Few figures have been as relentlessly vilified by the Republican Party as Anthony Fauci. In 2021, a group of House Republicans introduced a piece of legislation, called the Fire Fauci Act, to eliminate the top health official's salary. More recently, when the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases announced his plan to retire, House Republicans vowed to pursue investigations into Fauci after he left public service, though it's unclear what form this would take.
And then there is Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, perhaps the GOP's most vocal Fauci opponent, selling t-shirts and drink koozies emblazoned with slogans like "Don't Fauci my Florida," and flip-flops with the words "Fauci can pound sand." DeSantis gave the public health official a characteristically crass send-off, saying, "someone needs to grab that little elf and chuck him across the Potomac."
