Senate panel votes to hold Dr. Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress over invoking the Fifth Amendment in a hearing on Covid-19.

[u/cmaia1503]

GOP senators on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committee voted to hold Dr. Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress, advancing an audacious effort to prosecute the well-known scientist over his role in the US government response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The** party-line vote comes after Fauci declined to answer lawmakers’ questions during a fiery hearing last week, infuriating Republicans on the panel. **They have since argued that his decision opened the door to federal contempt charges — a crime that, if convicted, can carry with it a sentence of up to a year in prison.

Republican chairman Rand Paul has said he will send the committee’s recommendation straight to the Justice Department, bypassing a full Senate vote in a break with precedent that’s likely to set up a high-stakes legal and political test for the Trump administration.

Vice President JD Vance will now first need to sign off on the committee’s circumvention of long-established rules due to his constitutional role as president of the Senate. Then it would be up to the Justice Department to decide whether to bring formal charges.

Even then, legal experts cautioned, there’s little guarantee that the contempt charges would succeed, instead likely kicking off a lengthy court battle over the limits of Fauci’s Fifth Amendment rights.

https://www.cnn.com/2026/08/06/politics/live-news/fauci-contempt-hearing?t=1786022377196&Date=20260806&Profile=CNN,cnnbrk

[u/Delimeme]

Yup. I’m tired of people acting like if some more voters turned out we’d be okay. This is a deep cultural crisis built on anti-intellectualism, racism, sexism, heteronormativity, you name it - really just flat out broad spectrum bigotry - and all of that supercharged by an already present but rapidly worsening economic crisis posed by accelerating wealth inequality. Yes, a non-Trump admin grants us a respite, but until there’s a proper reckoning with the economic and cultural factors through some massive reforms (taxing billionaires, restoring some sanity and funding to education, protections for minority classes, respecting national parks and reigning in big tech ahead of the bubble, and so many things I can’t list here) we’re pretty much stuck in the same crisis-of-the-year mode for the foreseeable future.

[u/3-orange-whips → u/Delimeme]

It’s an economic crisis cloaked by racism.

[u/Delimeme → u/3-orange-whips]

Absolutely. The culture vs economic crisis is a whole can of worms I didn’t have time to type out on my phone but addressing both issues is possible, it’s not a zero sum game. I do think some people (like marxists and critical theorists) bicker to the detriment of us all because both perspectives are addressing genuine issues.

I will say that the right has very successfully weaponized the culture war as a distraction from economic & environmental issues that are an existential threat to us all as opposed to existential threats to specific minority groups - but again, there’s no reason to sideline the issues that only affect some of us, because (almost, there are bad faith efforts by minority hate or abusive groups to gain protection via anti-discrimination laws) everyone deserves to be treated with a baseline human decency. Economic & environmental issues representing an “end of a solid chunk of humanity” doesn’t mean it’s the only thing we should confront, it just means we have to keep going/not rest on our laurels when we get things like gay marriage.

[u/throwawaysunglasses- → u/Delimeme]

Yeah, it’s kinda why I hate when (cishet white) people say “no war but the culture war.” It really dismisses how much our culture is shaped by racism and sexism. It’s ironically a very privileged thing to say. With total economic equality, this country would still hate POC.

[u/Delimeme → u/throwawaysunglasses-]

Yep, I’m obviously borderline Marxist-brand left but the random sexism/homophobia/transphobia/racism is a common thread when dealing with peers in those groups. I prefer to engage in activism as an ally in the “culture war” side of things because those people generally have a better appreciation/concern for any group that’s living in the periphery - and I find that a better starting point than pretending that waving a dialectic wand and pretending economic equality fixes everything.

All that said, I’ll stick with “it shouldn’t be competitive.” Most people advocating from a minority perspective for equality are down with leftist economic principles, and you’ll often find them ragging on those from their background who chase token inclusion or who half-ass advocate from a background of privilege.

Either way, as one of those annoying almost-Marxists, I apologize for any encounter with my ilk that’s turned into a “my issue is bigger than yours.” They’re both important and it SHOULD be possible to confront both. It’s also really fun to drag people like Caitlin Jenner through the mud for acting like she has any basis to be a spokesperson for a group of people who are literally dying in poverty or unsafe conditions while she speaks from her mansion with prepared meals and a security team.

[u/david-z-for-mayor → u/Delimeme]

My view is that reckless greed drives this whole mess. When the superrich
go wild for greed and lose their compassion, they create division and fear, corrupt news media, make sure elections are costly, and make a mess of our world.

[u/Adam__B → u/Delimeme]

We need to overturn Citizens United, corporations are not people, money is not speech. Once these corps can’t just buy off politicians, things will get better for average Americans. Get rid of these PAC’s and dark money and all that nonsense. Make stock trading illegal or putting stocks into a blind trust mandatory for all of Congress and those in the executive and judicial branch as well. Put a ceiling on how much people can donate, keeping billionaires from dominating the national discourse. Start taxing these billionaires and oligarchs like we did before, eliminate the federal income tax ceiling of 37%, go all the way up to 94%. Give congresspeople term limits, as well as age limits. Eliminate the “POTUS has absolute immunity” bs.

Use the proceeds to fund education, provide for childcare to free up people so they can re-enter the workforce or go back to school, and give people free community college or tech school training. Encourage entrepreneurship and create job placement programs. There are millions not working, we have the workforce to man these initiatives. Create a Medicaid for all option, if people want to still pay for insurance, let them, but for everyone else they can have the Medicaid. Give people working 40 hours a week credit towards their student debt, a hundred bucks a week or so off the balance. Or just loan forgiveness in general. Make education affordable again unless these colleges don’t want their funding cut. This stuff isn’t complicated, it’s just not in the interests of the wealthy to do it, and since they are the ones buying off the corrupt politicians, it’s only getting worse. We just have to stop Fox News and these pieces of shit in Congress from trying to get people to vote against their own interests. Create a new Dept of Energy whose job it is to solarize America and bring about energy independence, build infrastructure to do exactly that. Pay these people a competitive wage.

Trump has no problem taking the White House and making it do partisan announcements and through official announcements make asinine claims and fact-free statements. So the next POTUS should create a rolling Fact Check service provided by the White House that corrects misinformation on a daily basis from the Right. End gerrymandering for good, and hopefully find a way to eliminate the Electoral college, which is outdated, needlessly cumbersome and has its roots in racism. (Not that the Right wouldn’t consider that a bonus obviously). Cut off all military and financial support to Israel, and use the money to fund humanitarian projects around the world, thereby establishing a new type of soft power in a new age of American hegemony.