BREAKING: Trump blasts Fauci from Oval Office after disastrous Senate hearing

President Donald Trump questioned the legitimacy of former President Joe Biden's sweeping pardon of Dr. Anthony Fauci on Wednesday after the former COVID-19 adviser repeatedly invoked the Fifth Amendment during a Senate hearing, saying he believed the autopen was at play.

Speaking from the Oval Office, Trump defended the constitutional power of presidential pardons, saying he respected Biden's choice to pardon Fauci, but questioned how the pardon was issued during Biden's final days in office. "The most powerful thing the president has, they say, is the power of pardon," Trump said while seated behind the Resolute Desk. "He was pardoned, and I respect that, I know how powerful it is."

Trump then contrasted his own signing practices with Biden's. "Now, whether or not I sign my things directly, always, almost everything, I sign directly," he said. "The only thing I know that he signed was Hunter Biden's pardon — he probably didn't sign [Fauci's] one." Referring to Fauci's testimony before the Senate, Trump added: "He didn't know what it was about, because I saw him testify. So maybe there's something on the autopen. I've heard that you have to have a lot of proof, you need to have letters... Other than that, the power of pardon is very powerful."

Trump also criticized Fauci’s stance on how to tackle the pandemic, stating, “I would have had to close down the whole country if I listened to him. I went the Federalist way, which is basically let the governors decide. And generally speaking, the Republican governors did very well. The Democrat governors, not very well. But Fauci wanted to have nobody wearing masks, if you remember, and then everybody had to wear five masks, as many masks as you could get.”

He said that Fauci “wasn’t a big factor for me” in terms of pandemic response, but “he was a very big factor for Biden,” saying that fewer people died from the pandemic under Trump’s first term than Biden’s administration.

Republican lawmakers argue Biden's January 2025 preemptive pardon, which covered potential federal offenses tied to Fauci's public health work dating back to 2014, does not protect him from future crimes such as perjury or contempt if investigators determine new false statements were made after the pardon was issued. Biden's extensive use of an autopen during his final days in office has led to questions being raised whether the former president actually signed the many pardons he released during the frantic final weeks of his administration.

Earlier Wednesday morning, Trump also launched a lengthy Truth Social attack on Fauci ahead of the hearing, accusing him of repeatedly giving bad advice throughout the pandemic and claiming he personally overruled Fauci on several major decisions, and had warned Biden about him. Senate Republicans are now exploring the possibility of contempt proceedings and continuing investigations into Fauci's testimony.