Sen. Rand Paul has made a career of being a somehow less liked, more worthless bratty rich kid than Donald Trump. At least Trump’s vanity hair is something everyone can have a good laugh about. Paul’s most recent uselessness has been to promote the racist side of anti-vaxxer, anti-government COVID-19 conspiracy theories. Paul’s scientific credentials span the fact that he was a certified ophthalmologist up until around 2011.*

As a result of Sen. Paul’s need to stay white supremacist relevant, Dr. Anthony Fauci has had to sit in hearings where Paul spouts lie after lie after lie about COVID-19, the CDC, and our government’s public health recommendations. Unlike most conservatives, Dr. Fauci isn’t a wilting bigoted flower, and has made it clear that he is not going to a part of Sen. Paul’s conspiracy bullshit. On Tuesday, the two clashed again during another COVID-19 Senate hearing. The Kentucky senator started by going into a completely fabricated set of facts about what is and is not known about COVID-19 and research done in Wuhan, China.

Dr. Fauci was not having any of it.

*Not an eye doctor I would go to.

Sen. Paul spoke for about one minute, promoting the conspiracy theory that, under Dr. Fauci’s guidance, the U.S. government, through work done by virologist Dr. Ralph Barrett, had potentially created the 2019 novel coronavirus. After all of this pomposity and feckless use of gossip and rumor, Fauci adjusted the microphone in front of him and explained that “Senator Paul, in all due respect, you are entirely and completely incorrect.”

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Dr. Fauci explained that the NIH has not funded any gain of function research. That’s not a real thing. And the funding that Barrett received is not for such work. “Dr. Barrett does not do gain of function research, and if it is, it is according to the guidelines and is being conducted in North Carolina.” Sen. Paul argued that “200 scientists signed a statement from the Cambridge Working Group, that it is gain of function.” Not sure where this “statement is” and if he’s talking about something the Cambridge Working Group may have signed back in 2014. Either way, it’s not a real piece of evidence. “If you look at the grant and you look at the progress reports, it is not gain of function—despite the fact that people tweet that.”

Sen. Paul’s insistence that Dr. Fauci is some well-known virus-warfare warrior, leaves him shaking his head and repeating in the nicest way possible, that Sen. Rand Paul is a liar who is lying. “I do not support gain of function research in China. You are saying things that are not correct.”

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If you want to read about all of the various ways that Sen. Rand Paul is full of it you can read my colleague David Neiwert’s piece on how bananas cuckoo the tin foil conspiracy theory is here.

Thankfully, there are time limits on senators, and when Rand’s time was up, Democratic Sen. Tina Smith of Minnesota asked Dr. Fauci what he believed was the impact on the public of “conspiracy theories” like the one Rand Paul was pushing. “Well, conspiracy theories are certainly are not helpful.”

And here’s some fun.