Conservative North Carolina Republican Representative and youngest member of Congress Madison Cawthorn put himself in hot water again. This time it's over his remarks about Dr. Anthony Fauci.
Fauci is the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). At 80 years old, he has a respected reputation and decades of experience working against infectious diseases such as HIV and AIDS.
He has been working closely with the CDC during the Coronavirus pandemic, and has been one of the health officials pushing for continued safety protocols to fight against the highly contagious and wide-spread Delta variant of COVID-19.
According to Mayo Clinic epidemiologist and director of the Vaccine Research Group Gregory Poland, the Delta variant of COVID-19 is nothing to scoff at.
He said in an interview with CBS 4:
"This is a very different variant. It will find you. This virus will find everybody who is not immune."
With rapidly-spiking Coronavirus cases and the quickly spreading Delta variant, Fauci has suggested people continue to wear masks indoors to protect themselves and others from the Delta variant and has been urging politicians to not act as though the pandemic is over.
Cawthorn, 25, was recently interviewed on Newsmax, a conservative website for news and opinion pieces, and made accusations Fauci is using the pandemic as an excuse to further his career rather than for the well-being of the American people.
You can see the Newsmax segment here:
Cawthorn also called Fauci a "punk" and called for his arrest on the basis that he has "lied to the American people."
The lie that Fauci supposedly told was in reference to a U.S. Senate committee hearing held on Tuesday, in which conservative Kentucky representative, Senator Rand Paul, had a heated argument with with Fauci.
Paul asked Fauci whether NIAID had funded a lab in Wuhan, China, which Paul believed to be the origin of the COVID-19 virus.
Fauci had answered that NIAID had not provided funding to the aforementioned lab, and refused to retract his statement when prompted to do so by Paul.
Currently, there is no evidence to suggest that the novel Coronavirus originated in a Wuhan lab. Research is currently pointing towards the virus originating in animals, such as bats, and spreading to humans.
By refusing to retract his statement, Fauci became the target of conservative politicians such as Cawthorn.
In his interview, Cawthorn threw seething barbs at Fauci left and right, saying:
"The reason he dodges all these questions is I believe he is culpable and he actually bears some responsibility for what happened in the Wuhan lab...It really makes me angry to say that he does not want to retract his statements because he did lie to the American people," Cawthorn explained. "He did lie to Congress, which is a crime."
"And I'll tell you, I normally have a great amount of respect for the people who work here on Capitol Hill, knowing that they, although we have different ideas on how to accomplish it, we are all trying to work for the betterment of the American people."
"But I will tell you right now, that is not the case with Anthony Fauci. He is a punk who is trying to further his own career, make himself wealthy and famous. But let me tell you, he deserves neither wealth nor fame because he has destroyed countless small businesses."
Cawthorn has even gone so far as to accuse Fauci of being a "pawn of the Chinese government."
Conservative politicians' attacks on Fauci come even as President Joe Biden announces that the CDC will "most likely" urge non-vaccinated children to continue to mask up once they return to school this fall, in response to the escalating COVID-19 cases.
Cawthorn has even called for children to ditch the masks, even though many children are still unvaccinated:
Although the data seems clear that COVID-19 cases are spiking due to people refusing vaccinations and ditching masks, Cawthorn is insistent on pointing the finger at Fauci:
"He has shackled entire states and destroyed their economies. All because of what? He wants to see his face on the news?"
Cawthorn's remarks about Fauci garnered much criticism on Twitter.
With the sharp increase in confirmed Coronavirus cases, hopefully people will choose to heed the word of medical professionals over politicians whose biggest claim to fame are the number of lies they've been caught telling.
