both hypothesis including the lab leak they ended up hurting the credibility of science. >> dana: the debate over the origins of covid and credibility of our health officials leading the charge comes back today. dr. fauci is about to testify before a house panel on his response to the virus in his first public testimony in nearly two years. remarkable. it has been two years. welcome to a new hour of "america's newsroom," i'm dana perino. >> bill: good morning. i thought dr. redfield was very interesting last hour. i'm bill hemmer. the pandemic may be officially over but the world may never fully recover from the damage it posed. a lot of questions finally getting more pointed. republicans on that committee are digging into the lab in wuhan china and whether a key fauci advisor was looking to evade laws, a cover-up. >> dana: the founder of public vcc. you follow it closely. i want to play some sound from democratic lawmakers questioning the conduct of dr. morens last week. >> what troubles me most about your conduct, dr. moren, is the extent to which it so willingly be trace decades of decorum and from public health workers who came before you and is not anti-science to hold you for misusing official resources. >> i think you will be haunted by your testimony today and it is unfortunate. it is all on the record. it doesn't make a lot of sense to many of us, certainly not to me. >> dana: dr. anthony fauci has entered the hearing room taking a seat. you can see him right there. michael shellenberger let's get your take. we see what we get over moren testimony, it's mind blowing. >> that's right. good to be with you. it's a historic day we have all been waiting for. it is very exciting on the one hand to finally have a chance to see lawmakers question anthony fauci who is somebody who played a key role. we and others believe in causing the pandemic to begin in the first place by subverting u.s. law to move these very risky experiments to increase the infectiousness of coronaviruses to china and the evidence appears that played a role in covering it up and producing propaganda to show somehow it count have come from a lab when that appears to have been what happened. this is going to be a very historic day. >> bill: i heard the gavel drop. the republican from ohio. there is anthony fauci, now retired. he was formerly the highest-paid member of the u.s. government. had the job in 1983 and exits 40 years later. what a tenure this was, michael. i just want -- shall we give it a listen? stand by one second. >> participate in today's hearings for the purposes of questions and give three minute opening statements. without objection pursuant to clause 4a3a of house resolution five and clause 2j2c of house rule 11 the chair may recognize staff of the subcommittee for questions equal periods of time not to exceed 30 minutes. pursuant to rule 7 d mr. jordan and mr. moskowitz may participate in today's hearing for the purposes of questions. i would like to remind members that the issues we're debating today are important ones. members feel deeply about. while vigorous disagreement is part of the legislative process, members are reminded that we must adhere to established standards of decorum and debate. there is a reminder that it is a violation of house rules and the rules of this committee to engage in personalities regarding other members or to question the motives of a colleague. remarks of that type are not permitted by the rules and not in keeping with the best traditions of our committee. the chair will enforce these rules of decorum at all times and urges all members to be mindful of their remarks. finally without objection the chair may declare a recess at any time. i now recognize myself for the purpose of making an opening statement. good morning. welcome, dr. fauci. first, i want to thank you for your decades of public service. you served your country through multiple epidemics, pandemics and health crises. i do want to say i'm sorry about the threats that you have received. as someone who has been shot at and received threats as well, my heart goes out to you. this should never happen in america. regardless of any disagreements we may have, you chose to serve and i want to extend our appreciation and gratitude. i want to thank you publicly for working with our doctors caucus during operation warp speed and the time you spent with us and dr. collins. i also want to thank you for your willing cooperation with the select subcommittee. you have voluntarily sat for more than 14 hours of testimony and are appearing voluntarily today. this is more than we can say about other witnesses we have called and we appreciate it. dr. fauci, we are here to investigate the covid-19 pandemic and to explore lessons learned. positive or negative and to better prepare for future pandemics. simply put, america cannot move forward, though, without looking back. we must know what went right and what went wrong in order to best en grain prove i shall en sees and remedy deficiencies. in 15 months, the select subcommittee has sent more than 115 invest gative letters, conducted 30 transcribed interviews, resulted in hundreds of hours of testimony, held 27 hearings or briefings and reviewed more than 1 1/2 million pages of documents. we aren't here to throw the baby with the bath water. that's not the intent. we are following the facts, holding wrongdoers accountable and planning for a better, more prepared future. beginning early in 2020, you became the figurehead of public health. there are drinks named after you, you got bobbleheads made in your likeness, cover of vogue threw out the first pitch at a nationals game. you became a celebrity and household name in addition to being a public health official. americans from coast to coast and beyond listened to your words and this is where i think we could have done better. it goes to both sides of the aisle. we should have been more precise. we should have used words and phrases that are accurate and not misleading. we should have been honest, especially about what we didn't know. dr. fauci, i'm not a virologist but i am a physician. like most we are constantly learning, which is why we do continuing medical education and we always seek new information. we learn new things based on new data and we want to give our patients the best possible care based on new findings and improvements in science. at a time when you were prompting the proximal origin paper whose purpose was to disprove the lab leak theory i was in lockdown researching with another physician in ohio to try to understand the pathology, the effected fizzology and what treatments worked. even how to diagnose covid before we had specific covid tests. my friend even made a phone call to an infectious disease doctor in china looking for help. as well during that time, we discovered the xi article using gain of function type technology. while policy decisions should have been based on scientific data, some frankly were not. the burdensome six foot social distancing rule did not have sufficient scientific report. in your words, it just sort of appeared. distancing made sense but the six feet was arbitrary. even dr. collins said he still hasn't seen any evidence to support the six-foot rule. a rule that shut down schools and businesses, a rule that will have negative ramifications for decades. as the pandemic wore on, more mandates, also just sort of appeared. but the american public didn't get to see the scientific data to support these mandates. americans were aggressively bullied, shamed, and silenced for merely questioning or debating issues such as social distancing, masks, vaccines, or the origins of covid. many americans were willing to comply with the 15-days to slow the spread and understood the necessity of banning travel from certain countries in an attempt to slow down the virus. but many americans became very frustrated when components of those 15 days stretched into years. it should not have been the case that americans were forced to comply with oppressive mandates when those who chose to illegally cross our southern border were not. or when governor newsom, governor whitmer were throwing parties at nice restaurants. not a good look. americans do not hate science, but americans know hypocrisy when they see it. dr. fauci, under your leadership the united states health agencies adopted specific policy aims as a single dogmatic truth without debate out of a desire for a single narrative. dr. fauci, you once said if you disagree with me you disagree with science. science doesn't belong to any one person. i was never taught science turns a blind eye to hypothesis, they serve to be proven or disproveer and done so with facts, if able. it was interesting that you cheese not to pursue a scientific investigation of natural spillover and lab leak. we have been investigating both hypotheses. you testified before the select subcommittee in your transcribed interview the lab leak theory was not a conspiracy theory. you embraced the proximal origin letter. not a peer reviewed research paper but he embraced proximal origin letter and shared it from the white house lawn and stated that you did not review published articles that considered a potential lab leak of covid-19 . this is especially concerning if the works in question were conducted on a more risky and less safe bsl2 lab. nevertheless, any dissent from your chosen scientific position was immediately labeled as anti-science. anything less than complete submission to the mandates could cost you your livelihood, your ability to go into public, your child's ability to attend school. families were thrown off planes and shamed when their 2-year-olds struggled to wear a mask. children with disabilities lost access to therapy they depended on. students were out of the classroom and told to attend school remotely. even when the science clearly demonstrated it was safe for them to go back in the classroom. this harmed low income students the most. and how are single parent households supposed to teach their own children and work at the same time? dr. fauci, you oversaw one of the most invasive regimes of domestic policy the u.s. has ever seen, including mask mandates, school closures, coerced vaccinations, social distancing of six feet and more. we've learned many lessons. our early fear and confusion was understandable. covid-19 was clearly a novel virus. under your leadership niaid allowed disgraced characters to conduct risky gain of function experiments in wuhan, china. the actions of eco health and dr. das call into -- as well as your role, dr. fauci, as niaid's director. you did sign off on his research grant. we need to know why dr. morens, your direct report for more than two decades, assisted the doctor in avoiding oversight and scrutiny and said that you were involved. your senior advisor and seemingly chief of staff repeatedly attempted to evade transparency laws to shield information from public scrutiny. we have senior officials from your office in their own writing discussing breaking federal law, deleting official records, and sharing private government information with grant recipients. the office you directed and those serving under your leadership chose to flout the law and bragged about it. why did you allow your office to be unaccountable to the american people? you were the highest-paid person in the government. this makes you more accountable to the people, not less. dr. fauci, whether intentional or not, you became so powerful that any disagreements the public had with you were forbidden and censored on social mead and legacy media time and time again. why so many americans became so angry. it was fundamentally unamerican. i make a mistake, i answer to the people of ohio who elected me and to my own conscience. what happened when you and your agency made mistakes? what happened? we all need to be held accountable. sometimes it's as simple as saying we were wrong. you took the position that you presented the science, your words came across so many people as final and as infallible in matters pertaining to the pandemic. but such rigid demands of an ideologically di verse people like americans shattered public trust in american health institutions. because i said so, has never been good enough for americans. it never will be. it is built into the american spirit. we have a thirst for information, a drive for advancement. americans were first in flight, we landed on the moon, we've cured diseases. you've been part of that. and we made many discoveries and explorations that forever changed humanity. americans do not want to be indoctrinated. they want to be educated. and they prefer to make their health decisions in conjunction with the doctor that they know and trust. to be successful, our federal public health institutions must be accountable to the people again. to be successful, our health organizations must do what they are supposed to do, protect americans. i look forward to a robust and on-topic discussion. i thank you and would now like to recognize ranking member for the purpose of making an opening statement. >> thank you, hello dr. fauci. thank you for being here. when i was named ranking member of the select subcommittee last february i made a commitment to follow the facts and objectively analyzing the origins of the covid-19 pandemic and made a promise to keep an open mind how the pandemic started. understanding when the coronavirus emerged from a labor nature helps to better protecting the american people. as the origins of the novel coronavirus still remain inconclusive i stand by these commitments to this day. nearly a year and a half into house republicans extreme and chaotic majority i believe we need to take stock of what the select subcommittee has accomplished and whether it has improved our preparedness for the next public health threat in our nation. under the guise of investigating the pandemic's origins, house republicans have abdicated their responsibility to objectively examine how covid-19 came to be and instead weaponized concerns about the lab-related origin for partisan gain and done so with one particular public health official in mind, dr. anthony fauci. and they have done so in an effort to deflect blame and anguish for the damage inflicted on our society away from the former president whose stumbling pandemic response led to 400,000 unnecessary covid-19 deaths and on to dr. fauci who worked tirelessly to stem the crisis. over the past 15 months, the select subcommittee has poured over more than 425,000 pages of documents provided to us by government agencies, universities, private citizens. we have conducted more than 100 hours of closed door interviews with 20 current and former federal officials and scientists and what we have found is the following. dr. fauci did not fund research through the eco health alliance grant that caused the covid-19 pandemic. dr. fauci did not lie about gain-of-function research in wuhan, china. and dr. fauci did not work orchestrate. the select subcommittee does not have a shred of evidence for the extreme allegations that they've leveled against dr. fauci for nearly four years. now i want to make something very clear. in the past month the select subcommittee has held hearings where we have examined serious issues of misconduct in following the facts, select subcommittee democrats uncovered trouble misconduct by the doctor from eco health. in less than two weeks ago we heard from dr. morens about his straylation of the foia requirements and the potential destruction of federal records. both doctors deserve to be held accountable for betraying the public's trust. to hold them accountable is not anti-science, it is the defense of our federal scientific and research institutions, decades long legacy of advancing the scientific enterprise to safeguard human health. but baselessly suggesting without evidence that these discrete instances of misconduct are equivalent to our nation's scientists and public health officials causing the covid-19 pandemic, which has killed more than 1 million americans and inflicted immeasurable toll on our society is a betrayal of the public trust which each of us are stewards of as elected members of this body. today's hearing comes at a pivotal moment. with the darkest days of the covid-19 pandemic behind us, thanks to the biden administration's leadership we're now faced with a crisis of declining confidence in the very science and public health interventions that lifted our society from one of the most challenging periods in our nation's history. and as we look to the future, we find ourselves at a fork in the road. we can go down the path of fueling mistrust in the interventions that saved us like vaccines, masking and social distancing, and the public health officials like dr. fauci who worked tirelessly and extremely limited and evolving information about a novel virus to save lives during one of the greatest crisis of our time or we can work constructively on the forward-looking policies and solutions to better prepare us for the public health threats yet to come. since my first day as ranking member, i set out to take the latter path. the path of putting people over politics and prioritizing solutions to better prepare us for the next pandemic. it has been my hope that republicans would join democrats in the forward-looking work that will better protect our constituents. strengthening oversight of research domestically and abroad is an essential part of this conversation and so is closing pathways tore transfers of viruses in nature and investing in public health infrastructure to insure what viruses arrive we're ready. when democrats were in the majority, we made important strides in these objectives by passing the consolidated appropriations act of 2023 which strengthed the protections under undue influence in biomedical research and the handling of select agents. paved the way for the interagency collaboration for disease prevention. invested in the workforce and enhanced supply chain preparedness and ability to rapidly develop and deploy medical counter measures. ahead of today's hearing, more than 90 health and medical organizations, including the american public health association, the american college of physicians, the infectious disease society of america. territorial and state health officials and national association of county and city health officials wrote to is select subcommittee urging us to stand against efforts to weaken the ability of the nation's public health agencies to protect the nation's health and to take additional action to fortify our nation's public health workforce and infrastructure. i seek unanimous consent to enter this letter into the hearing record. >> without objection. >> as we sit here today, i have not lost hope that in the remaining months of the select subcommittee we can work together to build on this legacy and make objectively examining the origins of the novel coronavirus a part of this forward-looking forward. i stand by my commitments i mentioned earlier to take a serious, balanced look at all possibilities for the origins of covid-19 pandemic. and i stand ready to work with every member of this select subcommittee on this critically important mission so we can save future lives. i believe i still have some time left. so with that i would like to recognize mr. raskin with the remaining time. >> thank you. public health is a matter of urgent and comprehensive public concern. under donald trump when the pandemic began we came close to becoming a failed state which the political scientists define as a state that cannot deliver the basic goods of existence to its people. according to dr. debra burks donald trump's own covid-19 advisor america lost hundreds of thousands of people because of the recklessness of donald tr