Republicans could not prove that Anthony Fauci influenced the CIA on the covid lab leak theory.

Follow this authorDana Milbank's opinions

Why would anyone have thought otherwise?

This follows a pattern. The Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, after holding several hearings that failed to produce anything other than warmed-over allegations about the so-called deep state, was panned even by right-wing media. The Oversight Committee investigation of Joe Biden’s “corruption” failed so thoroughly to find even a trace of wrongdoing by the president that Republicans have had to quietly shelve their impeachment ambitions.

On the covid panel, Republican House members had promised many a bombshell over the last year and a half.

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“Evidence is mounting that American tax dollars helped develop COVID & Dr. Fauci purposely suppressed the lab leak theory to cover it up,” alleged Nicole Malliotakis (N.Y.).

“While many lost their loved ones, their businesses, and livelihoods, Dr. Fauci made millions,” Michael Cloud (Tex.) accused.

Covid “was manufactured in a lab funded by Fauci,” asserted Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.).

Yeah, no.

Documents and testimony the panel gathered over 18 months, while finding misbehavior by a grant recipient and by an adviser to Fauci, produced nothing to substantiate these wild allegations. The United States did not fund research that created the pathogen. Fauci didn’t lie about the U.S. role in “gain of function” research at the laboratory in Wuhan, China. He didn’t try to suppress the lab leak theory, or bribe people to reject it. He didn’t get rich off the pandemic, either — although he testified that he earned about $120 a year from an antibody he developed years ago.

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And, so, when Fauci appeared before Congress on Monday, Republicans on the panel hit him with whatever else they could come up with.

Malliotakis scolded him for “cruel, horrific animal research” at NIH on beagles, piglets and rabbits.

"I’m puzzled as to what that has to do with the origins of covid,” Fauci replied.

Greene didn’t care what it had to do with covid. “As a dog lover, I want to tell you this is disgusting and evil,” she said, recommending “prison” for Fauci. She........

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