Sen. John Fetterman said Dr. Anthony Fauci's grilling by a Senate committee was "all politics" and called the criticism of him by Republicans inappropriate and "excessive."
Fetterman, D-Pennsylvania, has sometimes broken with his Democratic colleagues, and Republicans have tried to convince him to switch parties. While he told NewsNation in a July 29 interview after the committee hearing that "it’s entirely appropriate to really hold Fauci accountable," he questioned how Republicans handled the hearing.
"I don’t think it’s really appropriate to pound an 85-year-old man … just to try to humiliate the guy," Fetterman said, adding: "It was excessive."
The former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Fauci has been
sharply criticized by many on the right for years over his actions helping lead the U.S. through the COVID-19 pandemic. He appeared before the GOP-controlled Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee under subpoena, but refused to answer questions, invoking his right against self-incrimination under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.
Fetterman serves on the committee and was measured in his remarks during the hearing, telling Fauci "I'm not here to, perhaps, attack you, or defend, or anything." Other Democrats on the committee rallied to Fauci's defense as Republicans slammed his pandemic response.
As the lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania during the pandemic, Fetterman said he was "in the middle of all of that maelstrom, trying to find the right balance between protect life and protect the economics."
"I'm not sure if we got it all right or wrong but without a doubt I can continue to question myself," he said.
Fetterman brought up the origins of COVID-19 during the hearing, saying the idea that the virus came from a lab in China became "a very partisan thing."
"Early on that became like a right-wing kind of theory, and I thought it seemed to make sense," Fetterman said, adding: "It seems now it's more and more emerging theory that it would have come from the lab."
The CIA announced last year that the virus was "more likely" to have come from a lab, but said there was "low confidence" in that assessment.
Contributing: Reuters
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'Excessive.' Fetterman criticizes GOP grilling of Fauci
