CBCNEWS — CBC Newsroom with Deana Sumanac-Johnson
20260816 003000 UTC
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[00:00:19] It is illegal to obstruct the work of the United States
[00:00:21] Congress. So when Anthony Fauci repeatedly says this to a group
[00:00:26] of senators, I will invoke my right under
[00:00:29] the 5th Amendment of the Constitution
[00:00:32] to refrain from answering your questions. And says that 111
[00:00:36] times over the course of several hours. Refusing to
[00:00:39] answer every question he was asked last week. Well,
[00:00:42] nothing says honestly like taking the 5th on Doc.
[00:00:47] Let's try something. What day of the week is it today?
[00:00:51] What colour tie you're wearing? What colour is the carpet in
[00:00:54] front of you? On the advice of counsel,
[00:00:56] I respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights
[00:00:59] under the 5th Amendment to the Constitution
[00:01:02] forward. But is it illegal? There will be repercussions to
[00:01:06] your refusal to testify today. This is about contempt,
[00:01:09] contempt for this body and contempt for the American
[00:01:12] people. Some breaking news this morning. The Senate Homeland
[00:01:15] Security and Governmental Affairs Committee has voted to
[00:01:19] hold Doctor Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress.
[00:01:22] Republicans under Donald Trump have declared fresh war on the
[00:01:26] man who basically overnight was suddenly the most influential
[00:01:29] and prominent public health voice during the pandemic.
[00:01:32] Now he won't tell them a thing.
[00:01:36] How long can you keep that up? Who the **** do you think you
[00:01:39] were for doing that?
[00:01:45] Many Republicans and their supporters do not like Anthony
[00:01:49] Fauci, but few have so consistently
[00:01:51] made an enemy of him over such a long period of time as Rand
[00:01:55] Paul. Instead of an apology, you have for years avoided
[00:01:58] responsibility. You did not tell the American people the
[00:02:02] full story. Rand Paul is the Republican chair of a Senate
[00:02:06] Homeland Security Committee that subpoenaed Anthony Fauci
[00:02:09] to testify just last week.
[00:02:11] Ever. I would say 2 main questions that even all these
[00:02:16] years after the pandemic, he still feels are unanswered.
[00:02:20] One, did Fauci try to push this idea
[00:02:23] that COVID couldn't have come from a Chinese lab even when he
[00:02:28] thought maybe it did? And two, did Fauci lie about whether the
[00:02:32] US gave money to create this virus that would ultimately
[00:02:37] kill more than a million Americans?
[00:02:39] Fauci denies these claims, and
[00:02:42] here was one of the only things he said at his hearing last
[00:02:46] week. The sole reason he is calling me before this
[00:02:49] committee is to get me to say something,
[00:02:53] anything, that could vindicate his
[00:02:56] repeated public pledges that I end up in his words, quote,
[00:03:02] behind bars, UN quote. Any reasonable person
[00:03:06] who has followed his unhinged obsession with me would readily
[00:03:12] come to the same conclusion.
[00:03:16] And so it began. Can you explain to the committee why
[00:03:19] you chose to fund this dangerous research in China?
[00:03:25] On the advice of counsel, I respectfully declined to
[00:03:28] answer. Doctor Fauci, did the CIA ever transfer funds to NIH under an interagency agreement?
[00:03:34] Doctor Fauci where the scientist at the Wuhan
[00:03:37] Institute of Virology capable of inserting a few and cleavage
[00:03:40] site into a coronavirus lab Investigators today ever appear
[00:03:44] in these labs to make sure they were safe labs
[00:03:50] On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline and you
[00:03:54] get the idea. The Republicans are accusing Dr. Fauci of being
[00:03:58] in contempt of Congress because he refused to answer questions
[00:04:02] and he invoked his Fifth Amendment privilege. And the
[00:04:06] Republicans are saying you can't do that because you've
[00:04:10] been given a pardon by President Biden,
[00:04:13] which covers your culpability and you are not allowed to
[00:04:17] invoke the 5th. Ordinarily,
[00:04:19] an American's Fifth Amendment right is to remain silent to
[00:04:22] avoid self incrimination. And you can do that by not
[00:04:26] answering questions. Except Republicans say, hang on,
[00:04:29] Joe Biden when he was president gave you a preemptive pardon.
[00:04:33] Breaking news, President Joe Biden announcing
[00:04:36] pardons in his final hours before Donald Trump takes
[00:04:39] office. Biden announcing the pardon of Doctor Anthony Fauci
[00:04:45] soon to prosecution, meaning you can't invoke the
[00:04:48] right to remain silent since there's no chance of self
[00:04:51] incrimination. Since there's no chance of prosecution. You
[00:04:55] don't have any rights under the 5th Amendment because you've
[00:04:59] been pardoned, as you very well know. So to
[00:05:01] avoid questioning in this way. This, they say,
[00:05:04] is contempt punishable by a fine of up to $100,
[00:05:07] 000 and or up to a year in jail. We are voting on whether a
[00:05:11] witness who has received the benefit of a sweeping federal
[00:05:14] pardon
[00:05:16] can be ordered by this committee to answer questions
[00:05:19] and then defy that order without consequence. So that's
[00:05:23] why and how Fauci is under legal threat today. But the
[00:05:27] bigger question is the bigger threat beyond today.
[00:05:35] If you're someone who sees Anthony Fauci as dangerous as a
[00:05:40] villain, the first question you have is
[00:05:42] a very serious charge. Why peddle the lie that COVID made
[00:05:47] a natural jump from animals to humans? Publicly,
[00:05:50] Anthony Fauci promoted the theory that the virus arose
[00:05:54] naturally, while privately he was well
[00:05:57] aware of a mountain of evidence suggesting the virus originated
[00:06:01] in the lab. They point to Fauci's own diary entries
[00:06:05] written in the earliest days of the pandemic,
[00:06:08] like this one from January 26th, 2020. So this is before the
[00:06:12] World Health Organization is even willing to call this an
[00:06:16] international public health emergency,
[00:06:18] never mind an actual pandemic, which would come months later.
[00:06:22] Fauci writes about the wet market origin theory. Now we
[00:06:26] know the market was not the source. It was the amplifier.
[00:06:29] And just five days later, he writes how his colleagues
[00:06:33] studying the coronavirus itself believe mutations
[00:06:36] in its makeup could not have occurred naturally. And they
[00:06:40] raised the possibility that these features were
[00:06:43] deliberately inserted and either accidentally released or
[00:06:47] deliberately released by a crazy person in the lab.
[00:06:51] Republicans like Rand Paul say this is evidence that Fauci and
[00:06:55] his colleagues were privately entertaining this lab leak
[00:06:59] theory while denying it in public.
[00:07:02] Fauci says that's not quite right,
[00:07:04] but he's often leaned one way but never lied. We keep a
[00:07:08] completely open mind as to what the origin is. Having said that,
[00:07:13] if you look at the examination by highly qualified
[00:07:16] international scientists with no political agendas,
[00:07:20] they've published in peer reviewed journals,
[00:07:23] the best of the peer reviewed journals,
[00:07:26] that the evidence is quite strong that this is a natural
[00:07:30] occurrence. Fauci has said
[00:07:32] his objection was always only against people who said the lab
[00:07:36] leak theory was unequivocally true when they just had no way
[00:07:40] of knowing, and that when people accuse him
[00:07:43] of a cover up pointing at positions like this published
[00:07:47] in May of 2020, they're really just
[00:07:49] misrepresenting his position as being entirely 1 sided. In
[00:07:53] reality though, opinion on the true origin of
[00:07:56] COVID-19 is split. Early on the prevailing theory was that this
[00:08:00] was most likely a case of natural
[00:08:02] animal to human transmission at a seafood market in Wuhan,
[00:08:06] China, and for years the US
[00:08:08] intelligence community was unsure from this government
[00:08:12] report. In 2023, at least five intelligence
[00:08:15] agencies believed this was just a case of the virus evolving
[00:08:19] from infecting animals to infecting humans. But the
[00:08:22] Department of Energy and the FBI leaned towards the lab
[00:08:26] league theory. The CIA decided inconclusive,
[00:08:29] though later on it would lean more towards COVID origin
[00:08:33] being
[00:08:34] in a lab. The World Health Organization not so sure. The
[00:08:37] work to understand the origins of SARS Co V2 remains
[00:08:41] unfinished. The origins of SARS Co V2 and how it entered the
[00:08:45] human population will remain inconclusive. Despite all this,
[00:08:49] Republicans insist a Fauci cover up makes sense because
[00:08:53] American taxpayer money under Fauci's leadership funded some
[00:08:57] of the work going on in that lab in Wuhan. The decision to
[00:09:02] fund dangerous gain of function
[00:09:04] researching Wuhan, China will likely go down in
[00:09:07] history as perhaps one of the worst public health decisions.
[00:09:10] I hope today Doctor Fauci will come clean. Admit that the risk
[00:09:14] of this dangerous research exceeded any possible benefits.
[00:09:18] Ask forgiveness. Now. At the risk of going down all the
[00:09:22] rabbit holes, I will answer this. Did Fauci's
[00:09:25] National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases fund
[00:09:30] coronavirus research in Wuhan? Yes,
[00:09:32] it did. This is not disputed. A US nonprofit called Ecohealth
[00:09:37] managed to secure, over a period of about 10 years,
[00:09:41] a series of seven grants from NIAID totaling more than $4
[00:09:45] million, studying very specifically
[00:09:48] the question of bats transmitting coronaviruses to
[00:09:52] humans in China. A portion of this money, about $600 000,
[00:09:56] did go to the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China. But the
[00:10:00] harder question to answer is whether that research funded an
[00:10:05] explicit attempt to make one of these coronaviruses better at
[00:10:09] infecting humans. When you hear people talking about gain of
[00:10:13] function research, that's what they're talking
[00:10:17] about. The NIH has not ever and does not now
[00:10:20] fund gain of function research in the Wuhan Institute. Fauci
[00:10:24] has long maintained that US funded research in China did
[00:10:29] not produce anything genetically close enough to be
[00:10:33] the direct cause of the pandemic. But again,
[00:10:36] the Republican charge here is immense,
[00:10:39] which is that if the US government under Fauci's
[00:10:42] leadership had not helped China in its research,
[00:10:46] the global pandemic might never have happened to begin with.
[00:10:51] You've never admitted that it could have been a mistake
[00:10:54] funding this research in China. No scientist is above scrutiny.
[00:11:02] So here's the thing, I'm not explaining and
[00:11:05] reopening this whole who caused the pandemic debate to try to
[00:11:09] come to some sort of conclusion on the matter. I raised it only
[00:11:13] to show you how high the stakes are and how serious some
[00:11:17] elements of this Trump administration are about
[00:11:20] prosecuting Anthony Fauci, pardon or no part. It's very
[00:11:24] clear from statements that were made by Republicans during the
[00:11:28] hearings and
[00:11:29] after and outside of those hearings that they intend to
[00:11:33] use him as a poster child for what took place in the United
[00:11:37] States during the COVID era, this possibility that vengeful
[00:11:42] Republicans will find some way anyway to prosecute Fauci
[00:11:46] despite his pardon. Senator Paul,
[00:11:48] you do not know what you are talking about,
[00:11:51] quite frankly. And I want to say that officially you do not
[00:11:56] know what you are talking about. And if anybody is lying,
[00:12:00] dear Senator, it is you. This is what powers
[00:12:03] Fauci's Fifth Amendment defence. Because while the pardon would
[00:12:08] appear to protect him from any of his public actions over a
[00:12:13] fairly wide 10 year. It doesn't extend to anything he might say
[00:12:18] or admit to now. And sure enough,
[00:12:20] prosecutors in Trump friendly parts of the country at the
[00:12:25] state level, from Alabama to Florida,
[00:12:28] another red state, and Louisiana,
[00:12:31] there is an increasing tide of legal action building against
[00:12:36] Fauci. So when summoned before Congress,
[00:12:39] he shuts down. But for how long he can continue that strategy
[00:12:45] depends entirely on how determined this administration
[00:12:49] is to make him pay.
[00:12:58] Stream anytime. CBC News.
[00:15:03] Trump is about to lose one of his fiercest fighters. It's
[00:15:05] very easy to speak truth from this podium when you have a
[00:15:09] president who is implementing policies that are wildly
[00:15:12] popular with the American people. Caroline Levitt is
[00:15:14] stepping down as White House press secretary,
[00:15:17] leaving the US president without a key member of his
[00:15:20] inner circle as the administration navigates its
[00:15:23] lowest approval ratings, a costly war in the Middle East
[00:15:26] and midterm elections right around the corner.
[00:15:30] Vital to it. One of the more influential press secretaries
[00:15:33] that I can remember, Levitt was the youngest person
[00:15:36] ever to take the job at 27. And there were big changes right
[00:15:40] out the gate between this administration and the media.
[00:15:43] The White House would now decide which outlets made-up
[00:15:46] the presidential press pool. That's the small group of
[00:15:50] reporters that follow the president basically everywhere
[00:15:53] he goes. And for decades, the makeup of that pool has
[00:15:56] been determined independently by the White House
[00:15:59] Correspondents Association.
[00:16:01] The Associated Press was blocked from Air Force One and
[00:16:04] the Oval Office after they refused to adopt Trump's
[00:16:07] renaming of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. And
[00:16:11] White House reporters were no longer given free access to
[00:16:14] part of the press office where Levitt worked after the
[00:16:17] administration raised security concerns. On the one hand,
[00:16:20] he's utterly transparent because he's before the cameras
[00:16:24] all the time. On the other hand, they are controlling more than
[00:16:27] ever before who's in the room, Who?
[00:16:29] Who is in the press pool when you go meet in the Oval Office,
[00:16:33] get to ask the president a question. But limiting access
[00:16:36] for some also meant expanding and creating access for others.
[00:16:40] Leavitt announced a new media section in the press briefing
[00:16:43] room giving non traditional and often more conservative
[00:16:47] journalists, podcasters and influencers and
[00:16:49] opportunity to cover the White House. For some,
[00:16:52] these changes meant injecting a little more balance into a
[00:16:55] media landscape that felt skewed and unrepresentative.
[00:16:59] For others, it felt a lot like Trump
[00:17:01] controlling Who talks about Trump? Levitt would push back,
[00:17:04] often describing Trump as the most transparent, transparent,
[00:17:08] the most transparent ever, the most transparent
[00:17:11] administration in history, a president who would sit down
[00:17:14] for an interview with Joe Rogan one day and NBC's Meet the
[00:17:18] Press the next. The Trump White House will speak to all media
[00:17:21] outlets and personalities, not just the legacy media who
[00:17:25] are seated in this room. Levitt has been in Trump's orbit since
[00:17:28] 2018. She served as assistant press secretary during Trump's
[00:17:32] first term and worked on his 2024 reelection campaign
[00:17:35] before becoming press secretary. Trump has described her as one
[00:17:40] of his most trusted aides. We even brought our superstar
[00:17:44] today, Caroline. Caroline be replaced
[00:17:48] to you, Sir.
[00:17:51] I think that if Donald Trump could clone Caroline Levitt,
[00:17:54] he would be happy to do so. She fought back hard,
[00:17:57] she supported him. She was incredibly loyal,
[00:17:59] and she stayed on message. We have a a saying in politics
[00:18:02] that if you're explaining, you're losing. Instead,
[00:18:05] she just got behind whatever the president had said most
[00:18:09] recently. It's impossible to look back on Levitt's time as
[00:18:12] press secretary without thinking about her combative
[00:18:15] approach with journalists, at least in front of the
[00:18:18] cameras, often attacking them personally during press briefings.
[00:18:21] Of course the president supports peaceful protests.
[00:18:24] What a stupid question is. You're a left wing hack. You're
[00:18:26] not a reporter. You're posing in this room as a journalist.
[00:18:29] You shouldn't even be sitting in that seat. Is there any
[00:18:31] evidence on that? That you,
[00:18:33] you're a reporter, you should find out Levitt
[00:18:36] style. It was very tough. And she would really go after
[00:18:39] journalists and, you know, insult them and berate them the
[00:18:42] way that Donald Trump likes to do. Trump applauded this more
[00:18:46] than once. He's described Levitt as having lips like a
[00:18:49] machine gun. She gets up there with that beautiful face and
[00:18:52] those lips that don't stop the pop up like,
[00:18:55] like a little machine gun. Levitt says she's leaving the
[00:18:58] role to spend more time with family. She gave birth to her
[00:19:01] second child in May, returning to her post only
[00:19:04] couple months later. Levitt says she will remain a top
[00:19:07] outside adviser to the president. And who will replace
[00:19:10] Trump's superstar? At least for now, there's no clear top choice.
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[00:29:18] Hi there Canada.
[00:29:22] The funny, not so funny thing about the
[00:29:25] world right now is the thing you maybe didn't see coming.
[00:29:30] My favorite word? Tariff. Minimum 10% tariff on
[00:29:34] all imports. We're already hearing about layoffs. He is
[00:29:38] trying to break us.
[00:29:41] So you have questions. How should Canadians be preparing
[00:29:45] for that next trip? How seriously are you taking
[00:29:48] this threat? How is Hamilton bracing for
[00:29:50] tariff impact? And while your elbows have been
[00:29:53] up, elbows up, for us it's the sleeves rolled
[00:29:56] up. Because you need answers.
[00:30:00] Our journalists countrywide and all over the world are on the
[00:30:04] case. Canada, we got you and we are right
[00:30:08] there, right beside you trying to make
[00:30:11] sense of it with you.
[00:30:29] where families continue to be torn apart by violence
[00:30:32] including two recent murders
[00:30:34] and a shooting at the historic Mile Zero Hotel.
[00:30:37] Who's going to clean up this town? You know, that's a good question.
[00:30:41] I'm very fearful for the future of this area. We investigate the violence
[00:30:45] to learn more about who is killing who and why.
[00:30:49] Why are so many people getting murdered in Dawson Creek?
[00:30:52] Because the drugs are rampant. Fucking rampant.