"He doesn't know my husband, and he doesn't know my family. So I'm not sure why he feels willing to comment on my personal life," Dr. Demetre Daskalakis said.
Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, a former top official at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, completely unloaded on Kentucky Senator Rand Paul Saturday morning after the Republican lawmaker criticized his "lifestyle."
"You know, he doesn't know me," Daskalakis told CNN's Victor Blackwell. "He doesn't know my husband, and he doesn't know my family. So I'm not sure why he feels willing to comment on my personal life."
Daskalakis, a gay man and advocate for LGBTQ+ health, defended himself from a barrage of MAGA fury this week following his recent resignation from the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz (R), who was once the center of online mockery for liking a hardcore porn video on Twitter, flew over to X to repost photos that showed Daskalakis scantily clad or wearing leather gear. Cruz asked his followers, "Would you trust this guy to make sensitive medical decisions for your family???"
Daskalakis responded to Cruz's comments on X, writing, "I guess you can't argue against the fact that public health is being destroyed... so instead you repost my instagram."
The former vaccine chief called the attack "so 2022," a reference to when right-wing critics called him a Satanist after they spotted a pentagram tattoo in one of his shirtless pictures. He noted at the time that the tattoo included the words, "I believe there's a light even in the darkest place."
Paul's longer form attack on Daskalakis came Tuesday in an interview with The Hill. The senator expressed opposition to infant vaccinations against hepatitis B, and said that Daskalakis was the "biggest proponent of doing all this."
"A guy that is so far ... out of the mainstream, I think most people in America would discount his opinion because of the things he said in the past. He does not represent the mainstream of anything in America," Paul said.
The Kentucky lawmaker and licensed ophthalmologist went on to say Daskalakis "should have never had a position in government," adding that he "brags about his lifestyle."
"You know, this whole idea of bondage and, you know, multiple partners and all that stuff," Paul told the outlet. "He brags about that stuff, but he's got no business being in government. It's good riddance."
Daskalakis told Blackwell on Saturday, "I don't care what the senator says about my personal life."
"My record of public service, ending outbreaks and protecting the public health stands for itself," he continued.
Daskalakis then took aim at Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr., saying Paul has "adequate evidence" that Kennedy is "hazardous to the health of American children and other vulnerable people."