Republicans Talking 'Behind the Scenes' About Fauci House Investigation

Republican lawmakers may be working behind the scenes on an investigation of Dr. Anthony Fauci, according to one of the authors of a new book that's highly critical of the infectious diseases expert.

Kent Heckenlively, the author of at least a dozen books, spoke to Newsweek about Presidential Takedown: How Anthony Fauci, the CDC, NIH, and the WHO Conspired to Overthrow President Trump, which he co-authored with Dr. Paul Elias Alexander, a former official in the Trump administration.

Alexander was employed as an aide to Health and Human Services Assistant Secretary Michael Caputo during the administration's response to the COVID pandemic in 2020 and he was subsequently accused of seeking to "muzzle" Fauci, who is director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), and other public health officials.

In the new book, Alexander accuses Fauci as well as the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of attempting a "takedown" of then President Trump through their approach to COVID.

The book argues that the unpopularity of COVID measures, such as lockdowns and school closures, contributed to Trump's defeat in the 2020 election and suggests that his defeat was the desired effect of those measures.

Heckenlively acknowledged that some of the allegations in the book are "really shocking" and repeatedly stressed that issues with the COVID response were a bipartisan concern.

"What we would like to believe is that in the midst of a global pandemic, that everybody would be doing their best and working for team humanity, for lack of a better way of saying it. And that did not seem to be the case," Heckenlively told Newsweek.

"We're still living in the shadow of COVID-19," Heckenlively went on. "I'm not here for team red or team blue. I kind of feel like I'm here for team humanity and there's a lot of things that we need to understand."

Heckenlively praised his work with Alexander, particularly his willingness to provide emails and articles he had written, calling their book "abundantly documented." Those documents could soon be of interest to legislators.

Republicans will have a majority in the House of the Representatives when the new Congress convenes in January and control of crucial committees. Several Republican members of the House have expressed an interest in investigating Fauci and the handling of COVID.

Presidential Takedown could play a part in those potential investigations. Heckenlively said he would support investigations into Fauci and the CDC "100 percent."

"What Paul Alexander is also doing right now is he is talking behind the scenes with many politicians," Heckenlively told Newsweek. "And for myself, I intend to send copies of this book to every single one of those politicians who are interested in investigating."

"And if they want me to come to Washington, D.C. and work on their staffs as an investigator, I am happy to do that," he said, suggesting he would be of more use investigating the matter than offering testimony based upon Presidential Takedown.

"I think I'd be very useful to them as an investigator, because like most everybody on the planet Earth, I was sitting on my couch watching all the COVID-19 presentations," Heckenlively went on.

"So for me, I don't have any personal knowledge of this other than writing this book and talking with the smart people who were there," he said.

Heckenlively also described what he called a "secret meeting" during Alexander's time with the Trump administration, involving a Republican senator as well as a Democratic senator and Democratic member of Congress.

"They tell Paul that the real reason that he was called to Washington was that they wanted him to write a report on the CDC because a bipartisan group in Washington had come to the conclusion that the CDC had become highly politicized, and they wanted to use his report as a way to take down the CDC - the corrupt parts of the CDC - and rebuild it," he said.

That report is about 80 percent complete, Heckenlively said, but a potentially complete report could also be used as part of potential investigations.

"And it is my understanding that he is trying to finish that because it would be a wonderful thing to hand off to those in Congress, both Republican and Democrat," he said.

"And I think that's one of the things that I just have to strongly say is in that secret meeting - it was clear that there was a significant amount of Democratic support for looking at the CDC," Heckenlively went on. "So these are questions we need to ask. And I think humanity is benefited by the investigation."

Fauci recently appeared to dismiss the possibility of investigations, telling a Washington gala: "I have nothing to hide at all, despite the accusations that I'm hiding something."

"I have nothing that I could not explain clearly to the country and justify," he said.

Newsweek has asked the CDC and NIAID for comment.