Key events
Senators set to vote on holding Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress
Hello and welcome to our live coverage of US politics.
The Senate is expected to vote today on whether to hold Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress.
Fauci, a key adviser to Donald Trump and Joe Biden during the Covid-۱۹ pandemic, had invoked the fifth amendment and refused to answer questions at a high-profile Senate committee hearing on the origins of Covid-۱۹.
The hearing had been called by Republican senator Rand Paul, who has investigated Fauci for years – and who Fauci accused of having an “unhinged obsession” with him. Ahead of the hearing, Paul released what he described as Fauci’s “diary”, in which he described Trump as “rambling”, “crazy”, “desperate”, “bumbling”, “incompetent”, “an idiot”, “a true embarrassment”, “totally nuts” and “truly an obnoxious adolescent”.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Robert F Kennedy’s Department of Health and Human Services has also provided a copy of Fauci’s phone to the Republican-led Senate panel. Kennedy had written a conspiratorial book attacking Fauci in ۲۰۲۱ that sold more than a million copies – thanks in part to blurbs from fellow non-scientists Tucker Carlson, Joe Rogan, Alan Dershowitz and Tony Robbins.
Scientists and Democrats have rallied behind Fauci, with a group of ۱۵۵ scientists signing an open letter calling for the government to stop the “vilification and harassment of many American scientists”.
“This is only going to deter other scientific experts from public service,” Gary Peters, a Democratic senator of Michigan, said.
More to come.
