A remarkable scene unfolded on the 29th (local time) when a witness summoned to a U.S. federal congressional hearing refused to answer any of the 111 questions.

The U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security held a hearing that day targeting Dr. Anthony Fauci, former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). He served as the COVID-19 response commander from the end of Donald Trump's first administration into the early Joe Biden administration, retiring in 2022.

The hearing was spearheaded by Senator Rand Paul (Republican, Kentucky), chairman of the committee.

Senator Paul has persistently attacked Dr. Fauci prior to the hearing, including releasing his personal diary. The diary contained content harshly criticizing President Trump, who pushed ahead with 2020 re-election rallies ignoring quarantine rules and refused to accept the presidential election defeat.

Dr. Fauci has been cited as a target of political retaliation because he stood against claims raised chiefly by President Trump and his supporters—such as the inefficacy of vaccines, opposition to masks and lockdowns, and suspicions that the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) in China leaked the COVID-19 virus either accidentally or intentionally.

In his opening statement at the hearing, Dr. Fauci rebutted the conservative camp's offensives against him as an "absurd obsession," calling it "a clear obsession to prosecute me, a repeated campaign of calumny against me."

During the ensuing Q&A session, he consistently exercised his right to silence in response to a barrage of questions mainly from Republican lawmakers. He cited the Fifth Amendment, which guarantees the right not to be compelled to give self-incriminating testimony in criminal cases.

Even when Senator Josh Hawley (Republican, Missouri) asked, "What day of the week is it today?" and "What color tie are you wearing?", Dr. Fauci refused to answer. Fox News tallied that Dr. Fauci refused to answer 111 times.

As Dr. Fauci's invocation of the Fifth Amendment continued, Senator Paul warned that "there will be consequences" and threatened to take issue with it as "contempt of Congress."

In response, Senator Maggie Hassan (Democrat, New Hampshire) defended Dr. Fauci, saying, "It is regrettable that you are in this position today, and it is very frustrating to know that this hearing was designed to set you up."

Dr. Fauci's refusal to answer appears to keep potential legal battles in mind.

U.S. media outlets reported that although former President Biden preemptively pardoned him just before the launch of the second Trump administration out of concern for "retaliatory prosecution," Republicans are seeking to bring him to trial on separate charges of congressional perjury.

Ultimately, the hearing devolved into a "political show," rendering meaningless its original intent to question and examine conspiracy theories that the COVID-19 pandemic—which swept the globe from 2020 to 2021—originated in a laboratory in Wuhan, China, and whether the pandemic response at the time was appropriate.

The theories surrounding the Chinese origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, controversies over excessive quarantine measures, and distrust of vaccines and pharmaceutical companies are materials that thrill President Trump's supporters. Therefore, interpretations linger that this hearing harbored political motives that went beyond attacking Dr. Fauci as an individual.

The conspiracy theory that the COVID-19 virus was leaked under communication between U.S. and Chinese authorities, and that President Trump failed to win re-election that year due to the deaths of numerous Americans and the socio-economic downturn in 2020, also serves as one of the narratives repeated among Trump's supporters regarding "election rigging."

Prior to the hearing, President Trump posted on his social media platform Truth Social, claiming, "I said from the beginning that the virus came from the Wuhan lab in China," and "Fauci strongly opposed this and always tried to protect China."

President Trump wrote, "He made too many bad judgments, including on the mask issue," and "He wanted to lock down the country, but I wouldn't let him do that."

President Trump asserted that "many more people died from COVID-19 during the Biden administration than during the Trump administration," while self-evaluating "Operation Warp Speed" (OWS—rapid vaccine development, distribution, and administration) implemented at the end of his first term as a "tremendous success."

(Produced by JIN Sang-myeong | Video by HONG Jin-young, AHN Jun-hyeok | Produced by SBS Digital News)