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By Natalie Venegas
Weekend Reporter
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Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene fired back on Tuesday at Dr. Anthony Fauci's comments that the Georgia Republican congresswoman's vocal criticism of him regarding the COVID-19 pandemic led to a number of death threats, blaming him for the threats.
Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), testified on Monday morning on Capitol Hill before the House select subcommittee on the coronavirus pandemic and was questioned about the origins of COVID-19 and the federal response to it.
Fauci, who has faced repeated criticism from Republicans over his handling of the pandemic, was a leader in crafting the U.S. response to the COVID-19 virus that has killed more than 1.2 million Americans since 2020, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
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Commenting on the hearing, Fauci told CNN on Monday that whenever someone in the media or in Congress "gets up and makes a public statement that I'm responsible for the deaths of X number of people because of policies or some crazy idea that I created the virus, immediately...it's like clockwork, the death threats go way up.
"So that's the reason why I'm still getting death threats. When you have performances like that unusual performance by Marjorie Taylor Greene in today's hearing, those are the kind of things that drive up the death threats because there are a segment of the population out there that believe that kind of nonsense."
Newsweek has reached out to Greene's office and Fauci via email for comment.
In response, Greene fired back on Tuesday in a post on X, formerly Twitter, as she rebuffed Fauci's comments and said he was responsible for his own death threats due to his "non-scientific, tyrannical policies."
"No one should get death threats and I get them ALL THE TIME," Greene wrote. "But lucky for Mr Fauci, he has Secret Service Protection at the tax payers expense. I DO NOT, and have to pay for my own security and am a gun owner. It's not my comments that have people furious at Mr Fauci, it's the FACT that his ridiculous, non-scientific, tyrannical policies DESTROYED people's lives and he's a narcissistic a** hole and liar which is why SO MANY people hate him.
"Under Mr Fauci's leadership, viruses have been turned into deadly bioweapons...Mr Fauci belongs in prison for crimes against humanity!!!"
This comes after Fauci faced hostility from Greene during the hearing as she refused to address him as "doctor," called for him to be prosecuted "for crimes against humanity" and said he "belongs in prison."
She also repeatedly talked over Fauci during her questioning, including at one point cutting him off, saying: "Nah, I don't need your answer."
Death threats also became a point of discussion during the hearing as Fauci described what he and his family received while director of the NIAID.
In response to a question from Democratic Representative Debbie Dingell, Fauci said he received "everything from harassments by emails, texts, letters of myself, my wife, my three daughters."
He added that "there have been credible death threats, leading to the arrests of two individuals...and credible death threats means someone who was clearly on their way to kill me. And it's required my having protective services essentially all the time."
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