Republicans tried - and failed - to distract from Trump’s conviction with Covid hearing chaos

House Republicans had a chance to move the news cycle on from a Manhatten jury finding former president Donald Trump, their nominee for the White House, guilty on 34 counts.

Instead, they wound up humiliating themselves on national television during a truly unhinged House hearing with retired Covid-19 czar, Dr Anthony Fauci.

With half of Americans supporting the Trump guilty verdict, Republicans needed a moment that was more than a circus, serving red meat to their right-wing base, but one that made them palatable to moderates and undecided voters.

This hearing could have been a chance to show voters that they cared about good governance and accountability. Instead, it resembled the chaos of Merrick Garland’s contempt of Congress markup last month, which included Marjorie Taylor Greene mocking Representative Jasmine Crockett’s fake eyelashes — and Crockett responding with a “bleach blonde bad-built butch body” retort that will live on infamy.

Somehow, Republicans on the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic managed to outdo even that debacle. As soon as she was up for questioning, Greene berated Fauci, refusing to call him a doctor, insisting he belongs “in prison,” and accusing the National Institutes of Health of funding medical experiments on beagles.

“You know what this committee should be doing? We should be recommending you to be prosecuted. We should be writing a criminal referral because you should be prosecuted for crimes against humanity,” she screeched. “You belong in prison, Dr. Fauci!”

Democratic Rep. Robert Garcia personally apologized for Greene’s off-the-rails behavior saying it “might be the most insane hearing I’ve actually attended!”

But the hearing was nothing but an attempted