WATCH: Fauci accuses Sen. Ted Cruz of misdeeds on Jan. 6, says all criticism of him are attacks on ‘science’

Interviewer Margaret Brennan brought up the subject of the widespread criticism aimed at Fauci, who is the long-standing White House infectious disease expert.

At the start of the video, Fauci replies with:

"Anybody who spins lies and threatens, and all that theater that goes on with some of the investigations and the Congressional committees and the Rand Pauls and all of that other nonsense? That's noise, Margaret. That's noise."

"Senator Cruz told the Attorney General that you should be prosecuted," mentions Brennan," to which Fauci erupts into laughter.

"Yeah. I have to laugh at that. I should be prosecuted? What happened on Jan. 6, senator?"

"... Anybody who's looking at this carefully realizes that there's a distinct anti-science flavor to this."

"... They're really criticizing science because I represent science. That's dangerous. To me, that's more dangerous than the slings and the arrows that get thrown at me."

"And if you damage science, you're doing something very detrimental to society, long after I leave."

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) immediately gave his own rebuttal to Fauci's statement:

"The absolute hubris of someone claiming THEY represent science. It’s astounding and alarming that a public health bureaucrat would even think to claim such a thing, especially one who has worked so hard to ignore the science of natural immunity."