Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) had a heated exchange on Thursday with Dr. Anthony Fauci over his recommendations on COVID restrictions, where Dr. Fauci refused to say when they would possibly end.
Fauci, just previous to this clip, had said that as cases go down, people can be more “flexible” about lifting COVID restrictions countrywide, without giving even a ballpark figure as to when that might be.
“Give us your best guess then,” Jordan told Fauci. “I just did,” Fauci replied.
“No you didn’t.” replied Jordan. “You didn’t give us a time. Are we gonna be here two years from now wearing masks and asking Dr. Fauci the same question?”
“No, I doubt, … let me… you’re ranting again,” Fauci tries to interject.
“Here’s how it works, Dr. Fauci. I get to ask you the questions.” Jordan comes back.
“You’re the highest paid official in the US government. You’ve given us your advice on baseball, on dating apps, cruise ships. You told us zero masks, one mask, two masks, now back to one mask.”
“I’m just asking you when it’s going to end? You can say I’m ranting; I’m actually asking the question for the citizens I get the privilege of representing. My name actually goes on a ballet. I don’t think your name has ever been on a ballot; my name goes on a ballot.”
“The citizens I represent want to know the answer to when they can get their liberties back. You can all that ranting, I call that standing up for the Constitution, which I take an oath to uphold, Dr. Fauci.”
“Every term that I serve in this Congress is representing the folks of the Fourth District of Ohio. So it is not ranting; it is defending the the First Amendment.”
“And we’d like an answer, or your best guess, since you’ve got an answer for everything else.”
Fauci said new infections must fall to below 10,000 cases a day in order for a return to normal.
