Like many Americans, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis isn’t holding out much hope that Anthony Fauci will receive any real consequences for misleading Americans during the COVID pandemic.

DeSantis joined The Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show after Fauci invoked his Fifth Amendment over 100 times during a heated Senate hearing.

Republican Senator Rand Paul, who chaired the hearing, warned Fauci that he was headed toward a contempt of Congress charge and said his repeated Fifth Amendment pleas were “unsupported”, but DeSantis doesn’t see “accountability” coming for the once-outspoken doctor.

DeSantis broke it down, saying it comes down to the states.

.@ClayTravis asks @GovRonDeSantis @RonDeSantis if states could prosecute Fauci:

“Don’t hold your breath that you’re going to see any type of major accountability. I just think there was a window for that. I’m not sure that window is open in a real meaningful way at this point. I… pic.twitter.com/QScukh5Uyu

— The Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show (@clayandbuck) July 29, 2026

“If you’ve been given a pardon, you typically don’t invoke the Fifth Amendment. You actually can be compelled to testify if you don’t have an underlying legal risk from the conduct at issue. So the fact that he took the Fifth Amendment either means he’s subject to contempt of Congress, which they could potentially pursue, or he’s acknowledging that Biden’s pardon didn’t necessarily cover all the potential lines of inquiry,” DeSantis said.

“So that’s more of a federal question there. Now the question on the states is this. You would have to have two things. One, and it would to be a state attorney general… You have state potential with an attorney general. You also have local district attorneys.”

DeSantis believes the time to prosecute Fauci has likely passed.

“I think there’s going to be a lot of significant hurdles to do it. I think the time to have done Fauci was to do it when it was hot, you know, back in that 2020/2021 time period at the federal level. That was where clearly the offenses would implicate federal law. You wouldn’t have to try and do state law,” he said.

“I would just tell people, I would not hold your breath that you’re going to see any type of major accountability. I just think there was a window for that. I’m not sure that window is open in a real meaningful at this point. I hope I’m wrong about that. Don’t get me wrong,” he said.

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