Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) is calling for Dr. Anthony Fauci to face contempt charges, be prosecuted for perjury, and ultimately serve jail time after the longtime public health official invoked the Fifth Amendment more than 100 times during Wednesday’s Senate hearing on the government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Years from now, they’ll look back and say, ‘What collective madness overtook this country?’” Cruz told Fox News Digital.

Cruz accused Fauci of misleading both Congress and the American public for years, pointing to newly released diary entries that he claims contradict Fauci’s public statements.

“I think Anthony Fauci has had contempt for Congress and contempt for the American people for decades,” he said. “His diary shows that he deliberately lied to the American people over and over and over again.”

The senator made those remarks after Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Rand Paul announced plans to pursue contempt proceedings against Fauci following his repeated refusal to answer questions during the hearing by invoking his constitutional protection against self-incrimination.

“Dr. Fauci ought to think about what it says about the end of his career, that what he will be remembered for the most is pleading the Fifth more than 100 times,” Cruz said.

“He’s been the most damaging bureaucrat in the history of America.”

Cruz and Fauci have clashed for years over the federal government’s handling of the pandemic, particularly regarding Fauci’s statements about the origins of COVID-19 and whether he was truthful with Congress and the American people.

Referring to Fauci’s recently released diary, Cruz argued that it reveals a significant disconnect between Fauci’s private observations and his public messaging.

“In his diary, he wrote early on that it was clear that the COVID virus did not come from the wet market in Wuhan, and then he turned around and said exactly the opposite thing on national television,” Cruz said.

According to the released diary entries, Fauci acknowledged that scientists believed a laboratory origin for the virus—including the possibility that it had been deliberately introduced—was worthy of further investigation. Cruz argued that Fauci later minimized those possibilities in his public comments.

The Texas senator also accused Fauci of playing a central role in shutting down schools during the pandemic, saying the diary entries contradict Fauci’s repeated public denials.

According to Cruz, Fauci wrote that he persuaded officials in New York and California to close their school systems, despite later telling interviewers and testifying before the House Oversight Committee that he “did not close the schools.”

“In his diary, he brags about convincing Democrats in New York and California to shut schools down, and yet he goes on TV and says, ‘Oh, I wasn’t for shutdowns,’” Cruz said.

“The school shutdowns, which Fauci bragged that he was responsible for, may well be the single most destructive public policy step we’ve seen in decades. That learning loss will stick with those kids the rest of their lives when they’re 90 years old.

“They will still be suffering the consequences of Anthony Fauci’s corrupt and dishonest shutdowns.

“The fact that he knew he was lying to the American people — he should be held in contempt, he should be prosecuted for perjury, and he should go to jail.”

{Matzav.com}