Don Lemon Asks ‘What Is Wrong With Rand Paul?’ After Throwdown With Fauci: ‘Stop It. You Look Like an Idiot’

The explosive exchange between Sen. Rand Paul and Dr. Anthony Fauci during a Senate hearing on Tuesday drew the ire of Don Lemon later that evening, who slammed Paul for attempting to make Fauci his “personal punching bag.”

The two clashed over whether the U.S. National Institutes of Health had funded a grant for gain-of-function research at China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), at which the pandemic may have originated. During the back-and-forth, Paul and Fauci accused each other of lying. The senator even began his questioning by saying, “Dr. Fauci, as you are aware, it is a crime to lie to Congress.”

Lemon played a montage of the most contentious moments of the exchange. Immediately afterward, the CNN host took Paul to task.

What is wrong with Rand Paul? Seriously. I know that’s what you at home are thinking because I’m thinking the same thing. What’s wrong with him? What is he trying to prove? There’s nothing to prove there, and he keeps embarrassing himself. Rand Paul, stop it. You look like an idiot. The lying, the misinformation. It’s why we can’t bridge the political gap even though our lives are at stake, and you still have people who are acting like Rand Paul.

The WIV had received funding from Fauci’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (which is part of the NIH) through nonprofit called EcoHealth Alliance. That grant funded some of the research at the WIV that involved studying bats from Chinese caves to determine whether they were capable of infecting. The lead researcher at the WIV was known for conducting gain-of-function research, by which a disease can be made more transmissible, among other things. Fauci has vehemently denied the grant was approved to conduct gain-of-function research.

A spokesperson for EcoHealth Alliance told The Washington Post, “The NIH has not funded gain-of-function work.”

On Tuesday night, Paul said he will write to the Department of Justice asking for a criminal referral because he says Fauci lied to Congress under oath.

Watch above via CNN.

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!