After the pardons were announced, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky — both Republicans — posted to X claiming that issuing pardons to Fauci, Milley and others implied they were guilty of a crime, as did other right-leaning accounts on the platform.

Dr. Anthony Fauci helped coordinate the nation’s response to the COVID pandemic. He has never been charged with a crime, yet received a “full and unconditional” pardon back to Jan. 1, 2014.

President Biden noted that the "should not be mistaken as an acknowledgment that any individual engaged in any wrongdoing."