Former GOP chair praises Fauci: Elected officials should put ‘partisan foolery aside’

Former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele said elected leaders should put “partisan foolery aside” and pay attention to scientists, such as Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institutes for Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Steele’s comments come after Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said at a Senate Health Committee hearing Tuesday that while he respected Fauci, “I don’t think you’re the end all,” and that scientists should “have a little bit of humility” because they do not know what’s best for the economy. 

“I have never made myself out to be the end all and only voice in this,” Fauci responded, noting he doesn’t give economic advice.

“And that is the expectation we… have of our elected officials, regardless of their party, to set the partisan foolery aside, and to pay attention to what the scientists, and the researchers, and the doctors and the medicine are telling us we need to do at this time and injecting ourselves with detergent is not the prescription I think we need,” Steele told The Hill’s Steve Clemons Wednesday, referring to a comment President Trump made at a briefing last month where he suggested injecting disinfectants could cure the coronavirus.

Paul’s comments were rejected by some of his own party’s leaders. 

Rep. Liz Cheney (Wyo.), the No. 3 Republican in the House, defended Fauci “one of the finest public servants we have ever had” whose expertise is needed. Senate Health Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), who chaired Tuesday’s hearing, also came to Fauci’s defense Wednesday, saying he “isn’t holding himself up as an omniscient person.”