Ohio Republican Senator Bernie Moreno didn’t hold back while grilling former COVID expert Dr. Anthony Fauci on Capitol Hill Wednesday afternoon.

Moreno called Fauci a ‘total disgrace’ during a hearing of the Senate Homeland Security Committee when he detailed how he was compelled to run for office six years ago when he saw a story of a mom being arrested for watching a football game outside with her family due to guidelines issued by governments based on Fauci’s advice.

‘Who the f**k do you think you were for doing that? It was a total disgrace to this country, and if my Democrat colleagues are standing there defending you, I hope the voters of the United States of America have watched clips of every one of them building of a guy who was more interested in being a celebrity,’ than doing his job leading the country through the pandemic. 

Earlier in his remarks, Moreno asked members of the audience who believed that they were negatively impacted by their skepticism to Covid-19 precautions, to stand. Nearly all members of the general public present stood up behind Fauci.

Fauci’s personal diaries were released earlier this week, showing how he delighted in his interactions with celebrities as America went through the death throes of the early COVID-19 pandemic.

The director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, who also became chief medical advisor to Joe Biden, achieved fame of his own during the lockdowns in 2020.

Fauci’s diaries were published by his longtime adversary, Senator Rand Paul who once again called him to testify before the Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs committee on Tuesday.

Fauci refused to answer more than 100 questions about COVID-19 origins during an explosive hearing where he blasted Republicans’ ‘unhinged obsession’ with him. 

Bernie Moreno grilled Anthony Fauci on Capitol Hill on Wednesday 

Former Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Dr. Anthony Fauci testifies before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs on Capitol Hill

Members of the audience, who say they were negatively impacted by their skepticism to Covid-19 precautions, stood behind up Fauci, at the urging of US Senator Bernie Moreno

The former chief medical advisor invoked the Fifth Amendment to avoid self-incrimination in the opening round. He then continued to do so 111 separate times when interrogated by lawmakers on the committee.

‘On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution,’ Fauci told Kentucky Republican Senator Rand Paul numerous times in the opening round of questions.

During his opening statement, Fauci earlier accused Paul of having an ‘unhinged obsession’ with him.

‘Given Senator Paul’s obvious obsession with calling for my prosecution, his repeated slanderous comments about me, and recently his publicly releasing my unredacted personal diary aimed at embarrassing and intimidating me,’ Fauci noted.

‘The only conclusion I can reach is that the sole reason he is calling me before this committee is to get me to say something, anything that could vindicate his repeated public pledges that I end up in his words ‘behind bars,’ Fauci continued.

‘Any reasonable person who has followed his unhinged obsession with me would readily come to the same conclusion,’ he added.

Fauci’s attorney David Schertler was physically removed by security in an explosive moment when he attempted to speak on behalf on Fauci. 

‘I didn’t invite you here to testify,’ exclaimed Paul before setting the guards on him to drag him out.

Dr. Fauci reacts while being questioned by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee

Senator Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican,  spoke in front of a board featuring a quote from an e-mail attributed to Greg Folkers, former Chief of Staff to Fauci, which discussed an award Fauci was applying for in recognition of his work during the pandemic

Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat, later read a statement from Fauci’s attorney during his remarks, which accused Paul’s hearing of not being ‘a serious effort to seek information,’ also adding the Republican has ‘built a personal brand,’ around his prosecution of the doctor.

Paul responded to the criticism, noting that in ‘no courtroom in America, a witness could plead the Fifth Amendment, and your attorney gets to testify.’

‘The attorney is complaining and testifying, saying you didn’t do it. The prosecution is unfair. You don’t get to do that. That’s one thing you give up when you take the Fifth Amendment and say I’m not going to testify, I’m not going to give you information.’

‘He was not invited to testify, and he was out of order, and it was appropriate to have him ejected,’ Paul noted, defending his prior decision to kick Schertler out.

Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican, blasted Fauci for using federal employees to enrich himself during the pandemic by applying for a variety of awards to recognize his work.

‘You turned your staff into a full-time application machine. You actually wrote to people and said, ‘Do you think maybe I qualify?’ And you got cash for all of this. And it wasn’t just one or two employees, was it? In fact, you used eight separate federal employees on federal time using federal resources to solicit cash for that,’ Hawley probed. Fauci invoked the Fifth Amendment again while being questioned by Hawley.

Hawley also shared that Fauci didn’t ‘have any rights under the Fifth Amendment’ because he had been pardoned.

‘As the Supreme Court has been clear for a century or more, Brown versus Walker, 1896. When he has been pardoned, he may not stand upon his privilege,’ Hawley, a Yale and Stanford-educated lawyer quipped.’

Speaking with members of the media after Wednesday’s hearing on Capitol Hill, Paul revealed that he planned to hold a vote to hold Fauci in contempt of Congress next week.

‘That’s the vote that will happen in committee next week, it will be on contempt of Congress,’ Paul told reporters.

‘We believe with his liability, his immunity from criminal liability, that he didn’t need to hide behind the Fifth Amendment and that maybe the Fifth Amendment doesn’t attach when you have a pardon in place,’ he continued, adding that the ability to plead the fifth, as mentioned by Hawley, ‘will be a legal question.’

‘But the question on contempt will be voted on and then there’s a question of whether or not the Department of Justice will take it up,’ Paul concluded.