WASHINGTON (AP) — A recurring clash between the government's top infectious disease doctor and a U.S. senator has erupted again on Capitol Hill, with each accusing the other of lying.
Dr. Anthony Fauci angrily confronted Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky in testimony Tuesday before a Senate committee.
Fauci rejected Paul's insinuation that the U.S. helped fund research at a Chinese lab that could have sparked the COVID-19 outbreak.
On Tuesday, Paul insinuated that Fauci lied to Congress in May when he said that the National Institutes of Health did not use the so-called "gain of function" research, which the Associated Press called "the practice of enhancing a virus in a lab to study its potential impact in the real world."
“I have not lied before Congress. I have never lied. Certainly not before Congress. Case closed,” Fauci said. “If anybody is lying here, senator, it is you.”
Sen. Paul also accused the NIH of funding the research at a lab in Wuhan, China.
"Senator Paul, you do not know what you’re talking about, quite frankly,” Fauci said. “And I want to say that officially. You do not know what you’re talking about," the AP reported.
