MAGA seems to be growing more fearful that it is on track to lose the midterm elections and is taking steps almost daily to try to avoid defeat. The Senate Homeland Security Committee shamelessly voted along party lines Thursday to hold Dr. Anthony Fauci, a hero who many believe saved millions of lives during the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S. and around the world, in contempt of Congress.
They did so in reaction to his refusal last week to answer questions about his role in leading the medical battle against the pandemic. He pleaded the Fifth Amendment, on the advice of his lawyers, 111 times during the hearing.
The committee’s chair, right-wing libertarian Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, has continuously called for the arrest and imprisonment of Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
Paul had argued often with Fauci during the pandemic, claiming he was tilting evidence in a way that would convince people to take a vaccine Paul and the anti-vax crowd falsely claimed was ineffective or harmful. Medical authorities vary in their estimates, but most say the vaccine saved millions of lives.
There are also conspiracy theory-type claims Fauci supported research in China that allegedly triggered the pandemic in the first place.
The Senate committee’s resolution, however, unable to make any of the most outrageous stuff stick, focused on an accusation that Fauci failed to comply with a congressional subpoena, an offense that carries up to 12 months in prison.
The right-wing-controlled panel plans to hand deliver the resolution of contempt to Trump’s Department of Justice, which, of course, would surprise no one if it delivered anything but justice.
Why dredge up a years-old case that is not on the top of American minds? Many see this as an attempt to divert attention from the failed policies of the Trump administration, in particular its attacks on health care that are harming millions. Fauci, by contrast, devoted his life to fighting for good health care policies for the entire nation. Smearing him, the MAGA folks think, will make them look not as bad as they really are, particularly in their attacks on healthcare.
Much of the right wing sees an attack on Fauci as a way to deal with mass concern about soaring prices in the grocery store and at the pump, along with the many other rising costs facing working families, including rents and mortgages. They hope in vain that people will see MAGA instead as a force protecting them from “bad” people like Fauci.
Primary outcomes this week add to the growing list of election results showing that, despite all the MAGA’s efforts, the people are rising up in an organized way to dump lawmakers controlled by the billionaires and replace them with ones that will represent the majority.
The way Republicans are executing their maneuver against Fauci is also illegal. The president of the Senate is supposed to certify a statement of facts on the case before any resolution of contempt is taken to the Justice Department, which in this case would be a rubber stamp for Trump.
Fauci became a figure beloved by many Americans who saw him as a man seriously committed to ending the horror of a pandemic that was crippling the nation and much of the world. A massive turnout this November in the elections will be needed to stop MAGA and move the nation to the point where it brings back and cherishes people like Dr. Fauci rather than persecuting them.
As with all op-eds published by People’s World, the views expressed here are those of the author.
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