After the pardon, still no answers

Anthony Fauci walked into Capitol Hill with something highly unusual for a congressional witness. A sweeping pre-emptive presidential pardon from former President Joe Biden covering more than a decade of his federal conduct.

He arrived legally shielded from federal prosecution for offences covered by that pardon.

But over the next three or so hours, the former face of America’s pandemic response refused to answer every substantive question senators put to him.

Instead, he repeated the same prepared response 111 times.

“On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.”

He refused to explain his private diaries, defend his pandemic decisions or address US-funded gain-of-function research in Wuhan.

By the end of the hearing, that single sentence had become the story everyone was talking about.