"It's Benghazi hearings all over again," Fauci told The Washington Post on Tuesday in reference to numerous GOP lawmakers saying they will look into alleged gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China, located near where the first COVID-19 cases were officially reported in late 2019.

Fauci, an unelected federal official who has headed the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) since 1984, claimed that potential hearings "will distract me from doing my job, the way it's doing right now." Should there be hearings and an investigation, Fauci asserted that "there will be nothing there."

His reference to the Benghazi hearings was an apparent comparison to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who was the focal point of Republicans investigating the 2012 attacks on a consulate in Benghazi, Libya, that left several Americans dead.

Several prominent House Republicans have gone on the record to say that they will probe Fauci's agency and its ties to research in Wuhan.

"And if you're watching this, Dr. Fauci, look out because when the Americans give us control in the House of Representatives, God willing, we're going to get some answers on behalf of the American people," Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) told Fox News last week.