Sen. Bernie Moreno of Ohio tore into Dr. Anthony Fauci on Wednesday during a Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee hearing, laying the blame for pandemic era mandates squarely at the feet of the former White House COVID czar.

Fauci, long treated by the corporate press as if he existed somewhere above ordinary accountability, sat with his attorney nearby as Moreno made clear this would not be another polite Beltway recital.

“Clearly, what you think today is that somehow you’re above reproach.

Somehow you feel like you don’t need to be treated like a normal American,” Moreno said.

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The Ohio Republican then walked through the list of views that got ordinary Americans mocked, censored, fired, or treated like public health heretics during COVID.

Many of those supposedly fringe concerns now look a lot less crazy than the experts insisted at the time.

Moreno pointed to Americans branded racist for using terms tied to the virus origin in China, people who questioned the six foot rule, workers punished over vaccine mandates, and parents furious over school closures. That was not conspiracy talk to millions of families, it was lived reality.

He asked spectators in the room to stand if they had been shamed for holding those views.

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Several people rose, including Fox News host Laura Ingraham.

Moreno then pressed Fauci to turn around and look at them. Fauci declined, choosing instead to speak with someone behind him who appeared to be an attorney or aide.

“Look at the people who were absolutely shamed for saying what we know now to be the truth,” Moreno demanded.

“You can’t even look at them.”

The people who paid the price were in the room, while the man who helped shape the national COVID response would not even give them the courtesy of a glance.

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Moreno also recalled a pandemic news story about a mother and her children being arrested for not wearing masks outside while watching a football game.

He said that episode helped push him toward public service.

“When that story broke, I said to myself, ‘I cannot stand idly on the side and watch this happen,'” Moreno told Fauci.

“It was about six years ago today that I decided ‘I’m going to give up my businesses, sell them all, run for office, run for the United States Senate.’”

Moreno then delivered the central accusation, asking in blunt terms who Fauci thought he was to help impose such sweeping decisions on Americans.

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It was a rare moment in Washington when the fury outside the marble halls actually made it into the room.

When Moreno tried to question Fauci, the doctor repeatedly invoked his Fifth Amendment rights.

The report said Fauci did so roughly 1111 times during the hearing, an astonishing figure for a man who spent years speaking with supreme certainty into every available camera.

Republicans on the committee repeatedly tried to draw him out with pointed questions.

Fauci declined again and again, relying on constitutional protection despite having already received a full pardon from then Joe Biden.

Moreno also noted Fauci’s decision to hire David Schertler, a high powered lawyer who represented former Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey in the bribery case that ended with the Democrat’s conviction.

The senator needled Fauci over whether his legal situation was more serious than he wanted to admit.

At one point, Moreno asked whether Fauci would apologize to the people harmed by his actions. “Do you have the dignity to just say you’re sorry?” he asked.

Fauci again invoked the Fifth Amendment. For Americans who lost jobs, watched kids fall behind, or were treated like second class citizens for questioning the official line, that answer spoke volumes.

Committee Chairman Rand Paul of Kentucky later said the panel will vote next week on whether to hold Fauci in contempt for refusing to answer questions. Contempt charges can carry penalties of 1 to 12 months behind bars and fines of up to $100,000.

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The hearing was not just about relitigating the pandemic.

It was about whether powerful officials who helped crush livelihoods, close classrooms, and shame dissenters will ever face real accountability, or whether Washington will simply hand them lawyers, pardons, and another round of applause from the usual media choir.

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