Fauci said GOP attacks against him are 'nonsense' and he had to 'laugh' when Sen. Ted Cruz said he should be prosecuted

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the longtime director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, in a wide-ranging interview that aired Sunday said the political attacks against him are nothing more than "nonsense" and "noise." 

"So anybody spins lies and threatens and all that theater that goes on with some of the investigations and the congressional committees and the Rand Pauls and all that other nonsense, that's noise," Fauci said during an appearance on CBS News' "Face the Nation."

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, a Republican, in October called for Fauci to be fired, claiming he lied to Congress about US-funded research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology involving gain of function experiments, as Insider's Morgan Keith reported. Fauci has disputed such claims.

"That's noise. I know what my job is," he added.

Fauci, also the chief medical adviser to President Joe Biden, became a polarizing figure during the Trump administration when the former president regularly disputed his recommendations and guidance. During the Biden administration, Fauci has continued to be the target of far-right and conservative figures.