Australian reporter lays into fleeing Rick Scott over unconstitutional ‘witch hunt’
An Australian TMZ reporter confronted Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) outside a Senate hearing Thursday, challenging him to explain how punishing someone for using the Fifth Amendment could be constitutional.
The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee had just voted 8-5 along party lines to hold former top federal health official Dr. Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress for invoking his Fifth Amendment right 111 times at a hearing last week. TMZ reporter Charlie Cotton caught Scott in the hallway immediately after.
"Now maybe I'm just, like, not in the know because I'm Australian," Cotton said to Scott, "but how can you hold someone in contempt and punish someone for using a constitutional right? Isn't it there to use as a right?"
Scott argued Fauci had no grounds to use it.
"He had a pardon, so he — he didn't have that right to do that once he had the pardon," the senator said.
"But didn't he have risk of prosecution because if he'd misspoke, or if he'd lied or something?" Cotton pressed.
"Yeah, if he lied," Scott admitted.
"So he was at risk?" Cotton pointed out.
"He didn't have the right," Scott insisted.
"But not from the hearing," Cotton said, "because the hearing — if he lied, you said that he could be held, you know, accountable for that."
"He could've just told the truth," Scott said. "That's all he had to do."
"Well, he felt like it was a witch hunt," Cotton pushed back, "and you guys would stop at nothing to catch him and send him to prison."
"That's not my intention," Scott said. "I just want to get information."
"It's Rand Paul's intention, though," Cotton pressed.
"No," Scott said. "It's for his actions."
As Cotton was asking his next question, the Republican senator quickly walked away.
"Yep. Okay then," the TMZ reporter said.
Former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani told Newsweek that invoking the Fifth was "the right legal move" — the pardon covered past conduct, but pleading the Fifth protected Fauci from perjury charges based on anything he said at the hearing.
As CEO of Columbia/HCA, Scott himself invoked the Fifth Amendment 75 times in a 2000 civil deposition while the company faced a federal investigation that led to a $1.7 billion settlement — at the time the largest Medicare fraud case in American history, Florida Phoenix reported.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) planned to hand-deliver the contempt referral to the Justice Department Thursday, bypassing a full Senate floor vote, CBS News reported.
‘Say good night’: MAGA ex-MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell’s primary loss prompts online glee
MAGA former MyPillow CEO and election denier Mike Lindell lost his bid to become the governor of Minnesota, per reports.
According to projections by NBC News and CBS News, Lindell lost to state lawmaker Lisa Demuth, who won with more than 44 percent of the vote. However, she'll face what's expected to be an uphill battle against Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar.
The result was an upset. Lindell had been leading in limited public polling heading into Election Day and carried an endorsement from President Donald Trump, according to reporting by NBC News.
However, online commentators didn't seem very upset by his loss. Lindell entered the race in December and stepped down as the MyPillow CEO this month to focus on his campaign. He built his political profile by spreading false claims that Trump won the 2020 election. A federal judge ruled last year that he defamed Smartmatic by falsely claiming its voting machines helped rig that election.
"Say good night, My Pillow guy!" wrote political commentator and former Obama White House adviser David Axelrod in a post on X. "Despite @realDonaldTrump's endorsement, Lindell loses his @GOP race for governor of Minnesota."
"He was doomed in the general against Klobuchar," wrote Democratic political strategist Mike Nellis. "But Mike Lindell falling short in Minnesota is a HUGE embarrassment to Trump after his endorsement. He looks more and more like a lame duck every single day."
"Poor Mike Lindell," joked political consultant Norman Ornstein. "He won't sleep well tonight. It could be because he lost the Republican primary for governor in Minnesota despite being endorsed by Trump. Or, more likely, it's because of his pillow."
"Apparently Minnesota Republicans have gotten tired of nominating losers," wrote radio show host Matt Forney. "Amnesty Mike Lindell got trounced and that waterbrained psycho Royce White came in a distant third in the Senate primary."
