Rep. Chip Roy, who is leading a group of Republicans calling on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to subpoena public health officials for answers about the origin of COVID-19, told Newsmax on Thursday that it's "critically important" to learn what happened.
"I think taxpayers have a right to know about the dollars going to the Wuhan Institute of Virology," the Texas Republican said on "Wake Up America."
He added that he wanted to give a shout-out to his friend Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., for pointing out Dr. Anthony Fauci's "lack of honesty about what he knew" involving funding granted to the Chinese laboratory believed to be involved in the coronavirus outbreak.
In their letter to Pelosi, D-Calif., the lawmakers said they have tried to get information from officials about the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases funding they believe was used for gain-of-function research, used to make viruses more infectious, the New York Post reports.
They also said that the intelligence community's recent report on the origins of the virus was inconclusive and the testimony is needed for oversight and for information to use in preventing future pandemics.
"Dr. Fauci needs to come before us and answer about the origins of the virus," Roy said. "What did he know? And did U.S. taxpayer dollars go to help fund what happened?"
He added that the left covers up for Fauci because it had "elevated" him to "a status of some sort of almost deity."
But once the "facade" is pulled away and that people around Fauci were "throwing" taxpayer dollars at Wuhan for gain-of-function research, "maybe people would question the almighty Dr. Fauci and start to say, wait a second. We the American people need to get back to controlling our lives," Roy added.
Further, Fauci had changed his message repeatedly, and changed the way the pandemic has been handled, Roy said.
"Now we've got the president of the United States issuing unlawful, unconstitutional, illegal orders, trying to tell small businesses they've got to go around mandating that their employees get vaccinated," he added.
Roy also accused the administration of hypocrisy because of the number of unvaccinated people who are crossing the U.S.-Mexico border.
"We have people coming across the border positive for COVID," Roy said. "The president doesn't care. The president is more interested in telling you that you got to close your business down or mandate your people get vaccinated."