This week, Anthony Fauci—a scientist and immunologist who is the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the person overall in charge of handling the COVID-19 epidemic 2020-2022—was summoned to a Senate committee meeting headed by the fascist senator Rand Paul. Having watched the full three hours of hearings, and having read or listened to responses from a variety of other sources, I want to call people’s attention to what was an extremely serious attack on scientists, science itself, and basic legal protections (the Fifth Amendment and the right to counsel). This is also a serious, lunatic and dangerous assault on the health of the people. In addition, the trial by media involved in the selective release of what Paul and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr claimed to be Fauci’s diary further degrades basic standards of decency, privacy and what is, and what is not, deemed to be “evidence.” This release, as Fauci himself said in his opening statement, was designed to “embarrass and intimidate” Fauci. 

Just to give some brief background, Fauci was given a pardon in advance by Biden before he left office because Biden expected the fascists to try to criminally prosecute Fauci. Throughout the hearing last Wednesday, Fauci “pled the Fifth Amendment” when questioned by Paul and the other committee members. This amendment to the Constitution guarantees persons who are being tried for a crime to refuse to answer questions. Paul said that the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution—which guarantees people the right to refuse to testify against themselves—did not actually apply to this hearing. Paul claimed that since Fauci made a statement at the outset of the hearing, he had somehow forfeited his Fifth Amendment rights. This is simply not true—or at least it has not been true up to now. Paul also claimed that since Biden had granted Fauci a pardon, he could not be prosecuted for anything he said. This is also not true; Fauci’s pardon only covers the period from 2014 to 2025, so he could be prosecuted for perjury if Paul thought, or pretended to think, that Fauci had lied under oath to the committee. 

While I can’t divert into a complete explanation of the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution here, it is foundational to any fair legal system. This amendment guarantees that people cannot be forced to incriminate themselves and thereby forces the government to make its case independent of any forced confessions (and yes, police in America do—routinely—try to pressure people into incriminating themselves through coercive interrogation techniques, including torture). It guarantees that nobody can be deprived of life or liberty without due process of law. So it is no wonder that the fascists on the committee strongly implied that Fauci’s use of this foundational right somehow implied criminality. (In fact, its basic principle against self-incrimination has been incorporated into the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America, authored by the revolutionary leader Bob Avakian. This is done as part of greatly expanded rights of the accused. See Article III, Point 7 below.) 

Rand Paul early on expelled Fauci’s attorney from the room for speaking up for his client. Knowing that Fauci could not testify and refute his nonsense, and that his lead attorney was not there to defend Fauci’s rights and interests, Paul then took full advantage. He held forth at length with his own “alternate facts” about the source of COVID, the vaccines, and the various public health measures, as well as Fauci’s actions and (according to Paul) his possible motivations. He implied or insinuated a portrait of Fauci as some sort of mad scientist, colluding with China to develop new viruses and then frantically covering it up when one escaped; a mad scientist who compounds it all by imposing a dangerous and ineffective vaccine on people while simultaneously suppressing well-proven “common-sense” (Paul’s word) procedures; and while he was doing so, enriching himself and glorying in his new-found celebrity… all while continuing to deceive the “American people.”

One howling irony of the hearing was the continued defense by some of these fascist senators of the use of Ivermectin or hydroxycloriquine,¹ or even “natural immunity” (Rand Paul’s favorite) as much much more effective than the vaccines developed to combat COVID. These so-called “treatments” were either completely ineffective or themselves deadly. None of the fascists mentioned the correlation cited in a number of studies of the 150,00 to 200,000 “surplus deaths” in fascist-governed states where people were led by these fascists to disproportionately reject vaccine use.² 

The fascist senators then tried to outdo one another in piling onto Fauci. At one and same time they blamed Fauci for the many deaths that did happen AND for the preventive measures (masking, social distancing and most of all vaccines) that actually cut down deaths. This reached a low point when the fascist senator from Ohio, Bernie Moreno, after recounting an incident in which an entire family supposedly got arrested for attending a football game without masks on—shouted at Fauci “What the fuck did you think you were doing?” and then said “I hope that, one way or another, somewhere, sometime, you answer for your crimes.” Moreno’s “one way or another” phrase could easily incite some unhinged fascist to take things into their own hands. In context, that was both an example of, and a definite call for more of, the “rough Roman justice” that Trump ally Steve Bannon threatened Fauci with on election night 2024. (“Rough Roman justice” refers to a severe and aggressive form of punishment that skips normal legal process or due process. It is used to describe retribution that is intentionally harsh and designed to crush an opponent rather than give them a fair trial.) 

In the meantime, Paul has called for the committee to meet next week to consider next steps, including holding Fauci in contempt—a serious charge for which Fauci could face prison time.

So now Anthony Fauci faces (at least) three huge things: one, he faces possible contempt of Congress charges and possible prison time; two, he will almost certainly face amped-up threats on his life and safety from crazed fascists, as will other members of his family (Peter Hotez’s book The Deadly Rise of Anti-Science gives a very living sense of the toll this takes on scientists who come under the gun); and three, his life’s work and his personal motives and honesty have been distorted and dragged through the mud in a way that is horrible and must feel nightmarish. And there is the dilemma pointed to by Bob Avakian (drawing from Hotez) on the lose-lose proposition of debating one of these quacks—even the act of debating them lends them validity and because they are not honestly entering into a contestation over what is true, they will shift and slide all over the place. Further, there is the irony that these fascists—knowing they would face no challenge either from Fauci or from his attorney who had been thrown out—could preen as both the defenders of science and going where the facts lead and, at the same time, Trumpian “common sense.” Instead of stopping the whole kangaroo trial and calling it out for what it was, Democrats presented a polite and mostly passionless defense of Fauci, which objectively served to legitimize the lynch-mob agitation by the fascist senators Moreno, Josh Hawley and Rick Scott and the whole illegitimate proceeding engineered by Paul.

It’s important for everyone to know or recall that Anthony Fauci has been at the forefront of struggle against several killer diseases in the past 40 years. Fauci helped develop treatments against AIDS, listening carefully to often sharp and even quite personal criticism from gay activists. Through that struggle he developed a positive working relationship with the AIDS activist Larry Kramer to combat the disease and develop effective drug protocols. During the COVID pandemic, Fauci worked urgently and patiently—often up against crackpot and destructive “advice” from Trump—to speed the development of a vaccine. At the same time he spread, as best he could, the quickly developing knowledge on “best practices” in prevention of COVID-19 infection. In fast-moving epidemics and pandemics involving a brand-new disease there is a steep learning curve. What people believe to be true one week, and “the best practice” flowing from that truth, can change the next. Human beings are struggling to understand something new while rushing to develop treatments at the same time. Do they—did Fauci—make mistakes in the course of this? No doubt—who wouldn’t have?!? But overall, facing an extremely difficult and high-pressure situation—including working for a president who continually minimized the danger of the pandemic and promoted all manner of crackpot “cures,”—including telling people to drink bleach!—Fauci helped hold down the deaths while shepherding a vaccine at a very dangerous time.

The people who formed this tribunal against him—who baited and bullied and insulted him and his life’s work, knowing he could say nothing in return to refute their lies and vile insinuations—are people who spread not only ignorance but hatred. Some of them rattled off their own discredited views as to what should have been done, views that helped create the fact of the statistic I mentioned earlier on disproportionate “red-state” deaths.

While a few commentators have pointed to at least some of the dangers in this, most of the anti-Trump commentators I have watched or read—including all the Democratic senators—did not sound the right alarm on this: This was a fascist attack on science and laying the basis for some very severe repression. And not only have all too few spoken out against the release of Fauci’s alleged personal diary, some have indulged the tabloid culture gossip-slinging, passing judgment on Fauci’s alleged diary entries in a way that serves to degrade everyone involved.

In short, THIS WAS A MAJOR ATTACK—EPISTEMOLOGICALLY, POLITICALLY AND LEGALLY—THAT IS NOT AT ALL BEING UNDERSTOOD IN THIS WAY by those who do oppose fascism… the “decent country.” Too much, right now, it is “first they came for the well-known epidemiologist but I was not an epidemiologist so I just shook my head and then did nothing.” 

A line must be drawn… a strong line of defense for science and for morality as part of the fight against this fascist menace and for revolution and the emancipation of humanity.