00:00It was the moment everyone on Capitol Hill in the country had been waiting for,
00:03but it was over almost as soon as it began. Dr. Anthony Fauci appeared before the Senate
00:08Homeland Security Committee on Wednesday to field questions about how he handled the COVID pandemic.
00:13What did Fauci say, you ask? Not much, my friends. He invoked the Fifth Amendment over
00:18100 times, refusing to answer questions about his handling of the pandemic, gain-of-function
00:23research, allegations that federal records were destroyed, even questions about the days of the
00:28week are the color of his tie. Those got the Plead the Fifth treatment, too. Fauci said Senator
00:33Rand Paul's whole goal for this hearing was to put him behind bars, and so his attorney advised him
00:38to remain silent, despite receiving a sweeping pardon from former President Joe Biden. And
00:43silent, he remained. Here's some of his back and forth with Republican Senator Josh Hawley from
00:48Missouri. What day of the week is it today?
00:54On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth
01:00Amendment to the Constitution. What color is the carpet in front of you?
01:16On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth
01:21Amendment to the Constitution.
01:23And here's Republican Senator Bernie Moreno of Ohio after retelling the story of a woman removed from a
01:29high school football game for not wearing a mask during the COVID outbreak.
01:32When that story broke, I said to myself,
01:38I cannot stand idly on the side and watch this happen. It was about six years ago today that I
01:45decided I'm going to give up my businesses, sell them all, run for office, run through the United
01:51States Senate. Here I am sitting in front of you six years later saying, who the do you think you
01:57were for doing that? It is a total disgrace what you did to this country.
02:04The hearing grew even more dramatic when Fauci's attorney was escorted out of the room after
02:09repeatedly interrupting the proceedings, while Republican senators went after the former COVID
02:14czar over everything from lab leak questions to lockdowns, mask mandates and vaccine policies.
02:20By the end of the hearing, Senator Rand Paul announced the committee will vote next week on
02:24whether to hold Fauci in contempt of Congress for refusing to answer questions despite the Biden
02:29pardon. For more on Wednesday's explosive hearing, what happens next and whether Dr.
02:33Fauci could still face legal jeopardy? Let's bring in the New York Post's Chief Washington
02:37Bureau Chief Josh Christensen. Josh, Rand Paul says that he is moving forward with a contempt vote.
02:42No surprise there. What would have to happen for Dr. Fauci to actually face criminal contempt
02:47or obstruction charges?
02:50Well, we saw this briefly during the House Republican inquiry regarding Merrick Garland two years ago.
02:59There was some interest in holding Merrick Garland in contempt for not handing over these tapes of
03:05President Biden with special counsel Robert Herr. That motion didn't really get off the ground.
03:11But the process, which was laid out then and has in the past been followed, is that a committee will
03:18motion to hold a witness in contempt for not cooperating with an investigation.
03:24And once it passes out of the committee, it has to pass the full chamber. Then the full chamber will
03:30have to vote on that. And if the full chamber approves that, then we see this referral to the
03:36Justice Department, which can decide to bring charges. And ultimately, that's often then litigated
03:42in the courts. And so we saw the most recent instance of this process playing out fully with
03:49Trump advisor, former Trump advisor Steve Bannon, and the Trump trade advisor Peter Navarro, both of whom
03:56served four months of prison for contempt of Congress. Although they in the case of Bannon, he had that
04:02vacated earlier this year by the Supreme Court, but that did not prevent him from serving those four months
04:09back during the election year.
04:10The word you used there that stuck out to me is process, because it does sound like quite a process
04:16to get to that point. But clearly, it can and has recently been done. But Fauci received a preemptive
04:23pardon from President Biden, but he still pleaded the fifth. So how are Republicans arguing those two
04:29things don't square? And what are they trying to accomplish from here?
04:34Republicans are saying that the pardon which covered any potential crimes Fauci may have committed
04:39between January 1st, 2014, January 19th, 2025 doesn't cover anything he might have said in today's
04:47hearing, which, of course, were in July more than six months later. So they're saying essentially that
04:54he needed to be forthright. He needed to come into the committee ready to answer questions, and he can't
05:00reasonably invoke Fifth Amendment rights. Several of them pointed to case law involving Lois Lerner,
05:09during the Obama administration, and that Republicans tried to get her, you know, held in
05:19contempt. But ultimately, Justice Department didn't, didn't go forward with that prosecution, didn't,
05:26you know, accept the criminal referral. In that case, there's other case law that was talked about,
05:32you know, Senator Josh Hawley mentioned, court precedent in this instance, but it's something that's going to
05:39have to be debated at the committee level among those Republicans. You saw Senator James Lankford
05:43toward the end of the hearing, sort of wondering about what the legal limits were of Fauci's decision
05:50today to plead the fifth. So it's something that'll have to play out among the members and then
05:55ultimately be a decision by the courts. It was quite a spectacle to watch all 111 times today. I know
06:05that
06:05this is clearly not the end of this issue. Josh will definitely have you back on to walk us through
06:10probably that contempt vote when it actually comes to fruition. Thanks so much. Thank you.
06:17The Trump administration is ramping up its immigration crackdown again, this time focusing
06:22on America's airports. Immigration agents have begun arresting people accused of overstaying their visas
06:27as they prepare to board domestic and international flights. The Department of Homeland Security says the
06:32new enforcement push reverses a Biden-era policy that allowed people in the country illegally to
06:37continue flying within the United States. Video of some of the arrests has gone viral,
06:42with detentions reported at major airports, including Los Angeles, Denver, Las Vegas, Nashville,
06:47and San Francisco. ICE has actually been operating at U.S. airports for more than a year.
06:51The recent ramp-up is part of its push to meet the Trump administration's aggressive daily arrest goals.
06:57The administration says that more than three million illegal immigrants have left the U.S. or been
07:01deported since President Trump returned to office, including about 2.2 million who officials say
07:06chose to self-deport. The mayor of Minnesota's capital city is under investigation, not for politics,
07:12but for text messages. St. Paul's Democratic mayor, Khali Hur, is facing sexual harassment complaints
07:17after allegedly sending a series of inappropriate messages to city employees. According to the complaint,
07:23she wished one staffer in a message a happy wiener Wednesday, while another included an edited image
07:31and a joke about getting a good wienering, perhaps referring to hot dogs, perhaps not. The complaint
07:37was filed by St. Paul Police Chief Axel Henry, who alleges the mayor's behavior went beyond a few
07:42off-color, not very funny jokes, and created a hostile work environment for city employees, including
07:47members of the police department. The mayor's office isn't commenting on the allegations while the
07:52investigation is active, but issued a statement saying, Mayor Hur has, quote, deep respect for city
07:57employees and regrets any unintended impact her actions may have had. Now, the investigation comes
08:02just six months into her first term as mayor of St. Paul. For more on these stories and everything else
08:08you could possibly want to know, check out the New York Post in print or online. And don't forget, like
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08:18you did.
