Rand Paul

Republican senators have released a series of text messages from Dr Anthony Fauci's government-issued phone, including a January 2021 discussion about the potential risks of Covid vaccines during pregnancy. Senators Ron Johnson and Rand Paul published the messages on Monday, saying they were taken from Fauci's phone and involved Fauci, Rochelle Walensky, then director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and Vivek Murthy, who was US Surgeon General at the time.

One of the messages shows Fauci expressing concern that the second dose of a Covid vaccine "theoretically could be associated with miscarriage in the 1st trimester" of pregnancy.

"Oddly, only three contacts are listed; all other text messages are identified only with phone numbers rather than contact names," they said in a statement. "It is too early to determine whether any data has been deleted," they added.

Republican Senator Bernie Moreno called Fauci a "total disgrace" and said he had felt compelled to run for office after seeing a mother arrested while watching a football game outside with her family for allegedly violating Covid-related government guidelines.

"Who the f**k do you think you were for doing that? It was a total disgrace to this country," Moreno said.

Paul rejected the criticism, saying that a witness who invokes the Fifth Amendment cannot then have their lawyer testify on their behalf. "The attorney is complaining and testifying, saying you didn't do it. The prosecution is unfair. You don't get to do that," Paul said. "That's one thing you give up when you take the Fifth Amendment and say I'm not going to testify."

"He was not invited to testify, he was out of order, and it was appropriate to have him ejected," Paul later told reporters and attendees.