How 'anti-science' Republicans are 'torturing the truth' with their Fauci hysteria: journalist

Dr. Anthony Fauci, now 80, is hardly a newcomer to the U.S. government. The expert immunologist has been part of the National Institutes of Health since the late 1960s, working with at least ten presidential administrations along the way. In the past, Fauci was regarded as strictly a medical figure rather than a political figure whether the person in the White House was Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush or Barack Obama. But MAGA Republicans, during the COVID-19 pandemic, have politicized Fauci in a big way — and the Washington Post opinion writer Dana Milbank humorously discusses the absurdity of their anti-Fauci hysteria in his October 25 column.

Milbank's column is headlined, "Why Is Anthony Fauci Trying to Kill My Puppy?"

"My family recently got a new puppy, a strong-willed and mouthy but ultimately lovable little nipper," Milbank sarcastically writes. "We named him Bernie Sanders. Unfortunately, though, I can't take Bernie out on walks. Here in the capital, we have a puppy killer on the loose: a murderous psychopath known as Anthony S. Fauci."

Of course, those comments are pure sarcasm on Milbank's part. But Milbank does debunk some sloppy reporting from the Rupert Murdoch-owned New York Post, which on October 24, claimed that the NIH "provided a grant to a lab in Tunisia to torture and kill dozens of beagle puppies for twisted scientific experiment."

Milbank explains, "As it turns out, the only thing being tortured here is the truth. The episode says more about the right-wing disinformation machine and its crusade against Fauci than it does about research funded by Fauci's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. It turns out that this Tunisian study was erroneously attributed to NIAID."

Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis are among the Republicans who have been trying to rally their base with anti-Fauci hysteria. Cruz recently tweeted, "Remind me again how Fauci still has a job???"

Milbank writes, "Here's how. Millions of people are alive today because of his work against AIDS, COVID-19 and more. The anti-science forces of Trump, Murdoch, Paul and Cruz will continue to spew disinformation. But I'm grateful for Fauci — and so is my puppy."