Rep. Brandon Gill (R-TX) mocked Texas Democrat Senate candidate James Talarico on Wednesday over a resurfaced post celebrating a Dr. Anthony Fauci action figure, hours after Fauci invoked the Fifth Amendment more than 100 times before a Senate committee.
Gill pointed to a December 2021 post from Talarico, who was then a state representative. Talarico had shown off a masked Fauci figure he got as a Christmas gift.
“Do you think James Talarico still plays with his Fauci action figure?” Gill wrote on X.
In the 2021 post, Talarico praised the toy and urged his followers to get vaccinated.
“I got the coolest action figure for Christmas! Thank you to all the health care superheroes working today,” Talarico wrote. “Let’s help by getting vaxxed and boosted!”
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) piled on. He tied the old post to Fauci’s refusal to answer lawmakers.
“James Talarico called Fauci a superhero. Today, Fauci took the Fifth 111 times,” Cruz wrote. “Apparently accountability was sold separately.”
Gill and Cruz posted as Fauci stonewalled lawmakers Wednesday at a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing. He invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination more than 100 times. His attorneys advised the move, he said. Fauci also accused committee chairman Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) of an “unhinged” campaign to prosecute him.
Paul said the committee will vote next week on holding Fauci in contempt of Congress.
Talarico is a former middle school teacher and Presbyterian seminarian. He is running against Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. Talarico drew scrutiny this month over a separate video. In it, he described legislation restricting gender-affirming care for minors as stemming from a “Christofascism movement.”
Paul said Fauci’s presidential pardon may not shield him from the contempt referral.
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