In 2020, Moreno called the pandemic a leftist fantasy. Now he's trying to criminalize Fauci.

NewsMoreno’s unhinged Fauci tirade continues his record. He was wrong on COVID from the very startSen. Bernie Moreno has been wrong about COVID from day one, say Today in Ohio podcast hosts, so his antics with Dr. Anthony Fauci just continue his record. (AP Photo/Tom Brenner)APBy Today in Ohiocleveland.comBernie Moreno has never let facts get in the way of a good tirade, and his vote to cite Dr. Anthony Fauci with contempt continues his long record of being wrong about the pandemic.That’s the take Friday from the Today in Ohio podcast, which took listeners back to the first days of the pandemic, when Moreno scoffed at the notion that millions would die. What emerged was a portrait of a politician who has contorted himself completely in service of the MAGA base — even at the expense of logic, history, and basic decency.Fauci appeared before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and repeatedly invoked his Fifth Amendment rights, explaining clearly that the hearing appeared designed to extract statements that could be used to put him behind bars. Republicans, including Moreno, attacked him anyway. The committee then voted 8-5 this week, along party lines, to advance a contempt resolution.“Moreno to me sure made a fool of himself that day,” host Courtney Astolfi said. “He used an expletive ridden tirade and he asked Fauci, who the f do you think you were for imposing pandemic restrictions. It caught a lot of folks’ attention.”Host Chris Quinn pointed out on the podcast that Moreno’s absurd take on the pandemic pandemic goes all the way back to the spring of 2020, when the death toll was just beginning to climb. Quinn read from a Moreno social media post from March of that year when he called the pandemic “a fantasy of every ultra leftist. Total control by the government over people’s lives and the economy. Done under the guise of a virus that has killed a TOTAL --capitalized -- 263 Americans who most likely already were in tough shape.”Moreno also wrote in that same post: “We keep hearing it will happen, meaning millions of deaths. The data doesn’t support that conclusion.”Of course, the data went on to support exactly that conclusion. More than a million Americans died. More than 7 million died across the planet. It was, as Quinn put it on the podcast, *“a worldwide catastrophe.“*Quinn also noted the towering irony that Moreno is a puppet for President Donald Trump and should be citing Trump’s heroics in the pandemic. Quinn said the one truly historic achievement Trump can claim is the rapid development of the mRNA vaccine, which likely prevented millions more deaths. Instead, Moreno is trying to criminalize the man who helped lead that effort.There’s also a serious constitutional dimension to this story. Quinn argued that every senator who voted to hold Fauci in contempt for invoking the Fifth Amendment is themselves in violation of their oath to support the Constitution. He suggested that each of them should be held in contempt for violating their oaths. Astolfi agreed, noting that plenty of witnesses go before Congress and give unsatisfying answers without facing contempt. “Fauci was invoking his constitutional rights,”* she said. *“I couldn’t agree with you more. This is beyond the pale.”Listen to the discussion here.Is Jim Renacci talking out of both sides of his mouth on the Max Miller congressional seatA Trump “grab them” comparison and illegal drug use. Max Miller flunks his CNN interview Hemp regulation in Ohio is a legal nightmare. Is the state AG making it worse? Listen to full “Today in Ohio” episodes where Chris Quinn hosts our daily half-hour news podcast, with Editorial Board member Lisa Garvin, Impact Editor Leila Atassi and Content Director Laura Johnston.