Donald Trump Jr has bemoaned Dr Anthony Fauci for being a “victim” after the infectious disease expert defended calling a Republican senator a “moron” and accused another of misinforming the public on Covid.

       “Remember Lord Fauci is always the victim folks,” Mr Trump Jr tweeted on Tuesday, “No one else!”

       “Not your dead relatives, not your kids or their education, not your destroyed businesses/livelihoods, not Freedom as we knew it. It always has been and always will be about him. You’re just lab rats in his experiment!”

       The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director had called Roger Marshall, a Republican senator on the health, education, labor, and pensions committee, a “moron” for his line of questioning on Tuesday. The doctor’s comment was picked up on a hot mic.

       Dr Fauci said in interview afterwards that he was stunned to know “that a sitting United States senator doesn’t realise that my financial statement is public knowledge”, after Mr Marshall asked for his financial statements to be made public.

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       Senator Rand Paul was meanwhile accused of “distorting” information about Covid and Dr Fauci, who went on to accuse the Kentucky Republican of saying “things that are completely untrue” during the confrontational committee hearing.

       Dr Fauci also alleged that misinformation issued by Mr Paul about NIAID work in Wuhan and Dr Fauci’s advice on Covid had allowed “the crazies out there” to issue death threats against the NIAID director.

       Follow live updates on Fauci’s Senate testimony

       A man was arrested in Iowa last month who was allegedly travelling to Washington DC to kill both Dr Fauci and US president Joe Biden, the NIAID director reminded the committee on Tuesday.

       Despite that, Mr Paul went on to accuse Dr Fauci of being a “menace” during an appearance on Fox News on Tuesday night.

       “Does he not realise I have people arrested once every month or two who have threatened to attack me, plus I have been attacked,” said Mr Paul.

       “I think he has lied to the American public. I think that he funded the lab in Wuhan that in all likelihood this virus came from. I think he as ignored natural immunity,” the Republican claimed without evidence. “I think he has told people to wear a cloth mask when they don’t work.”

       Mr Trump, and the eldest son of former US president Donald Trump, went on to retweeted his own tweet about Dr Fauci and another by conservative commentator Steve Hilton which alleged that Dr Fauci “didn’t just ‘fund’ Gain of Function research in Wuhan he COMMISSIONED it”.

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       “He evaded Obama and Trump administration rules to CONTINUE it Fauci is personally responsible and must be held accountable”, Mr Hilton added.

       Dr Fauci has described such allegations as “nonsense” and of an “anti-scientific flavour”, with the US having had no known role in the enhancement of coronaviruses in Wuhan’s lab. The origins of Covid-19 remain under investigation.