WATCH: Fauci says he never spoke with U.S. intel agencies about Chinese bioweapons

Rep. Brad Wenstrup launched a line of tense questioning of Dr. Anthony Fauci, who formerly led the U.S. response to the COVID-19 pandemic, about his awareness of Chinese biomedical military research during a congressional subcommittee hearing Monday.

Wenstrup, a podiatrist, co-chairs the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, asked Fauci, who retired in 2022 after working in the government for 54 years, if he had concerns about awarding grants to a “high-ranking Chinese PLA official” or about 2005 warnings from the State Department about China conducting research about biological weapons.

“I’ve never discussed the Chinese bio weapons program, to my knowledge, with anybody,” said Fauci, who has pushed back on claims that COVID-19 was engineered as a bioweapon.

The hearing was the latest effort among Republicans to question the U.S. response to the pandemic, including how pandemic prevention plans were created and communicated.

Monday’s session was in part focused on the origins of the pandemic and the nation’s role in virus research in China. There are a number of theories about how COVID’s spread began, including a natural jump from animals to humans and a laboratory leak. Intelligence assessments on how the virus began are inconclusive.

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