Dr. Anthony Fauci departs after appearing before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing at the Capitol, Wednesday, July 29, 2026, in Washington.
As featured on
A Senate committee has voted along party lines to hold Dr. Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress over his refusal to answer questions at a hearing on his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. The vote Thursday sets up a referral to the Department of Justice for potential investigation over whether the country’s longtime top infectious disease official properly exercised his constitutional rights. A department spokesperson confirmed Thursday evening that the department had received the contempt referral, is “reviewing it and will work with the Senate accordingly." A referral from Congress doesn't compel prosecutors to act. Democrats are questioning whether the referral would be valid if the full Senate was bypassed.
The vote came one week after Fauci invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination 100+ times when he appeared before the panel.
Six years after the world was thrust into a global pandemic, Republicans in power aren’t leaving it in the past. Instead, they're bringing COVID-19 politics to center stage for new scrutiny and demanding accountability. A Republican-led Senate committee's contempt vote against Dr. Anthony Fauci on Thursday represented their efforts to steer how America remembers the pandemic and who is held responsible for it. Political scientists and historians said the focus on COVID grievances demonstrates how some of the wounds it opened have never been closed. Democrats have slammed the federal government’s blaming of Fauci as a performative distraction that’s not based in facts.
