Dr Anthony Fauci has ripped a convicted Capitol rioter who was caught-on-camera repeatedly making faces behind him during Monday’s COVID congressional hearing — calling him out for showing up at his testimony just two weeks after being cut loose from prison.
Fauci responded in an interview Monday night to the antics of Brandon Fellows, an upstate New York chimney repairman who was seated directly behind the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases as he testified to Congress about the death threats he received while overseeing the US’s COVID-19 response.
“What’s somebody like that doing at a hearing about COVID?” Fauci told CNN when asked about Fellows’ looming presence behind him.
Fellows’ face-pulling antics, which quickly caused a stir on social media, eventually led to him being tossed out of the subcommittee hearing by security guards.
As he was being escorted out, Fellows also apparently shouted that Fauci belonged in prison, CNN reported.
Fauci admitted he didn’t hear Fellow yelling out, but said it had been brought to his attention that some “someone who just got out of jail for being arrested for the January 6 attack on the Capitol” had been sitting behind him.
Fellows, on his part, took to social media in the immediate aftermath to brag that “things are going well for me here in DC.”
He quickly changed his Facebook cover photo to an image of him pulling a face behind the infectious disease expert.
“Democrats are hilariously LOSING THEIR MINDS!” he boasted.
“Today marks 2 weeks since being released, I considered this fun, not necessarily an accomplishment, but I’ve been accomplishing a decent amount and having tons of fun the past 2 weeks.”
Fellows was sentenced to just over three years in prison for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021 siege at the US Capitol.
He was convicted of one felony count of obstruction of an official proceeding and four misdemeanors after footage showed him entering the Capitol via a broken window and then proceeding to Sen. Jeff Merkley’s (D-OR) office to smoke weed.
Fellows made headlines repeatedly in the wake of the riot after declaring his Bumble dating profile had been “blowing up” from his newfound infamy and that he had absolutely “no regrets.”
