CNN’s Michael Smerconish argued that Dr. Anthony Fauci should receive immunity on top of his preemptive presidential pardon so more can be known about COVID-19 — and a poll conducted during his show on Saturday revealed that a majority of people agreed.
“31,308 have voted. Healthy vote. Should the Senate grant Dr. Fauci immunity in exchange for his testimony? 87% want to see this,” Smerconish said during Saturday’s airing of his show. “All right, I’m in the majority. First time in a couple of weeks, I think.”
Fauci has been under fire by MAGA Republicans in recent days following his Senate hearing over the origins of COVID-19, where he invoked the Fifth Amendment more than a hundred times at the advice of his counsel.
Fauci reasoned that he invoked the Fifth Amendment in response to Sen. Rand Paul’s (R-Ky.) line of questioning because of the lawmaker’s “obsession” with prosecuting him.
“Any reasonable person who has followed his unhinged obsession with me would readily come to the same conclusion,” Fauci testified.
Despite receiving a presidential pardon by former President Joe Biden, several MAGA voices have called for Fauci’s prosecution.
“If Senator Paul really wants answers about COVID’s origins … and not just a perp walk, then that’s the trade. And if Fauci has nothing to hide, then he takes it,” Smerconish told viewers.
“Dr. Fauci was excoriated and extolled. What he wasn’t was heard. Immunity is how we finally hear him,” he continued.
The CNN host added that Fauci needs extra legal protection to protect himself from President Donald Trump, whose DOJ in his second term has targeted the president’s perceived political foes.
“He has been on a … vengeance tour ever since he got back into the White House, and Dr. Fauci, I’m sure, didn’t want to end up on that list, regardless of what he said,” Smerconish concluded.