The 85-year-old declared, "Any reasonable person who has followed his unhinged obsession with me would readily come to the same conclusion. Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has felt the wrath of Paul and other Republicans over allegations he hid the true origins of the COVID-19 pandemic. He was eventually pardoned by President Joe Biden during his last days in office to avoid any prosecution. "A pardon that protects a person from criminal prosecution doesn't rewrite history," Paul told Fauci during the hearing on Wednesday, July 29. It does not convert a misleading statement to a truthful one, and it does not prevent Congress from establishing what happened."