(NewsNation) — TV personality Dr. Phil McGraw accused Dr. Anthony Fauci of being “power hungry” and caring more about control than the truth during the initial COVID-19 pandemic response.

“What’s the old saying — power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely,” McGraw said Monday on NewsNation’s “On Balance” when asked about Fauci’s testimony to Congress regarding allegations he covered up the origins of COVID-19.

“We had people that were not elected, they were just appointed to certain positions, that had too much power and control over our lives.”

McGraw, whose advice show has been on the air since 2002, was highly critical of pandemic lockdowns from an early stage. In 2020, he questioned why “we’re shutting the country down” for COVID-19 when far more people die yearly from other causes such as auto accidents.

The TV psychologist said officials such as Fauci, who led the U.S. infectious disease response as head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases until 2022, did “what was politically expedient” rather than following the science.

“They did what they felt like doing at the time, because they had a new hammer and everything looked like a nail,” McGraw said. “They had the ability to shut things down. And so all of a sudden, everything looked like it needed to be shut down.”

McGraw argued that Fauci and other officials shut down businesses and schools with no clear plan for reopening. He was particularly concerned about the negative impacts of closed schools on children’s mental health and emotional development.

McGraw’s comments came after Fauci testified before the Republican-led House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, pushing back against allegations of a cover-up. The subcommittee’s probe has not found evidence linking Fauci to wrongdoing regarding the origins of the virus.