in the wet market where COVID allegedly started.
“What the Chinese did as soon as the outbreak happened, they completely cleaned the wet market of animals that shouldn’t have been there to begin with,” Fauci said.
“So if there’s anything the Chinese are covering up, they’re covering up the fact that they broke their own rules to take wild animals out of the forest or whatever by putting them in contact with humans, that was the real problem.” said Fauci. added.
Fauci’s comments came a week after FBI Director Christopher Wray said the origin of COVID is “most likely a possible lab incident.”
That followed a Department of Energy report that said the origin of the virus was most likely a laboratory leak in Wuhan, but that the conclusion was drawn with little confidence.