Tina Descovich, co-founder and CEO of the parental rights group Moms for Liberty, told Fox News Digital that Dr. Anthony Fauci's decision to invoke the Fifth Amendment during a Senate hearing left millions of American families without answers about pandemic-era school closures, masking policies and the lasting damage those decisions inflicted on children. «The things our children have suffered with the lack of education, with the forced masking, with children in some places being forced to take vaccinations so that they could go to school, the things that they have endured, what our families have been through, America deserves an apology,» Descovich said in an exclusive interview Wednesday.
Descovich spoke after Fauci appeared before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, chaired by Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., to answer questions about his role in the COVID-19 pandemic response. During the hearing, Fauci invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination more than 100 times, prompting Paul to announce he would seek contempt of Congress charges. «Our children are still living with the consequences,» Descovich said. «Some schools were closed in California, Chicago, other places for up to two years. Our children suffered mental health ramifications from his policies.»
The legal situation was further complicated by the fact that former President Joe Biden granted Fauci a preemptive pardon in January 2025, covering any federal offenses related to his pandemic response. Paul raised questions about whether Fauci could legally plead the Fifth after receiving such immunity. «The legal question is, if you're pardoned, can you really claim the Fifth?» Paul said on Fox News. «The Fifth Amendment is to claim immunity from self-incrimination. But if you've already been given immunity, you can't self-incriminate unless you lie.» Paul's committee is moving toward a contempt vote, which could lead to criminal referral.
Descovich said Congress must continue investigating how decisions were made to keep schools closed and who was responsible. «Our elected leaders in America need to hold themselves accountable, and they need to stay in their lane,» she said. Moms for Liberty was founded in 2021 as a direct response to what Descovich described as government overreach during the pandemic. «Parents have the fundamental right to direct the upbringing of their children,» she said. «Government was overreaching into our families, making decisions on behalf of our children, throwing them out of school, forcing masks on them, forcing them to vaccinate, and it shot Moms for Liberty into the stratosphere immediately because parents were very upset.»
Paul also released excerpts from Fauci's personal diaries, which he said contradicted the public narrative Fauci and other health officials promoted during the pandemic. «Many entries in Fauci's daily historical account completely undermine the official narrative that Fauci and other public health officials espoused,» Paul wrote. The diaries reportedly show Fauci privately took credit for lockdowns while publicly denying responsibility, and revealed a fixation on media attention. Descovich said she would ask Fauci directly: «Why did you do this to our children? Why did you do this to our families, and how are you going to be held accountable now?»
Descovich expressed hope that the hearing and ongoing scrutiny would lead to reforms so families are not vulnerable to similar government overreach in future crises. «Our government should have learned a very good lesson in 2020, 2021: don't mess with American moms,» she said. Fox News Digital reached out to Fauci for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
