Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) criticized former President Donald Trump this week for claiming during an interview that he could not fire Dr. Anthony Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, saying that even if that were true, there was no reason why Trump had to put Fauci in charge of managing the U.S. government’s response to the pandemic.

“He should not be so proud of keeping Fauci around,” Paul told Fox News host Jesse Watters. “Fauci was a menace to the truth. Talk about a fount of misinformation, it’s Anthony Fauci. More misinformation came out of the government than any other source. So he should have fired him.”

When asked if he thought Fauci was going to play a big role in the 2024 Republican presidential primary, Paul said, “It may because Fauci did stick around.”

“There may be civil service rules about actually firing him, but there’s no reason he had to head up the pandemic committee, the COVID Committee,” Paul said. “So he was on the committee. In fact, if not the lead, he was the committee with the vice president. They met all of the time.”

Paul said that Fauci “pushed out” then-CDC Director Robert Redfield from the committee, who Paul said was “the one sane voice on the committee.”

“The one thing that could have saved thousands of lives before the vaccine, was that the nurses and the assistants and the people taking care of people in the nursing home, we should have put people in those positions who had already been infected and recovered, knowing that naturally acquired immunity would then protect those senior citizens from getting infected,” Paul said. “And we never did that because Fauci kept saying, ‘well, we’re not sure, we’re not sure.'”

“Well, immunity, we are pretty certain of,” Paul added. “That’s what vaccines are based on his naturally acquired immunity from the disease. We try to simulate that with a vaccine. So — but by denying it, I think many lives were cost, and there would have been a better way, I think, under the Trump administration to marginalize and push Fauci out of the spotlight and keep his nonsense and his misinformation from infecting the rest of us.”

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WATCH:

Sen. @RandPaul rips Trump for keeping Fauci around:

"He should not be so proud of keeping Fauci around. Fauci was a menace to the truth. Talk about a fount of misinformation. It's Anthony Fauci. More misinformation came out of the government than any other source, so he should… pic.twitter.com/7PgKg1AnQj

— Scott Morefield (@SKMorefield) June 21, 2023

Former Attorney General Bill Barr said this week that it was “even more critical” now for federal investigators to release the FBI document alleging an illegal bribery scheme between then-Vice President Joe Biden and a foreign national after the Department of Justice reached a plea deal with the president’s son this week.

Hunter Biden, who has been facing a multi-year investigation by officials, negotiated a deal with Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss, a Trump nominee. Hunter will plead guilty to failing to pay about $100,000 in taxes for 2017 and for failing to pay a similar amount for 2018. The tax charges Hunter faces are misdemeanors.

“Well, I think the indictment of President Trump, which was a grave, significant act, really demands that the department assure everybody that the investigations into the Bidens was thorough and that the final decisions reached were reasonable – and I agree with Jonathan Turley, it’s not looking that good,” Barr said during an interview on Fox News.

“The key question as you say is, is this just the end of the gun and the tax case, or is this end of the whole shebang?” Barr continued. “All the other things that were swirling around that the press reported on: Alleged bribery, alleged money laundering and influence peddling, and even allegations by whistleblowers of internal hanky-panky in the investigation.”

“This demands a thorough accounting, and so I don’t think the department can do what its normal act would be here or normal posture would be, which is to say nothing,” he added. “I think the public interest demands that they assure people of the integrity of this investigation and the fairness of the final decision.”

Weiss’ office released a statement on Tuesday saying that the investigation was “ongoing.”

Barr urged House Republicans to continue their investigations into the Biden family since the administration is likely going to stonewall efforts to make more information public.

“Half the country believes there’s a double standard of justice, or more than half of the country,” he added. “I believe there’s a double standard and I’ve been an insider. And I said even before these pleas were announced, it was critical that the department provide assurance to the American people that these cases are gonna [be] fairly and thoroughly followed through on, and now this burden is especially heavy.”

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Barr told Fox News Digital that he believes Attorney General Merrick Garland needs to take quick, “concrete steps to address” the allegations of a double-standard in the criminal justice system.

“Under these circumstances, I think the AG should consider providing Chairman Comer, and his Senate supporters, the 1023 report they’ve been seeking, subject to terms necessary to protect the life and safety of a confidential source,” Barr said.