WATCH: Peters criticizes Fauci hearing for 'relitigating the past' instead of preparing for disaster

Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., detailed what the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs should be doing instead of “relitigating the past,” during a Wednesday hearing about the COVID-19 pandemic.

“This committee has not held its annual threats hearing at all of this Congress. We have not held a budget hearing for the Department of Homeland Security,” Peters said. “There are important hearings that we would have the opportunity to discuss as to how to strengthen our homeland security across the board. No hearings on those topics.”

Peters criticized Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., the committee chair who subpoenaed Dr. Anthony Fauci, a former top official and scientist at the National Institutes of Health who helped lead the nation’s COVID-19 pandemic response.

“Instead of focusing on the national security challenges that we are facing in our country right now, today's hearing looks backwards revisiting questions this committee has already examined, including through bipartisan work that Sen. Paul and I conducted together when I served as chairman of this committee,” Peters said.

During the hearing, Fauci repeatedly invoked his Fifth Amendment rights, declining to answer any questions.

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