Republican Senators Rand Paul and Ted Cruz snapped back at Anthony Fauci for remarks he made in a TV interview Sunday responding to GOP criticism of the infectious disease expert.
In an interview with CBS News' Face The Nation, President Joe Biden's chief medical adviser also dismissed Republican criticism of his work as 'lies' and agreed with the notion that GOP lawmakers were using him as a scapegoat.
'Anybody who spins lies and threatens and all that theater that goes on with some of the investigations and the congressional committees and the Rand Paul's and all that other nonsense, that's noise... I know what my job is,' Fauci told host Margaret Brennan.
Paul responded in a tweet Sunday: '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.'
Texas Senator Ted Cruz also had harsh words in response to Fauci's criticism.
Brennan told Fauci, 'Senator Cruz told the attorney general you should be prosecuted.'
Cruz told Attorney General Merrick Garland during a contentious hearing in late October that Fauci should be investigated over accusations he lied to Congress.
Fauci laughed off the accusation before appearing to claim that Cruz had a role in the events leading up to the deadly Capitol riot.
'Yeah. I have to laugh at that. I should be prosecuted? What happened on January 6, senator?' Fauci replied.
Senator Rand Paul responded to comments made about him by Dr Anthony Fauci on Sunday
Fauci dismissed Ted Cruz's claim that he should be prosecuted over accusations he lied to Congress
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He sat down for an hour-long interview with CBS News' Face The Nation that aired Sunday
Cruz responded in a tweet thread of his own.
The former presidential candidate wrote: '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.'
He then went on to restate his criticisms of Fauci.
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