Sen. Bernie Moreno blasted Dr. Anthony Fauci following the former NIAID director’s repeated invocation of the Fifth Amendment before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, accusing him of exploiting the COVID-19 pandemic to conduct what amounted to a nationwide experiment on the American people.

Speaking on Breitbart News Daily after Wednesday’s hearing, the Ohio Republican was asked whether there had been any point during the pandemic when Fauci may have been sincerely trying to navigate an unprecedented crisis. Moreno said he was willing to give Fauci the benefit of the doubt—but only at the very beginning.

“I think the first month of the pandemic — that was probably something you could say because you just didn’t know, right? Like all of us didn’t know. You remember that, you know, February, March, April time frame. Everything was surreal. It was happening so fast. It was unprecedented,” Moreno said.

According to Moreno, whatever uncertainty existed in the early days quickly gave way to something far more troubling.

“Things we were being asked to do, but then it took a very dark turn. It became an experiment for this megalomaniac to treat the American public like lab rats,” Moreno said. “He was talking about rules that just intuitively made no sense.”

Moreno pointed to the six-foot social distancing rule as one example, arguing that it lacked any scientific basis and was simply invented by Fauci. He also criticized what he described as inconsistent mask policies, saying they defied common sense.

“You have to wear a mask. If you’re on the airplane, you can take it off while you’re eating. You have to put it back on, and just continue to do more and more harm. Now that was intuitively what a lot of — I say most Americans felt, but then we read the diaries,” the senator said, referring to journal entries in which Fauci allegedly documented COVID-19 fatalities before writing about his own celebrity and public recognition.

Moreno argued that the diary entries painted a disturbing picture of Fauci’s mindset.

“These are the diaries of a very, very sick man. This guy would write down how many people died that day, and then right afterwards would put entries like, ‘Got to meet Kim Kardashian today.’ ‘People say I’m the sexiest man alive.’ ‘I’m the most powerful person on the planet,’” Moreno said, adding, “This is a sick, sick, depraved human being.”

The senator also claimed that investigators were able to obtain the diary because Fauci had stored it on government computer systems.

“So the guy actually wrote the diary entries in the government computer systems. So thanks to RFK, he went in and and Tulsi Gabbard did a deep dive of all the systems, and they found the entire diary,” Moreno revealed. “He had put it on a government server.”

Moreno went on to reference allegations raised by Sen. Josh Hawley, claiming Fauci directed federal employees to pursue honors and monetary awards on his behalf while overseeing the nation’s pandemic response.

“And remember the other parts that my colleague Josh Hawley [R-MO] pointed out. This guy would have federal employees go out and solicit awards for him to receive cash awards, would nominate him for prizes. And by the way, let me ask you a question: When you’re busy all day managing this incredible pandemic, when do you have time to go home and say, ‘Dear diary, today…’ I mean, this is so crazy what this guy did,” Moreno pointed out.

He concluded by crediting Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, and Sen. Rand Paul for bringing the material to light.

“But thanks to RFK, Tulsi Gabbard, and the entire intelligence operation to be able to uncover this, and obviously to Rand Paul for putting it out to the public to see. I mean, it just confirms what so many of us thought. I mean, we knew this guy was absolutely awful,” he added.