Nicki Minaj tore into Dr. Anthony Fauci for his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic following his tense appearance before a U.S. Senate committee last week.
“Feeding tubes will be his portion,” Minaj, 43, tweeted on Thursday, July 30. “He will lose the ability to speak & then & only then will he feel the collective pain & long term ramifications he caused to new borns, young children who are still trying to become acclimated into society & schools, traumatized pregnant women who couldn’t even have family in the delivery rooms & visits, the elderly who died alone & afraid, young ppl still struggling w/mental health, suicide, people turned away from hospitals at their most vulnerable moments, the trust that is now gone from innocent people toward their governments forever, billions of stolen money from hard working tax payers via con artists.”
Minaj resurfaced an old news article from 2021 where Fauci, 85, encouraged her to “think twice” about platforming vaccine skepticism. (At the time, Fauci was nearing the end of his decades-long tenure as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.)
The “Starships” rapper mocked Fauci with an AI-generated image of him wearing a pink and purple striped sweater as he wrote in his diary. (The fake photograph was seemingly intended to parody Fauci’s COVID-19 pandemic-era journals, which were recently released by Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Rand Paul.)
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“I’ve been struggling to find the humor in any of this,” Minaj added in her tweet. “God bless everyone who made it to the other side. You’re stronger than you thought. God is in control.”
She shared a video via X where she once again mimicked Fauci writing in his diary.
“They say I’m sexier than Tyra Banks. Julia Roberts gasped when she saw how handsome I was. Brad Pitt played me on SNL,” Minaj quipped.
She went on, “Never mind that I sent millions of children back years on their education … The elderly are alone and afraid, dying by themselves. If anyone asks questions, me and my gang ruins their lives.”
Fauci repeatedly invoked the Fifth Amendment to avoid answering hostile questioning from Republicans when he appeared before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, led by Rep. Paul, 63, on Wednesday, July 29. Republican lawmakers led by Rep. Rich McCormick of Georgia have threatened to enact legislation barring Fauci from ever serving in government again.
Conservative pundit Meghan McCain added to the volatile political tone by calling for Fauci to be put “in jail” during the contentious Senate hearing.
Republicans have been critical of Fauci’s pro-vaccine, social distancing and masking policies during the COVID-19 pandemic. Fearing that the physician could face retribution from the incoming Donald Trump administration, former president Joe Biden gave Fauci a preemptive pardon in January 2025 to cover all of his federal government work between January 1, 2014, and January 19, 2025.
Fauci continues to have passionate defenders who champion his more than 40 years of public health policy as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. (Fauci had bipartisan support for much of his tenure in the role from 1984 to 2022. He later briefly served as Biden’s chief medical advisor.)
During Wednesday’s Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen, host Andy Cohen praised Fauci for withstanding an angry barrage of questioning during the hearing.
“It is time for my Mazel of the Day,” Cohen, 58, told viewers. “It goes to Dr. Anthony Fauci, who spent over three hours today being grilled, berated, and sworn at by Senate Republicans over the imaginary crimes they want you to believe he committed during his management of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
He went on, “This is the same Dr. Fauci who was a devoted public servant for 54 years and led the federal response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic as the main architect of PEPFAR [a government initiative to battle AIDS]. His courageous work is responsible for saving over 26 million lives around the world.”
“Our country is facing serious problems,” Cohen added. “We’re in a war with no end in sight. Prices are skyrocketing. We can’t even eat lettuce, for God’s sake. And to declare a war on science at a time like this is deeply unserious and dangerous.”
The WWHL host concluded, “Maybe our politicians are just jealous because doctors and scientists do the one thing they can’t ever seem to do: fix something. Thank you, Dr. Fauci.”