Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky took aim at frequent foe Dr.
Anthony Fauci on Tuesday morning, claiming President Biden's chief medical adviser is acting like the 'all-high priest of science.'
He warned against making Fauci 'untouchable' in an interview with Fox & Friends, claiming it would throttle debate outside of the doctor's own 'edicts and mandates.'
Republican lawmakers have been blasting Fauci this week over an interview he gave to CBS on Sunday during which he dismissed GOP criticism of him and his work as lies and opposition to science.
The scientist also claimed Republicans are using him as a 'scapegoat' to shield from anger at Donald Trump.
'It's sort of a way of ending all debate because if you attack him or have any debate over any of his edicts or his mandates, you're attacking science,' Paul said on Tuesday.
'But this is a very, very dangerous sort of idea.
The idea that a government bureaucrat represents science and that he is now untouchable - that it is sort of like you are now contradicting the all high priest of science, if you say anything.'
The physician-turned-senator accused Fauci of 'deflecting' when confronted about his scientific beliefs.
'But there are real questions and there's real areas of science that he's never really debated because he deflects.
And the thing is, there's never been a debate because he's the all-powerful scientist. You're not to question him, just do as you're told,' he said.
Rand Paul mocked Fauci by comparing him to the Wizard of Oz and claiming he shuts down debate in a blistering Fox News interview on Tuesday morning
Paul then mocked Fauci by comparing him to the Wizard of Oz.
'Dr.
Fauci says he is the all-powerful Oz, and we shouldn't question him. That's a real problem in a free country,' he said.
Fauci and Paul frequently clash when brought face-to-face at Congressional hearings. Paul often criticizes Fauci during television and radio appearances.
Paul was one of two Republican senators Fauci criticized by name during his sit down with news anchor Margaret Brennan.
'My job has been totally focused on doing what I can with the talents and the influence I had to make scientific advances to protect the health of the American public,' Fauci had said when asked about the criticism and threats his public role in the pandemic got him.
'So anybody who spins lies and threatens and all that theater that goes on with some of the investigations and the congressional committees and the Rand Paul's and all that other nonsense, that's noise.'
The other GOP lawmaker name-checked during the interview was Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, who at a recent hearing told Attorney General Merrick Garland to investigate Fauci over allegedly lying to Congress.
GOP lawmakers have been going after Fauci over a Sunday interview with CBS News' Face the Nation during which he said their criticism of his work is 'anti-science'
'I have to laugh at that. I should be prosecuted? What happened on Jan. 6, senator?' Fauci replied during his Sunday interview.
Cruz and Paul along with colleagues like Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas have been releasing a steady stream of attacks in response.
'Considering Tony Fauci was caught lying to Congress, he should be a bit more humble,' Cotton wrote on Twitter the evening of Fauci's interview.
Cruz's latest retaliation was on Monday night, when he branded Fauci 'the most dangerous bureaucrat in American history' and suggested the COVID tsar could end up in prison.
Speaking on Fox News, the Texas lawmaker issued his latest salvo against Fauci after the White House's chief medical adviser lashed him Sunday.
Cruz told Sean Hannity: 'I've got to say, Dr.
Fauci, I think, is the most dangerous bureaucrat in the history of the country. He talked about hurting science but I don't think anyone has hurt science or hurt the credibility of doctors more than Dr. Fauci because throughout this pandemic, he has been dishonest, he's been political, he's been partisan.'
Senator Ted Cruz hit back at Anthony Fauci again on Fox News Monday night, blasting his ego and saying he could face five years in jail for allegedly lying to Congress
Fauci has been accused of being ego-crazed because of the amount of TV interviews he undertakes, with his most recent CBS News appearance Sunday also seeing him blast Cruz and suggest the lawmaker was linked to the January 6 riots.
Referring to that interview, Cruz continued: '(Fauci) said, slot deposit pulsa I represent science.
I am science. I was laughing. It's like Louis XIV, the sun king in France saying "I am the state." It is this delusion of grandeur.'
Louis XIV ruled France between 1643 and 1715, and was given the insulting nickname because he believed the Kingdom of France revolved around him.
Cruz also highlighted what he claims was a breach of a US law - 18USC, Code 1001 - made by Fauci when he told a Senate hearing in May that the National Institutes of Health, of which he serves as a director, did not fund 'gain of function' research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the Chinese lab that COVID may have leaked from.
But in October, the National Institutes of Health admitted it had funded gain of function research, which seeks to make viruses more potent to try and find treatments for them.