Dr. Anthony Fauci accused Sen. Rand Paul on Tuesday of raising campaign funds off false attacks on him that have encouraged threats on Fauci’s life.

The attacks on Fauci, who is President Biden’s chief medical adviser on the coronavirus and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, have grown increasingly hostile in recent months, and Fauci has been under stepped-up security protection since 2020.

Fauci called Paul’s repeated attacks a distortion of reality and blamed such falsehoods for spurring threats on his life. He cited the arrest of a California man in Iowa last month who police said was traveling to Washington with an AR-15 rifle and multiple magazines of ammunition. The man allegedly had a “hit list” including Fauci and several others, mostly Democratic politicians.