EXCLUSIVE: Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) leaders in the Senate will be releasing an NCAA-style bracket of the craziest items of federal waste needing to be cut, as the public will be able to actively vote for their picks in successive Elite Eight and Final Four rounds.

Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, the leader of the upper chamber’s DOGE caucus, told Fox News Digital on Friday that while college basketball’s March Madness only lasts a month, the federal government’s "spending madness" is a year-round, debt-defying event.

"The Senate DOGE Caucus is dividing and conquering to bring waste to a squealing halt," Ernst said.

"This March, we will be scoring buckets for taxpayers by increasing transparency, stopping the silly spending, and making government actually start to work for the American people it serves."

Sixteen "seeds" of waste will be posted in a bracket and put up for public polling on X to determine which eight waste items are bad enough to advance; followed by the next-worst four, and championship two.

DOGE CAUCUS SENATOR PUSHES FOR END TO SLUSH FUND FOR PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES

Each DOGE caucus member received or picked priority waste items for the tournament. While there may not be any major upsets, like Lehigh University’s 2012 win over #1-seed Duke, each item’s introduction to the public may cause the same surprise.

Sen. Cyntha Lummis, R-Wyo., has her spot on the bracket represented by a Biden administration appropriation of $4.5 million to "combat disinformation" in Kazakhstan.

Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., who coached Auburn’s football team for many years, will be represented in the tourney by an allocation of $168,000 for an "Anthony Fauci Exhibit" at the National Institutes of Health Museum in Maryland.

A $7.9 million expenditure on teaching journalists in Sri Lanka to avoid "binary-gendered language" will be in the bracket under Sen. John Kennedy’s, R-La., name.

Sen. Pete Ricketts, R-Neb., picked a $45 million Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) scholarship program for Burmese people to be featured at the event.

DRAIN THE SWAMP ACT SEEKS TO MOVE DC BUREAUCRACY OUT OF CRAZYTOWN, DOGE LEADER SAYS

Ernst, meanwhile, will be represented by the $4 million that the Departments of Agriculture and Interior spent on setting up a farming infrastructure for insect-based food consumption for humans.

Some of the other DOGE Madness bracket "teams" include billions in costs associated with the ATF illegally miscategorizing bureau employees as "law enforcement" (Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa), $690,000 to study cannabis use among "sexual-minority gender-diverse individuals" (Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo.), $12 million for a Las Vegas pickleball facility (Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont.) and $1.75 million for MoMA – a New York City museum with already $5 billion in assets (Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah).

Additionally, Sen. James Lankford’s, R-Okla., waste bracket includes $2 billion sent to the Taliban since the Biden administration’s 2021 withdrawal.

Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., is represented by a six-figure line item for vegetable gardens in El Salvador, and Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., has a $1.3 million subsidy for equity and advocacy for Long Island transgender "youth of color."

Meanwhile, Sen. Ron Johnson’s, R-Wis., bracket position is dubbed the "liberal four corners."

Johnson is represented by a $100,000 EPA grant to a major city’s teachers' union foundation to hold a 14-day Environmental Justice Freedom School that the DOGE caucus said touches on the quartet of climate change, teachers' unions, indoctrinating children and paid activism.

Elsewhere in the Sweet 16 bracket, Sen. Marsha Blackburn’s, R-Tenn., position is represented by a $22 billion allocation from the Department of Health and Human Services to provide free housing and vehicles for illegal immigrants – and Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., sought to highlight millions in wasteful spending on gender transition procedures for U.S. service members.

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The final spot in the bracket is for $1.45 billion in FEMA funds for luxury hotels for illegals, an item called out by Sen. James Risch, R-Idaho.

Risch notably introduced legislation to end the practice, called the End FEMA Benefits for Illegal Immigrants Act.

Amid the tournament’s division of varying types of government waste, the Senate DOGE caucus will also announce Friday that it is divvying up "priority areas" for groups of senators to focus on.

Acquisition reform, digitizing antiquated government systems, transparency efforts, restoring "‘service’ to the civil service," fraud, non-strategic foreign aid, and cost-efficiency are all areas of study being assigned across the DOGE caucus as the legislative year heats up, Fox News Digital has learned.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) canceled more than $180 million in contracts over 48 hours, including a nearly $170,000 contract for an Anthony Fauci museum exhibit.

"In the past 48 hours, HHS canceled 62 contract [sic] worth $182 million," The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) announced in a Friday social media post. "These contracts were entirely for administrative expenses – none touched any healthcare programs. This included terminating a $168,000 contract for an Anthony Fauci exhibit at the NIH Museum."

The news comes as DOGE, led by billionaire Elon Musk, has continued to outline vast changes in government spending over the last few weeks, including a plan to eliminate the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and sweeping changes at the U.S. Treasury Department aimed at eliminating over $100 billion per year in entitlement payments to individuals with no Social Security number.

ANTHONY FAUCI MAY BE DEPOSED AS GOP INTENSIFIES COVID INVESTIGATIONS IN NEW CONGRESS

Seemingly no federal agency has been excluded from the reach of DOGE, with HHS being just the latest in a string of targets meant to eliminate waste from the federal government.

The Fauci exhibit was booked to be finished by July 2025, but has now been scrapped along with $182 million in other HHS administrative expenses.

Fauci has long been a controversial figure and has often clashed with President Donald Trump, who last month revoked the taxpayer-funded security detail for the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) that was requested for him in 2020 as he became the government’s public spokesperson during the COVID-19 pandemic.

FORMER NASCAR STAR DANICA PATRICK SUPPORTS TRUMP REVOKING FAUCI'S SECURITY DETAIL

"I think, you know, when you work for government, at some point your security detail comes off and, you know, you can't have them forever," Trump said of the move. "We took some off other people, too, but you can't have a security detail for the rest of your life because you work for government."

Fauci was given a preemptive pardon by former President Joe Biden on his last day in office, which was meant to shield the infectious disease expert from feared retribution from Trump during his second stint in the White House, though Fauci was not charged with any crimes at the time of the pardon.

Before serving as the chief medical advisor to the president during COVID-19, Fauci served nearly 30 years as the director of the NIAID between 1984 and 2022.

He started his career at the National Institutes of Health in 1968, and was widely praised for his efforts to confront HIV/AIDs before becoming the government’s public face during the pandemic.

HHS did not immediately respond to a Fox News Digital request for comment.

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., is continuing his efforts to investigate the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, and he wants answers from Dr. Anthony Fauci.   

In his new position as chairman of the Senate's Homeland Security committee, Paul issued subpoenas to 14 agencies from the outgoing Biden administration aimed at building on past congressional investigations into the COVID-19 virus and risky taxpayer-funded gain-of-function research. It is unclear who exactly from each agency will ultimately be deposed, but a Fauci deposition is possible. 

"In the wake of Anthony Fauci’s preemptive pardon, there are still questions to be answered," Paul said in a statement after announcing the issuance of his subpoenas. "Subpoenas were sent from the Committee to NIH [National Institutes of Health] and 13 other agencies regarding their involvement in risky gain-of-function research. The goal of the investigation will be to critique the process that allowed this dangerous research, that may have led to the pandemic, to occur in a foreign country under unsafe protocols and to ensure that there is sufficient oversight and review going forward, making sure a mistake of this magnitude never happens again."

FORMER NASCAR STAR DANICA PATRICK SUPPORTS TRUMP REVOKING FAUCI'S SECURITY DETAIL

While former President Joe Biden preemptively pardoned Fauci to protect him from political retribution under the new Trump administration, legal experts have questioned the validity of such a pardon. Missouri Attorney General Andrew Baily suggested to Fox News that since Biden's own Justice Department indicated he lacked the mental faculties to be held criminally liable for improper handling of classified documents, it could be argued he also lacked the mens rea to issue pardons to people like Fauci. Additionally, the pardon Fauci received only covers his actions from January 2014 to the date of his pardon. As a result, a refusal to comply with a congressional subpoena could also potentially result in criminal charges.

Paul's investigation will build on a previous bipartisan probe launched by the Senate's Homeland Security committee last year looking into the national security threats posed by "high-risk biological research and technology in the U.S. and abroad." 

A second investigation being launched by Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., the chairman of the Permanent Select Subcommittee on Investigations, will similarly probe concerns in the new Congress surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic and will include a review of email communications from Fauci.  

MISSOURI AG SAYS LEGAL ACTION AGAINST ANTHONY FAUCI IS STILL ON THE TABLE 

Since the pandemic began, Paul has sent dozens of requests for information related to the origins of the COVID-19 virus and gain-of-function research. Last year, his efforts revealed documents that he said show that government officials from at least 15 federal agencies knew in 2018 that China's Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) was working on creating a coronavirus similar to COVID-19.

The WIV has been a centerpiece in the debate over the origins of COVID-19, as it was eventually discovered that American scientist Peter Daszak's EcoHealth Alliance was using taxpayer dollars to conduct risky research on the novel bat virus out of the WIV prior to the COVID-19 outbreak. Earlier this month, the Department of Health and Human Services barred Daszak and EcoHealth Alliance from receiving federal funding for five years. 

Meanwhile, Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), told Congress in May 2021 that the NIH "has not ever and does not now fund gain-of-function research in the Wuhan Institute of Virology."

DR. FAUCI SAYS HE APPRECIATES PRESIDENT BIDEN'S PARDON BUT INSISTS ‘NO CRIME’ WAS COMMITTED

The Trump administration is reportedly preparing an executive order to halt all U.S. funding going towards gain-of-function research. 

Federal officials remain split on where the COVID-19 virus originated from. Three agencies — the Department of Energy, the FBI and the CIA — have determined that the most likely origin narrative is the lab leak theory, but others in the intelligence community and throughout the federal government say they can either not conclude that a lab leak was the most likely scenario, or they say that a natural origin scenario is most likely. A declassified intelligence report from 2021, published by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, posited that if a lab leak did turn out to be the catalyst of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was likely the result of an accident.

Representatives for Paul declined to comment for this report, while Fauci did not respond to a request for comment. 

Former NASCAR star Danica Patrick gave her seal of approval to President Donald Trump's decision to revoke Dr. Anthony Fauci's security detail. 

In an Instagram story Friday night, Patrick shared a news story about Fauci losing the security detail with a quote from Trump, adding the caption "Damn right." 

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) requested security for Fauci in 2020 to protect him from threats he received as the top health official and public spokesperson during the COVID-19 pandemic. But that detail was pulled Thursday night.

"I think, you know, when you work for government, at some point your security detail comes off and, you know, you can't have them forever," Trump said of the decision. "We took some off other people, too, but you can't have a security detail for the rest of your life because you work for government."

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When asked if he would feel partially responsible if something were to happen to Fauci, Trump said he would not.

"No. You know, they all made a lot of money. They can hire their own security," Trump said. "Certainly, I would not take responsibility."

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Patrick has been one of the more outspoken figures in her sport in support of Trump and Republicans over the last year. She most recently suggested it must be difficult for California residents to accept how their state is managed after the government response to the LA wildfires. 

After Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) CEO and Chief Engineer Janisse Quiñones said Wednesday teams have struggled to maintain water pressure on the system, which allows water to be pushed into fire hydrants, Patrick responded with a post on X. 

"California has 840 miles of coast line and 3,000 lakes and reservoirs. Why don’t they have enough water to fix any and all fires?" she wrote on X.

"At some point I have to imagine it’s getting difficult for hardcore Cali lovers to accept the state of their state and how it’s managed."

She then wrote that it's time for Gov. Gavin Newsom to resign, using the term "Newscum."

In October, Patrick confirmed in an interview on "Jesse Watters Primetime" she would be casting her first-ever vote for president in 2024, and it would be for Trump. 

"It feels like voting for Donald Trump is like the vote of reason. It’s like the rational, reasonable choice," Patrick told Watters. 

Patrick added she doesn't understand why "MAGA," or Trump's slogan of "Make America Great Again," is considered an "insult" to some. 

"I feel like, most of all, though, what this country could be if he gets into office, with all the amazing, brilliant people who are supporting him, I feel like it can not only make America great again, but make America greater than it’s ever been," she said.

In that same interview, she expressed her belief that transgender athletes should not be allowed to compete in women's sports, which became a key campaign issue for Trump and Republicans in 2024. 

"It’s completely wrong," Patrick said of transgender athletes being allowed to compete as women. "And this is coming from someone who was a woman who was basically in a man’s sport. A man is just different. Their hormones are different. Their body is different."

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President Donald Trump confirmed on Friday that he has terminated the security detail provided to Dr. Anthony Fauci at the taxpayer's expense.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) requested security for Fauci in 2020 to protect him from threats he received as the top health official and public spokesperson during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Trump earlier revoked the security clearances of 51 intelligence officials who had wrongly claimed that Hunter Biden's laptop had "all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation," as well as the details provided to former national security advisor John Bolton and ex-CIA Director Mike Pompeo.

This is a breaking story and will be updated.

High-profile Democrats and former President Biden, himself, warned about blanket, preemptive pardons before Biden ultimately granted passes to Dr. Anthony Fauci, retired Gen. Mark Milley and members of his family in the 11th hour of his administration.

"The precedent of giving blanket pardons, preemptive blanket pardons on the way out of an administration, I think, is a precedent we don't want to set," now-Sen. Adam Schiff warned on ABC's "This Week" in December. 

Biden ended his term in the Oval Office on Monday, when President Trump was sworn in as the 47th president of the United States. But hours before the inauguration, the White House announced pardons for both Fauci and Milley and those involved in the January 6 select committee investigation – though those individuals were not identified by name. 

And just 22 minutes before leaving office, Biden also pardoned his family, including his brother James B. Biden, sister Valerie Biden Owens, brother-in-law John T. Owens, and brother Francis W. Biden. The former president had previously issued a blanket pardon to his adult son, Hunter Biden, after he was convicted in two separate federal cases last year.  

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"My family has been subjected to unrelenting attacks and threats, motivated solely by a desire to hurt me – the worst kind of partisan politics. Unfortunately, I have no reason to believe these attacks will end," Biden said in a statement pardoning his family. 

Speculation had mounted that Biden would issue blanket pardons and preemptive pardons to those viewed as Trump's political foes, such as former Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, as well as Milley and Fauci and members of the Biden family. 

Democrats stretching from former President Bill Clinton to Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., warned Biden against issuing such pardons in the waning days of his administration. 

BIDEN PARDONS MARK MILLEY, ANTHONY FAUCI, J6 COMMITTEE MEMBERS

"If President Biden wanted to talk to me about that, I would talk to him about it. But I don't think I should be giving public advice on the pardon power. I think it's too – it's a very personal thing, but it is – I hope he won't do that," Clinton said of preemptive pardons on "The View."

Illinois Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin also warned against such pardons in an interview on CNN last month, remarking, "when we talk about a preemptive pardon, where does it start and where does it stop?"

Klobuchar echoed that sentiment in the same month. 

"I am not a fan of these [preemptive pardons]," she said. "I didn't like the pardon of the president's son. I didn't think that that was prudent. But I also am very concerned about this idea of preemptive pardons."

Biden, too, had warned against preemptive pardons before he took office in 2020, at a time when speculation swirled that Trump would pardon his children and personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani. 

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"It concerns me in terms of what kind of precedent it sets and how the rest of the world looks (at) us as a nation of laws and justice," Biden said in an interview with CNN in December 2020. 

Trump ultimately did not pardon his adult children or the former mayor of New York City. 

Following the 11th hour pardons for Milley, Fauci and staff of the Jan. 6 Select Committee and family, political leaders and lawmakers slammed the decision, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. 

"One of Biden’s greatest abuses of power was the forcing of mRNA shots by executive fiat (which Florida successfully blocked). Now, on his way out the door, Biden pardons the chief henchman of that and so many other abuses. The swamp protects its own," said DeSantis, a Republican, on Monday. 

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Fauci was the national spokesman for the nation's pandemic response, including advising then-President Trump in 2020 on how to handle COVID-19 as it swept across communities.

But his favor with the president waned over time, with Trump slamming him and fellow pandemic task force adviser Dr. Deborah Birx as "two self-promoters trying to reinvent history to cover for their bad instincts and faulty recommendations."

FAUCI RIPPED OVER NEW PAPER CRITICIZING TRUMP ON CORONAVIRUS, PROMOTING NATURAL ORIGIN THEORY: 'EMBARRASSMENT'

Fauci said Monday he appreciates his pardon, though he stressed he has "committed no crime." 

"I really truly appreciate the action President Biden has taken today on my behalf," Fauci told ABC News chief Washington correspondent Jonathan Karl.

"Let me be perfectly clear, Jon, I have committed no crime, you know that, and there are no possible grounds for any allegation or threat of criminal investigation or prosecution of me," he continued.

DR. FAUCI SAYS HE APPRECIATES PRESIDENT BIDEN'S PARDON BUT INSISTS 'NO CRIME' WAS COMMITTED

Milley, the former chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, also has a contentious relationship with Trump and his supporters. He had called Trump a "fascist" and "the most dangerous person to this country" just ahead of the November election. 

WHO ELSE MIGHT BIDEN PARDON AFTER HE SPARED HUNTER FROM SENTENCING?

Trump has repeatedly slammed Milley since leaving office, including after the United States' botched withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, when he called Milley a "loser who shamed us in Afghanistan and elsewhere!"

After the election, Milley appeared to walk back his characterization of Trump as a "fascist," saying ​​America will "be OK" under Trump’s second administration.

Liz Cheney, the Republican former congresswoman from Wyoming, and Mississippi Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson, the Jan. 6 House Select Committee chair, were also targets of Trump's ire. Biden did not mention Cheney or Thompson by name in his statement, instead pardoning "staff who served on the Select Committee."

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"The issuance of these pardons should not be mistaken as an acknowledgment that any individual engaged in any wrongdoing, nor should acceptance be misconstrued as an admission of guilt for any offense," Biden said in a White House statement. "Our nation owes these public servants a debt of gratitude for their tireless commitment to our country." 

Republican lawmakers are reacting furiously to President Biden's 11th-hour decision to pardon several allies who President-elect Trump and his circle have threatened retribution against, made hours before ceding power to the new commander in chief.

"Implication is that they needed the pardons," Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, wrote on X, formerly Twitter. "So, let’s call them all before Congress and demand the truth. If they refuse or lie – let’s test the constitutional ‘reach’ of these pardons with regard to their future actions."

Biden announced early on Monday that he was issuing preemptive pardons for Dr. Anthony Fauci, retired Gen. Mark Milley, and members and staff of the now-defunct House select committee on the Jan. 6 Capitol attack.

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., now the chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee after Republicans swept the Senate and White House in November, pledged to investigate Fauci in particular with his new leadership power. Fauci has already been the subject of multiple inquiries and public attacks by Paul, who accused him of mismanaging the COVID-19 pandemic, along with other government officials. Fauci has consistently defended his actions, stating that they were solely guided by science.

BIDEN COMMUTES NEARLY 2,500 MORE SENTENCES IN FINAL DAYS OF PRESIDENCY

"If there was ever any doubt as to who bears responsibility for the COVID pandemic, Biden’s pardon of Fauci forever seals the deal. As Chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, I will not rest until the entire truth of the coverup is exposed," Paul wrote on X. "Fauci’s pardon will only serve as an accelerant to pierce the veil of deception."

Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Ga., said in his own statement: "Joe Biden just issued preemptive pardons for Mark Milley, Anthony Fauci, and Members of Congress and staff of the sham J6 Committee. In its final hours, the most CORRUPT Administration in American history is covering up Democrats’ trail of criminal activity."

"Sneaking this through in the last hours of his presidency only makes them look more guilty. What’s he so desperate to hide? It’s been clear to any honest observer that there is plenty to investigate," said Rep. Doug LaMalfa, R-Calif., chairman of the House Western Caucus.

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On the other side of the aisle, Rep. Brendan Boyle, D-Pa., the top Democrat on the House Budget Committee, praised the decision and accused Trump of abusing his power.

"As someone who strongly advocated for these pardons, I applaud President Biden for making this bold and righteous decision. Trump has repeatedly abused power to serve his own interests and threatened to punish his political opponents," Boyle said in a statement. "These pardons are essential to protecting the public servants and law enforcement who defended our democracy and worked tirelessly to keep us safe."

Trump has previously threatened retribution against his critics when he returned to the White House, though he's also clarified at times that he believed his second term would be retribution enough.

Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., who leads a subcommittee investigating the Jan. 6 committee's probe, called for the criminal prosecution of the former panel's vice chair, ex-Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., in a 128-page report. Cheney said the report "intentionally disregards the truth and the Select Committee's tremendous weight of evidence, and instead fabricates lies and defamatory allegations in an attempt to cover up what Donald Trump did."

The incoming president has pardoned political allies like Paul Manafort and Michael Flynn, though unlike Biden's latest decision, both were charged by the Department of Justice (DOJ) when those pardons were issued.

There is precedent for preemptive pardons, however. Former President Gerald Ford preemptively pardoned Richard Nixon after the Watergate scandal.

Fauci said in a statement regarding the pardon, "Despite the accomplishments that my colleagues and I achieved over my long career of public service, I have been the subject of politically motivated threats of investigation and prosecution. There is absolutely no basis for these threats. Let me be perfectly clear: I have committed no crime and there are no possible grounds for any allegation or threat of criminal investigation or prosecution of me. The fact is, however, that the mere articulation of these baseless threats, and the potential that they will be acted upon, create immeasurable and intolerable distress for me and my family. For these reasons, I acknowledge and appreciate the action that President Biden has taken today on my behalf."

Milley said he and his family were "deeply grateful" for Biden's decision.

"After forty-three years of faithful service in uniform to our Nation, protecting and defending the Constitution, I do not wish to spend whatever remaining time the Lord grants me fighting those who unjustly might seek retribution for perceived slights. I do not want to put my family, my friends, and those with whom I served through the resulting distraction, expense, and anxiety," Milley said. "It has been an honor and a privilege to serve our great country in uniform for over four decades, and I will continue to keep faith and loyalty to our nation and Constitution until my dying breath."

Fox News Digital has reached out to the members of the Jan. 6 committee who are still serving in Congress for comment. 

Fox News' Jennifer Griffin contributed to this report

President Biden pardoned  Gen. Mark Milley, and others who some speculated may have faced investigations under the incoming Trump administration on Monday.

Biden's pardons come just hours before he is set to depart the White House and President-elect Trump takes the oath of office once again. The pardon also applies to a litany of people involved in the January 6 select committee investigation.

In addition to the named individuals, the pardon applies to, "Members of Congress and staff who served on the Select Committee, and the U.S. Capitol and D.C. Metropolitan police officers who testified before the Select Committee."

Notably, Special Counsel Jack Smith, former FBI Director Christopher Wray and Attorney General Merrick Garland are not included in the pardon, despite speculation that they may face backlash from the incoming administration.

HUNTER BIDEN PARDON: MEDIA TAKES LATEST BLOW TO CREDIBILITY WITH BOTCHED COVERAGE OF BROKEN PROMISE

Fauci accepted the pardon in a statement shortly after Biden announced the move, claiming he was subject to "politically motivated threats of investigation and prosecution."

"Let me be perfectly clear: I have committed no crime and there are no possible grounds for any allegation or threat of criminal investigation or prosecution of me. The fact is, however, that the mere articulation of these baseless threats, and the potential that they will be acted upon, create immeasurable and intolerable distress for me and my family. For these reasons, I acknowledge and appreciate the action that President Biden has taken today on my behalf," Fauci wrote.

Milley thanked Biden in a similar statement on Monday.

"My family and I are deeply grateful for the President’s action today," he wrote. "After forty-three years of faithful service in uniform to our Nation, protecting and defending the Constitution, I do not wish to spend whatever remaining time the Lord grants me fighting those who unjustly might seek retribution for perceived slights.

"I do not want to put my family, my friends, and those with whom I served through the resulting distraction, expense, and anxiety," he added.

Condemnation of the move began to pour in almost immediately on Monday. Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., blasted Biden's legacy minutes after the order dropped.

"The guy who claimed he would ‘protect norms’ continues to bulldoze them and the Constitution until the bitter end. Biden truly is one of the worst Presidents in American history and will only be remembered as the guy between Trump’s two terms," Schmitt wrote on X.

HUNTER BIDEN SAYS HIS MISTAKES WERE ‘EXPLOITED’ FOR POLITICAL SPORT, SAYS HE WON'T TAKE PARDON FOR GRANTED

Biden had teased the possibility of issuing pre-emptive pardons weeks ago in an interview with USA Today. Biden's pardons at the end of his term have proven to be some of his most controversial actions as president, particularly the pardon for his son, Hunter Biden.

Biden had repeatedly vowed that he would not intervene on his son's behalf, but he issued a blanket pardon regardless. The president later claimed that he had broken the promise after finding out Hunter had paid his back taxes.

Biden's pardon of Hunter was defended in some corners as a natural move from someone protecting his own family, but many prominent figures derided it as a craven flip-flop that would damage the White House and the president's legacy.

"Everyone looks stupid," Pod Save America co-host and ex-Obama aide Tommy Vietor said at the time. "Everyone looks like they are full of s---. And Republicans are going to use this to argue it was politics as usual when Democrats warned of Trump's corruption or threat to the rule or the threat to democracy."

Fox News' David Rutz contributed to this report

Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra warned against the impact of a preemptive presidential pardon for people like Dr. Anthony Fauci just hours after President Biden said in an interview that he was still considering it.

"It sinks my heart to think that we’re going to use the pardon process in a way that will follow the whims of whoever’s in the White House," Becerra, who previously served as California's attorney general before taking his post at HHS, said in an interview with The New York Times on Wednesday. Becerra noted that he was speaking from his legal background as opposed to his position in Biden's Cabinet.

"I think we should hold that power, that only a president has, in very high regard," he continued. "Because otherwise it becomes pedestrian, and it’s used anywhere, and I don’t think that should be the case."

When the HHS secretary was asked directly if he meant that the president should not pardon Fauci, who was Biden's former chief medical adviser during the pandemic and served as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for several decades, Becerra declined to clarify.

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"I won’t try to interpret what you’re hearing; I just told you what I think," he replied. 

Becerra's comments came hours after Biden's final interview as president with a print publication, during which he said preemptive pardons for Trump's political targets were still under consideration.

President-elect Trump's nominees for director of the FBI and attorney general, Kash Patel and Pam Bondi, respectively, have previously indicated they are in favor of using the Justice Department to go after people they believe unfairly targeted Trump. 

Meanwhile, Republicans in Congress and some of Trump's top transition advisers, such as Elon Musk, have argued that Fauci should be prosecuted over his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Trump's nominee to be the successor to Becerra, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., said while he was running for president — before joining Trump's team — that he would prosecute Fauci if he won the November election and his attorney general determined that crimes had been committed in Fauci's handling of the coronavirus. During the pandemic, Fauci was accused of working to evade public records laws and lying to Congress in apparent efforts to conceal the origins of the virus.  

Democrats are split on whether Biden should offer preemptive pardons to public officials who may be politically targeted by Trump.

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"If we’re serious about stopping Trump’s authoritarian ambitions, we need to act decisively and use every tool at our disposal. Norms and traditions alone won’t stop — Trump has shown time and again that he’s willing to ignore them to consolidate power and punish his opponents," Rep. Brendan Boyle, D-Pa., said in a statement last month calling on Biden to issue a blanket pardon for Trump's political foes. "The time for cautious restraint is over. We must act with urgency to push back against these threats and prevent Trump from abusing his power."

Legal experts have said that Biden has the authority to issue preemptive pardons, citing a precedent set by former President Gerald Ford when he granted a blanket pardon to Richard Nixon for any crimes committed while in office, even though Nixon had not been charged with anything after resigning following the Watergate scandal.

Fox News Digital reached out to HHS for comment but did not receive a response in time for publication.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the public face of the federal government's coronavirus pandemic response, is facing criticism on social media over a manuscript published in a top journal where he maintains his position that the virus originated in nature and cites a debunked claim that President-elect Trump told Americans to inject themselves with bleach to stop the virus.

Fauci, along with researcher Gregory Folkers, published a paper in the Clinical Infectious Diseases journal this week with the title, "HIV/AIDS and COVID-19: Shared Lessons from Two Pandemics."

Fauci, who faced intense criticism for his handling of the pandemic, was critical of Trump’s handling of the pandemic in the paper.

"With COVID-19, the role of political leadership at the highest level – or the lack thereof – was again shown to be critical," the authors wrote. "As COVID-19 exploded globally and in the United States, President Donald Trump frequently minimized the seriousness of the pandemic, repeatedly claiming that COVID-19 would just ‘go away’ In the first full year of the pandemic (2020, the last year of his presidency) he failed to use his bully pulpit to encourage people to use available ‘low-tech’ tools such as masks/respirators, better ventilation, and physical distancing to reduce the risk of infection."

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"Trump also gave credence to unproven and potentially dangerous substances for COVID-19 prevention and treatment such as bleach injections, the antimalarial hydroxychloroquine and the anti-parasitic drug ivermectin. Many of his hundreds of communications during the COVID-19 pandemic were missed opportunities for political leadership in promoting policies and practices to mitigate the impact of a raging pandemic."

The paper also says that "abundant evidence from top evolutionary virologists and leading scientists in other fields strongly suggests that the virus jumped species from an animal reservoir to humans in the Huanan market in Wuhan, China, and then spread throughout China and the rest of the world." 

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Several media outlets have fact-checked and debunked the claim that Trump instructed people to inject themselves with bleach including Politifact, which called President Biden’s accusation "mostly false."

"Fauci is an embarrassment," conservative communicator Steve Guest posted on X.

"Oy vey," National Review contributor Pradeep Shanker posted on X.

"Fauci is out with a new scientific paper on HIV/AIDS & COVID-19 where he falsely claims Trump told people to inject bleach & where he argues COVID-19 has a natural origin (Wuhan lab leak not even mentioned) by citing the same authors who wrote the infamous Proximal Origins paper," author and journalist Jerry Dunleavy posted on X. 

Fox News Digital reached out to the NIH for comment but did not immediately receive a response.