Fauci Blasts Rand Paul On Covid Lab Leak Theory: "Molecularly Impossible"

QUESTION: ... Dr. Fauci should be fired?

SEN. RAND PAUL (R-KY): Absolutely.

QUESTION: By the president?

PAUL: Yes, absolutely.

The thing is, is just for lack of judgment, if nothing else. He's probably never going to admit that he lied. He's going to continue to dissemble and try to work around the truth and massage the truth.

STEPHANOPOULOS: I want to give you the opportunity to respond to Senator Paul, but also explain, what was the United States funding? What wasn’t it funding? And why that’s important?

FAUCI: Well, I obviously totally disagree with Senator Paul. He's absolutely incorrect. Neither I nor Dr. Francis Collins, the director of the NIH lied or misled about what we’ve done.

The framework under which we have guidance about the conduct of research that we fund, the funding at the Wuhan Institute was to be able to determine what is out there in the environment, in bat viruses in China. And the research was very strictly under what we call a framework of oversight of the type of research.

And under those conditions which we have explained very, very clearly, does not constitute research of gain of function of concern.

There are people who interpret it that way, but when you look at the framework under which the guidance is, that is not the case.

So I have to respectfully disagree with Senator Paul. He is not correct that we lied or misled the Congress. It's just not correct, George. I’m sorry.