Sen Ron Johnson talks Fauci emails, new Senate filibuster strategy on 'Ruthless'

Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., gave the latest update on what he described as an effort to hold Dr. Anthony Fauci "accountable" for his controversial handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and detailed his new filibuster strategy for the Senate in a new interview with the "Ruthless" podcast.

"I think our response to COVID was a miserably failed response, freedom robbing," Johnson said in an exclusive interview released Tuesday morning. "It didn't work. I mean, it simply didn't work. And the fact that Fauci has skated now for six years without accountability, this begins that accountability." 

In his role as chair of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, Johnson authored a report alleging the Biden administration misled the American public during the pandemic. 

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The interview took place just days after the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, led by Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., released Fauci’s daily journal entries. In the journal, Fauci chronicles his rapid rise to celebrity status, interactions with the Trump and Biden teams as they grappled with the pandemic, and his thoughts on the virus' origins, which remains a point of dispute. 

Fauci will testify in a Senate Homeland Security hearing on Wednesday. Fauci's handling of the pandemic, his guidance on public health measures and lockdowns, his views on what started the virus, and the U.S.' alleged ties to the Chinese lab thought by some to be the cause of the crisis, have been major points of contention for Republicans. 

As director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), Fauci served on the COVID task forces under Presidents Donald Trump and Joe Biden, and he was the latter's chief medical advisor until stepping down in 2022.

"I appreciate Chairman Paul calling this hearing, doggedly getting the documents," Johnson told the podcast. "Again, it's like pulling teeth getting these documents. Yeah, we finally got some hard drives, whatever those little thumb drives are called, with some of the information from some of his devices… I think there's still a lot more documents to uncover."

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Johnson, who recently took the gavel atop the Senate Budget Committee following the death of South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, also outlined a new strategy for putting Democrats on record over the upper chamber’s filibuster process.

In the interview, he said that if Democrats gain back full control of Congress, they could eliminate the filibuster mechanism and pass a slate of left-wing priorities on a simple party-line basis. He then suggested a plan to put the opposition on record.

"The only way I can see Democrats not ending the filibuster is if you have to get them on the record voting not to end it," Johnson said. "Make sure that it is hard-and-fast Senate rule that you can only end the filibuster with 67 votes. You can't do it using the nuclear option."

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