"Wrong again," Jim.
Social media wasted no time in deriding prominent Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), who on Friday accused Dr. Anthony Fauci of making "false" testimony to Congress this week and previously silencing opposing viewpoints during the height of the pandemic, including conspiracy theories such as the coronavirus lab-leak theory.
The letter from Jordan to Fauci, dated Friday and obtained by the New York Post, said the Biden-led White House and COVID-19 Response Team coerced major social media platforms such as Facebook into censoring the lab-leak theory.
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"Consistent with the silencing of those who dared to express an opposing viewpoint, you and other bureaucrats reportedly 'sidelined' Dr. Robert Redfield, then Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) because he 'had a different point of view' and believed the virus 'came from a Wuhan lab.'"
The Response Team under Fauci participated in "extensive efforts to unconstitutionally monitor and censor Americans’ speech on social media platforms," Jordan added. He asked Fauci to appear in a transcribed interview and bring relevant documents to investigators with the Committee on the Judiciary and Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government.
Fauci testified Monday before the House COVID subcommittee that he “kept an open mind” during the pandemic that the virus could've escaped from a laboratory mistake, and did not “push to downplay the lab leak theory."
Jordan took issue with Fauci's testimony in his letter and called the statement "false on its face," and gave Fauci until June 21 to respond with an interview date and related documents.
But social media users came to Fauci's defense on X, formerly known as Twitter.
"Wrong again Jim," wrote one user, adding that "Fauci saved lives."
"Dr. Fauci is honest. Jim Jordan is not," wrote another user, who self-identified as a retired nurse.
"Dr. Fauci saved lives while Trump got hundreds of thousands of people killed," a third user and retired veteran said.