Bill Maher calls out Fauci for telling actual lies about COVID-19 origins after Senate hearing

Comedian and talk show host Bill Maher railed against former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr.Anthony Fauci just days after he invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination 111 times during a Senate hearing over his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.During Friday’s episode of HBO’s “Real Time,” Maher called out Fauci for telling “actual lies” about the origins of the virus responsible for over seven million confirmed deaths worldwide following Fauci’s Senate hearing on Wednesday.“He was caught in actual lies,” Maher said, adding, “The big issue to me is the origin of this, which is very important.

How did it start?”The comedian pointed to Fauci’s previous assertions that the virus originated through animal-to-human contact at a wet market in Wuhan, China.“He was telling people up front when it first began [that] it was from the wet markets.It could not — that’s a conspiracy theory — if you say it escaped from the lab,” Maher said.“And he knew better,” Maher continued.

“Because we have him in his diary telling us what he was saying to other scientists, who were saying, ‘No, absolutely.’”Fox News Digital reached out to Fauci for comment.Maher went on to point to the controversial theory that the virus was the result of either an accidental or intentional leak from a Chinese laboratory in the same city where the first cases originated.He also blasted Fauci over the crux of his hearing, in which he was questioned regarding the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases’ funding of “gain-of-function” research in China.Fox News Digital previously covered Fauci’s vehement denial that the controversial research method — which involves scientists altering the genetics of a virus to better understand and treat it — led to the samples breaking free from the Wuhan Institute of Virology.“I would always have said, don’t do it, but it’s a viable debate,�...