Senators Push 9/11-Style Commission to Investigate Covid Response;
Anthony Fauci Decries

I imagine they're pushing this now because they know Republicans will start one after the midterms.

A Senate panel voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday to establish an independent task force to probe the U.S. response to the pandemic -- the closest lawmakers have come to supporting such an investigation, two years into the crisis.

The vote on that bipartisan legislation, part of the Prevent Pandemics Act advanced by the Senate's health committee, is the first step in a fraught political journey, and comes as Democrats and Republicans have pursued their own probes, seeking to shape public perceptions ahead of midterm elections that could alter the balance of power in Washington.

...
Those investigations have spilled into contentious congressional hearings, helped shape prime-time television coverage and become part of campaign pitches, as Republicans promise to launch new probes of Anthony S. Fauci, the government's top infectious-disease expert, and Democrats vow to defend him.

...

The bill introduced by Murray and Sen. Richard Burr (N.C.), the health panel's top Republican, calls for lawmakers representing both parties to choose a 12-member task force that would inquire into the nation's readiness and response to the coronavirus on the federal, state and local levels, and issue a final report and recommendations within 18 months.

Burr is a RINO Deep Stater who exists primarily to co-sign Democrat initiatives.

It is sick that he remains a "Republican" Senator -- and you can thank Mitch the Bitch for his protected position.

...

Republicans' growing "theatrics" in attacking Fauci are geared toward "the half of America thinking that he's the devil incarnate," Hudak said. Meanwhile, "Democrats realize there is almost a zero chance that they're going to keep the House, and so any ... oversight reporting that's critical of the Trump administration has to be done before the new Congress is sworn in."

Hey I just said that's why they're doing it now.

And of course Burr is in a hurry. Anything to protect his Democrat pals.

Republicans, meanwhile, are increasingly coalescing around their own questions, such as whether the U.S. government played a role in the pandemic by funding "gain of function" research that allowed scientists to supercharge viruses in laboratories....

Several GOP senators and House committees also are targeting Fauci, alleging that he has not been forthcoming about the funding of such research by his agency, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Fauci has denied such allegations.

GOP leaders hope that if they win back one or both chambers of Congress, they can hold hearings and dangle the threat of subpoenas to compel testimony and force the White House to turn over documents. Paul, a Kentucky Republican, has vowed to use those powers to investigate Fauci, after warring with him in congressional hearings.

"If we take over the Senate next year, I'll be chairman of the health committee, and I pledge to use the subpoena power to get every last record about the origin of the virus, about Fauci," Paul said on "The Megyn Kelly Show" in December.

Anthony Fauci shrieked in horror that he might be investigated and forced to testify under oath:

In an interview, Fauci addressed the possibility of Republicans' retaking Congress and what it would mean for his work.

"It's Benghazi hearings all over again," Fauci said, referring to the GOP-led investigations of Hillary Clinton's leadership of the State Department during the 2012 attacks on U.S. compounds in Libya. That long-running investigation found no new evidence of wrongdoing by Clinton but was a staple of conservative media for years.

"They'll try to beat me up in public, and there'll be nothing there," Fauci added. "But it will distract me from doing my job, the way it's doing right now."

You may have heard that Obama banned gain-of-function research.

You probably also heard that Fauci overturned this ban by creating a new definition of "gain of function" which would allow gain of function research to continue, by calling it something else.

You probably heard that happened during Trump's presidency.

But do you know when in Trump's presidency that happened?

He did it during the presidential transition when he knew that there was a lot of chaos and confusion and most of Trump's staffers hadn't yet taken their places.

Actually they first announced they'd do this during Obama's Administration, as his people were moving out, then did it surreptitiously when Trump's folks came in.

And then he kept this secret from the White House -- he did not alert the President that he was writing a new "gain of function" definition which would allow gain of function funding.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, reportedly did not warn senior White House officials in the Trump administration when the ban ended on gain-of-function research in 2017. Fauci also previously argued that the benefits of conducting gain-of-function research outweighed the risk that it could spark a pandemic.

Investigative reporter Sharri Markson reports:

An investigation by The Weekend Australian has also confirmed Dr Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, did not alert senior White House officials before lifting the ban on gain-of-function research in 2017.

From the article:

"It kind of just got rammed through," one official said.

"I think there's truth in the narrative that the (National Security Council) staff, the president, the White House chief-of-staff, those people were in the dark that he was switching back on the research."

The Weekend Australian has also confirmed that neither Mike Pompeo, the then director of the Central Intelligence Agency, nor National Security Council member Matthew Pottinger, was briefed.

"Rammed through." The change was made during the confusion of a change in Administration, and then kept secret.

All of that sounds like something an honest man would do, while believing himself to be acting honestly, right?

No one ever asks him about this.

Dr Fauci did not respond to queries.

Well Sharyl Markson from Austrailan Age did ask him -- and he refused to answer.

85 Conservative Treehouse just did an article about the change in GOF being 11 days *before* the transition.

But I haven't read that yet.
Posted by: Gentlemen, this is junta manifest

Possibly, sure. Either way, he was taking advantage of the confusion for cover to do something he knew he would never be allowed to do if anyone knew about it.

Meanwhile: Jen Psaki claim that there's no evidence at all that the 79-year-old Turnip Husk called Joe Biden is under any more threat from covid than a 20 year old.

Shouldn't her account be terminated from Twitter for spreading dangerous medical disinformation?

posted by Ace at 06:17 PM

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