'There will be hell to pay': Rand Paul tells Glenn Beck he's not done with Anthony Fauci over Wuhan funding

Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky said that the investigation into the coronavirus pandemic isn’t done with Anthony Fauci, after new revelations about laboratory funding.

Paul made the comments in an interview with Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck on his radio show Wednesday. The senator said that the change of guard at the Department of Health and Human Services meant new evidence was being produced from the pandemic era.

‘It is our belief that Anthony Fauci had to sign the document. We haven’t found the document yet because they’ve either been hidden or destroyed.’

“Is anyone going to pay for the COVID thing?” asked Beck.

“We’re not done, and I will bring Anthony Fauci back in. We’ve finally discovered the records as to who determined that the money went to Wuhan,” Paul responded.

“They have resisted me for three years. Robert Kennedy has helped me get the records. So has Jay Bhattacharya. This week or next week I’m gonna begin interviewing the people that are on that committee. We’re gonna find out what was the debate, what was the discussion, what were the arguments for sending it to Wuhan, what were the arguments against it,” he added.

“Who made the arguments? And then who ultimately had to sign off on this? It is our belief that Anthony Fauci had to sign the document. We haven’t found the document yet because they’ve either been hidden or destroyed,” Paul said.

“There will be hell to pay,” he concluded ominously.

Paul’s feud with Fauci has manifested in numerous rhetorical skirmishes that erupted during congressional hearings. Fauci was the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases from 1984 until 2022. He was responsible for the U.S. health response to the AIDS epidemic, as well as the coronavirus pandemic.

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Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images

In 2021, Fauci and Paul traded blows over whether the nation’s top epidemiologist had lied to Congress when testifying that he had not signed off on funding for controversial gain-of-function research. Many believe the risky studies might have been responsible for a laboratory leak theorized to be the source of the coronavirus pandemic.

“Dr. Fauci, as you are aware it is a crime to lie to Congress,” Paul said at the time. “On your last trip to our committee on May 11, you stated that the NIH ‘has not ever and does not now fund gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.’ And yet, gain-of-function research was done entirely in the Wuhan Institute by Dr. Shi and was funded by the NIH.”

Fauci and Paul went back and forth in debate over the evidence.

“Sen. Paul, I have never lied before the Congress, and I do not retract that statement. This paper that you’re referring to was judged by qualified staff up and down the chain as not being gain-of-function,” Fauci replied.

“Sen. Paul, you do not know what you are talking about, quite frankly, and I want to say that officially,” Fauci angrily declared. “You do not know what you are talking about.”

Fauci retired from his office and was pardoned by former President Joe Biden pre-emptively against any politically motivated charges that might be filed by the Trump administration. Some have since cast doubt on whether Biden had the mental capacity to sign the pardon and wondered if others falsified the signing.