Sen. Cotton Claims Fauci Thinks He Has Control Over Science

Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton slammed White House chief medical adviser Anthony Fauci on Monday, calling him a bureaucrat who thinks he has authority over ''science.''

Cotton, a Republican, went after Fauci while appearing on ''Fox & Friends'' after the medical adviser proclaimed to CBS' ''Face the Nation'' on Sunday that it was ''dangerous'' for Republican senators to criticize him.

''They're really criticizing science because I represent science,'' Fauci told CBS. ''To me, that's more dangerous than the slings and the arrows that get thrown at me. I'm not going to be around here forever, but science is going to be here forever.

''And if you damage science, you are doing something very detrimental to society long after I leave. And that's what I worry about,'' Fauci said.

Cotton doubled down on his call to investigate the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, accusing Fauci of lying to Congress about funding gain-of-function research in China to study coronaviruses on bats.

''His agency just admitted a few weeks ago that yes, they did, in fact, fund gain-of-function research. So, there's a lie there. It's either Tony Fauci lying to Congress or his agency after months of stonewalling writing a letter to Congress and admitting it. I suspect it's Tony Fauci lying on the spot in his testimony to Congress,'' Cotton asserted.

Cotton joins GOP Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Ted Cruz of Texas in accusing Fauci of lying to Congress, according to the New York Post.

''The absolute hubris of someone claiming THEY represent science. It's astounding and alarming that a public health bureaucrat would even think to claim such a thing, especially one who has worked so hard to ignore the science of natural immunity,'' Paul posted to Twitter on Sunday.

''Fauci is an unelected technocrat who has distorted science and facts in order to exercise authoritarian control over millions of Americans. He lives in a liberal world where his smug 'I REPRESENT science' attitude is praised,'' Cruz said in a Twitter thread attempting to ''expose'' the chief medical adviser to the president.

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