Rand Paul lambasts Fauci for getting ‘treated like a president’ with taxpayer-funded security

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., expressed outrage over new revelations that recently-retired ex-NIAID Director Dr. Anthony Fauci is privy to a taxpayer-reimbursed security detail.

Documents obtained by “Jesse Watters Primetime” from the US Marshals Service through a request described how the marshals took over that responsibility from the Department of Health & Human Services at the beginning of 2023.

Paul sent a letter to HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra in June requesting additional details about Fauci’s current employment status and special taxpayer-funded benefits.

On “Jesse Watters Primetime,” host Jesse Watters said a source’s tip led to a FOIA request to the US Marshals that revealed the security detail for Fauci.

Watters reported the documents also stated Fauci’s perks include limousine transportation.

Paul said he also was told Fauci still has a detail, and that he questioned HHS about it.

“HHS actually came back to us and said they haven’t been paying for it since January. But then we discovered that Fox did a Freedom of Information Act and a judge forced them to say that, well, while HHS wasn’t directly funding it, the US Marshals were funding it,” he said.

Paul said the federal officials told him they weren’t directly paying for it, but that, in the senator’s words, “somebody else is doing it and then we’re reimbursing them.”

“So it’s a terrible example of the government lying to its representatives and to the people. But also, why is a retired guy, the only retired official I know of that gets this kind of treatment is a former president,” Paul added.

“So I have no idea why this bureaucrat still has a limo driver security detail.”

Paul wondered aloud if Fauci also gets pro bono legal representation in retirement as well, quipping the doctor may need it one day.

The senator said Fauci’s wealth increased 30% during the pandemic, and that he should be able to afford his own security without expending taxpayer funds.

By the end of his 54-year career in the bureaucracy, Fauci rose to become the highest-paid federal official. 

The doctor and the senator also often sparred while he was at NIAID, with Paul once asking if he wished to revise past testimony to Congress based on new revelations at the time, while Fauci notably once declared the Kentuckian – who is a doctor of ophthalmology – had “no idea what he was talking about” when it came to his medical analysis of the coronavirus.

Fauci has since been replaced at NIAID in an acting capacity by Dr. Hugh Auchincloss, an immunologist and father of Rep. Jake Auchincloss, D-Mass.

Fox News’ Bradford Betz contributed to this report.