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Sometimes in life, you draw the short straw. Such was the case today for Molly Olmstead. As Slate’s resident expert on conspiracy theories, it fell to Molly to watch this morning’s Senate hearing that pitted Anthony Fauci—who was a top White House adviser on COVID-19 to Presidents Trump and Biden—against a bunch of really angry Republicans, including an extremely fired-up Sen. Rand Paul.

I spent this morning screen-free (five stars, highly recommend), but when I came back to my desk, there was a flood of clips, news alerts, and social media posts about what seems to have been quite the hearing. So I asked Molly to explain what happened this morning, what more broadly is going on with Republicans and COVID-19, and what, if anything, from today’s dustup will matter down the road.

OK Molly. Why is everyone talking about Anthony Fauci and Rand Paul? 

After a subpoena from Paul, Fauci appeared this morning before a Senate panel where Republicans were demanding answers about a host of COVID-era controversies. They did not get them, however: Fauci read an opening statement in which he said he’d addressed all these subjects before. From there, he was quiet, invoking the Fifth Amendment in response to literally any question he faced.

How did that go over?

Well, these hearings are usually places for lawmakers to vent their feelings at witnesses in the hopes of creating clips that go viral anyway, so this was sort of the drearier version........

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