5 highlights from Anthony Fauci's tense Senate grilling: 'Total and complete disgrace'

3. Sen. Josh Hawley: 'You wanted to be the sun god of science'

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., grilled Fauci by accusing him of illegally using his own federal employees to enrich himself during the pandemic while exhibiting "contempt for the American people" and wanting to be seen as a god.

"Well, nothing says honesty like taking the Fifth, huh, Doc?" Hawley mocked before unsuccessfully pressing Fauci to provide the day of the week, the color of his tie and the color of the carpet.

Hawley claimed Fauci's invocation of the Fifth Amendment was illegitimate given his preemptive presidential pardon from former President Joe Biden, citing precedent in the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case Brown v. Walker. The 1896 decision ruled that Congress can constitutionally compel a witness to testify by granting them statutory immunity from criminal prosecution, and that doing so does not violate the Fifth Amendment.

I asked Fauci basic questions: What day of the week is it today? What color tie are you wearing? What color is the carpet in front of you?

He pled the Fifth and refused to answer every time pic.twitter.com/fg41ZF1PqX

— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) July 29, 2026

"This isn't about the Constitution. This isn't about the law. This is about contempt; contempt for this body and contempt for the American people," Hawley said.

Hawley claimed that Fauci was unwilling to answer any questions because he did "terrible things" during the pandemic, such as enriching himself by "using federal employees with taxpayer money to apply for and solicit cash prizes for you personally; cash prizes totaling over $1 million."

Hawley brought out a large display listing the federal employees whom Fauci allegedly used to secure hefty cash awards for himself, which Hawley said was a violation of federal law.

"A million people dead, you're getting rich. A million people dead, you're using federal employees to get cash awards for you. A million people dead, and you're here taking the Fifth, because you don't want to admit that what really happened in all that time was a multi-month, multi-year course of self-dealing."

The final 90 seconds of Senator Josh Hawley’s questioning of Anthony Fauci is pure cinema.

Hawley ended the exchange by cutting Fauci down to the bone with everything he had exposed.

The last two lines hit the hardest.

Fauci knew Hawley had him dead to rights, and the look on… pic.twitter.com/ngPOXRTdbN

— Overton (@overton_news) July 29, 2026

Pulling out an enlarged replica of the "InStyle" magazine cover from 2020 that featured Fauci decked out in sunglasses by the pool, Hawley suggested that Fauci's apparent greed was ultimately driven by his desire for "a power trip" and to be regarded as "the sun god of science."

"I'll tell you what, here's my conclusion from all of this: this was really all about you the whole time. Somewhere along the way, you lost your way," he said. "You may have been a good public servant at one time, I don't know. What I can tell you — from reading your emails now, from looking at what you did, how you used your employees — somewhere along the line, it became all about you."

"You became a narcissist and a megalomaniac and a liar, and you've lied to the American people, and you've lied to this body. And you've disgraced your profession by doing it. You called yourself the most famous scientist in the world. You've done more to harm science than anybody in my lifetime, and I hope you'll go home and write that in your diary."