On Thursday, August 6th, 2026, a Senate committee prepared to vote on whether to hold former chief medical advisor Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress. The hearing was convened after Fauci invoked the Fifth Amendment and declined to answer questions regarding the US response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Democratic Senator Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire criticized the hearing, stating there is a "real need" for a bipartisan review of the pandemic response but argued that last week's hearing was primarily aimed at "target[ing] a single doctor and dedicated public servant, who has testified before Congress many times before, and they wanted to blame him for everything that went wrong during the pandemic."

Senator Hassan also defended Fauci's decision to plead the Fifth Amendment, saying he had "little choice but to invoke his constitutional right to not walk directly into a trap."

The hearing and forthcoming vote highlight ongoing political tensions surrounding accountability for the handling of the Covid-19 crisis in the United States.

Sources