Kamala Harris, Dems Upset After White House Denies House Committee Request For Dr. Fauci to Testify

The White House has blocked Dr. Anthony Fauci from testifying about the response to the Coronavirus pandemic before the House Appropriations Committee, a spokesman for the committee said on Friday.

The spokesperson, Evan Hollander, said, “The Appropriations Committee sought Dr. Anthony Fauci as a witness at next week’s Labor-HHS-Education Subcommittee hearing on COVID-19 response. We have been informed by an administration official that the White House has blocked Dr. Fauci from testifying.”

He’d been asked to appear on May 6th and even though the House is not in session, the Appropriatins Committee has a subcommittee that supervises the Department of Health and Human Services that will meet Wednesday morning for a hearing scheduled on the Coronavirus response.

Appropriations chair Nita Lowey (D) and subcommittee chair Rosa DeLauro (D) released a joint statement which said, “Congress and the American public deserve a clear-eyed view of the path forward for responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Senator Kamala Harris accused the White House of “trying to muzzle public health experts.” She said that her “colleagues in the House have the right to hear from Dr. Fauci.”

Once again the White House is trying to muzzle public health experts.

My colleagues in the House have the right to hear from Dr. Fauci. https://t.co/AxSPYt8eyv

— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) May 2, 2020

Today, the administration issued new guidance instructing Coronavirus task force members not to accept invitations to participate in congressional hearings this month unless approved by White House chief of staff Mark Meadows.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi blasted the move, suggesting that the Trump administration “might be afraid of the truth.” She called the move “business as usual” for the administration.