Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) called for the arrest of former infectious disease official Dr. Anthony Fauci after Wednesday’s Senate hearing in which he refused to answer questions.

While speaking with a Fox News reporter at the Capitol, he said, “Years from now, they'll look back and say, ‘what collective madness overtook this country?’”

The reporter asked whether he supports the effort to hold Fauci in contempt. “Absolutely,” Cruz replied. “Look, I think Anthony Fauci has had contempt for Congress and contempt for the American people for decades. His diary shows that he deliberately lied to the American people over and over and over again. In his diary, he wrote early on that it was clear that the COVID virus did not come from the wet market in Wuhan, and then he turned around and said exactly the opposite thing on national television.”

Cruz continued, saying that Fauci “brags about convincing Democrats in New York and California to shut schools down, and yet he goes on TV and says, ‘Oh, I wasn't for shutdowns,’” and that Fauci’s “level of contempt and dishonesty is disgraceful, and Dr. Fauci Fauci ought to think about what it says about the end of his career, that what he will be remembered for the most is pleading the Fifth more than 100 times.”

He's been the most damaging bureaucrat in the history of America. And I will say, the school shutdowns, which Fauci bragged that he was responsible for, may well be the single most destructive public policy step we've seen in decades. That learning will stick with those kids the rest of their lives. When they're 90 years old, they will still be suffering the consequences of Anthony Fauci's corrupt and dishonest shutdowns and the fact that he knew he was lying to the American people.

The lawmaker added, “He should be prosecuted for perjury, and he should go to jail.”

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Multiple Republican lawmakers are demanding Fauci’s arrest following his appearance at a Senate hearing on Wednesday. As Cruz indicated, he invoked his Fifth Amendment right more than 100 times and refused to answer questions about his role in the COVID-19 pandemic response and the origins of the coronavirus.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), who chairs the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said afterward that the panel will vote next week on holding Fauci in contempt of Congress. He said, "I think there is a very real chance that he could be prosecuted for that."

Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) went further in comments after the hearing. He said, "He should be locked up before he leaves this building today and put in prison, and then put on trial in front of the American people."

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier also announced a state investigation into Fauci, according to Politico.

GOP lawmakers allege that Fauci lied to Congress about the origins of the COVID-19 virus by falsely claiming it came from a wet market in Wuhan, China. The hearing came after the release of over 1,000 pages from Fauci’s diary that contradict his public statements during the pandemic. They also argue that former President Joe Biden’s preemptive pardon means Fauci could not claim the Fifth Amendment.