Texas Sen. Ted Cruz (R) said that the mainstream media's coverage of White House chief medical adviser Anthony Fauci is "dishonest" and "protects" the nation's top infectious disease expert despite the doctor's inconsistent medical advice.
"I think it is absolutely dishonest," Cruz told Fox News at Turning Point USA's AmericaFest in Phoenix. "I think the media lionizes, protects and hides Dr. Fauci."
Cruz emphasized that Fauci has been "systematically wrong over and over and over again." The doctor has had a change in opinion regarding mask efficacy from the beginning of the pandemic to now and has also at times doubted the likelihood that the coronavirus originated from a Chinese laboratory.
"He lied to the American people and said there's no credible evidence that this virus escaped from a Chinese lab. That's not true," Cruz said. "There's overwhelming evidence that it escaped from a Chinese lab. And very significantly, he also, by all appearances, has lied to the United States Congress."
"He's testified multiple times in front of Congress, that the NIH has not funded gain of function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the Chinese government lab where it appears COVID escaped from," he continued. "Gain-of-function research is where you alter a virus to make it more dangerous, make it more contagious to people. And he said categorically, unequivocally ‘No, we have not funded gain of function research at the Wuhan lab.' Earlier this year, the NIH, in writing said effectively we have funded gain of function research. It's a flat-out contradiction, 180 degrees opposite."
Cruz also reiterated a demand he has made in the past: that the Department of Justice investigate Fauci for allegedly lying to Congress, a "felony punishable by up to five years in prison," the Republican senator pointed out.
"The statements are flatly contradictory. And yet the Biden Justice Department is so partisan and politicized, they're unwilling to hold him to account," Cruz said. "I think we ought to have transparency and accountability. And Fauci continues to repeat these lies."