Moms for Liberty co-founder rips Fauci after Fifth Amendment plea, 'America deserves an apology'

Moms for Liberty co-founder Tina Descovich said Dr. Anthony Fauci's decision to invoke the Fifth Amendment during congressional questioning left millions of parents still searching for answers about pandemic-era school closures, masking policies and the lasting effects they believe those decisions had on their children.

"The things our children have suffered with the lack of education, with the forced masking, with children in some places being forced to take vaccinations so that they could go to school, the things that they have endured, what our families have been through, America deserves an apology," Tina Descovich, CEO and co-founder Moms for Liberty, told Fox News Digital.

In an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital Wednesday, Descovich said families are still grappling with the effects of pandemic policies, including learning loss, mental health challenges and prolonged school closures.

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She said Congress should continue investigating how decisions were made and who was responsible for keeping schools closed during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Our children are still living with the consequences," Descovich said. "Some schools were closed in California, Chicago, other places for up to two years. Our children suffered mental health ramifications from his policies."

Dr. Anthony Fauci appeared before the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee on Wednesday to face questioning from Republican lawmakers and Sen. Rand Paul, chair of the committee, over how he handled the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Fox News previously reported that Paul said he plans to pursue civil contempt proceedings against Fauci after the former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases' director invoked the Fifth Amendment more than 100 times during Wednesday's hearing.

At one point during the hearing, when attorney David Schertler, whom Paul said was one of Fauci’s "half a dozen" lawyers, tried talking without being recognized, Paul had him removed.

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On Tuesday, Paul released Fauci's COVID-era diary, which uncovered previously unknown details about his belief about where COVID-19 started and how he managed the pandemic.

"Later in the pandemic, he gloried in the positive attention he was receiving from legacy media and demonized those who questioned his official narrative — like me," Paul said about the documents, referencing tense exchanges during congressional hearings when Paul grilled Fauci over his response to the pandemic.

"Many entries in Fauci’s daily historical account completely undermine the official narrative that Fauci and other public health officials espoused," Paul wrote in his introduction to the documents.

Descovich said she would simply ask Fauci why he did what he did.

"Why did you do this to our children," Descovich asked. "Why did you do this to our families, and how are you going to be held accountable now?"

Her hope is that reforms will be put in place, so families are not at risk of something similar to the COVID-19 pandemic in the future.

"Our elected leaders in America need to hold themselves accountable, and they need to stay in their lane," Descovich said.

"Parents have the fundamental right to direct the upbringing of their children," she continued. "Moms for Liberty was born in 2021 because government was overreaching into our families, making decisions on behalf of our children, throwing them out of school, forcing masks on them, forcing them to vaccinate, and it shot Moms for Liberty into the stratosphere immediately because parents were very upset, and our government should have learned a very good lesson in 2020, 2021, don't mess with American moms."

Fox News Digital reached out to Fauci for comment but did not immediately receive a response.