Rand Paul Posts About Dr. Fauci Taking a Walk After Insisting He’s Not ‘Obsessed’ With Him

 
Rand Paul with image of anthony fauci on a screen behind him

Allison Robbert/AP Photo

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) taunted Anthony Fauci on social media a day after the doctor accused the senator of having an “unhinged obsession” with him.

Paul — who published Fauci’s diaries on his website and hauled the former top health official before Congress for a contentious hearing in which Fauci pleaded the Fifth more than 100 times — took to X after The New York Post published pictures of the physician taking a walk with his wife.

“Walk it off,” Paul wrote.

The photos showed Fauci in a T-shirt and shorts, talking into a cell phone while walking with his wife near their Washington D.C. home.

In his opening statement before the Senate’s Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, which Paul chairs, Fauci accused the Kentucky politician of repeatedly slandering him.

“Given Sen. Paul’s obvious obsession with calling for my prosecution, his repeated slanderous comments about me, and recently his publicly releasing my un-redacted personal diary, aimed at embarrassing and intimidating me, the only conclusion I can reach is the sole reason he is calling me before this committee is to get me to say something, anything, that could vindicate his repeated public pledges that I end up, in his words, ‘Behind bars,’” Fauci said.

He continued, “Any reasonable person who has followed his unhinged obsession with me would readily come to the same conclusion.”

Fauci spent the rest of the hours-long hearing invoking his right to avoid self-incrimination, refusing to answer simple questions such as the color of his tie or if there was a folder on the table in front of him.

After rejecting Paul’s questions for roughly 45 minutes, the senator tossed Fauci’s lawyer from the hearing in a fiery moment.

After the hearing, Paul scheduled a vote to hold Fauci in contempt of Congress for his refusal to answer questions during the hearing.

Legal experts have since shot down Paul’s bid to hold Fauci in contempt as unlikely.

“It’s really not going to be a close question,” Fox News legal contributor Sol Wisenberg told Fox & Friends. “The Senate, if they try to have the Department of Justice hold him in contempt, is going to lose in court.”

He added: “So, legally, ultimately, the Senate will be able to harass him, but it’s a valid invocation of the Fifth Amendment. You may not like it. But it’s a valid invocation.”

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