Greetings, Dear Reader,
I intended to get to this sooner, but honestly, managing a journalism training program takes a fair bit of time. Plus, Rand Paul released a massive stack of Anthony Fauci documents—over a thousand pages, to be exact.
So, yes, I’m a bit late to the discussion.
But here’s the upside for you, Dear Reader: my rule about arriving late is to come dressed to impress. Then, everyone forgets you were tardy!
Dr. Fauci and Mr. Drumpf
Dr. Anthony Fauci is the version of Donald Drumpf that the left always imagined Trump would be.
The collection of documents Rand Paul referred to as Fauci’s “diary”—though it’s more like preliminary notes for a future memoir—reveals an inner monologue that’s so self-admiring and inflated it could embarrass Trump. Fauci even labeled himself as “the most credible scientist in the world” and claimed to be “the most famous and talked about person in the world.” He bizarrely recounted discovering prayer beads that featured his likeness as a Catholic saint.
We’ve known for a while that Fauci had a duplicitous side. It’s been clear for years that he misled about things like the lab leak theory, his funding of the Wuhan lab, gain-of-function research, and the misinformation campaigns. While I think it’s important to highlight these issues—especially his acknowledgment that most scientists suspected the virus was engineered—I don’t find that to be groundbreaking news.
Should he face jail time for these actions? Absolutely. Still, what stands out to me in these documents is how psychologically skewed Fauci seems. He appears to believe he’s almost godlike in status, and he certainly shouldn’t have been in a position to lead anything. Skepticism towards him was warranted, perhaps even necessary.
He mentioned how American university students applauded him while lounging on campus lawns—a real-life version of the “and then everyone clapped” meme. He noted the applause he received at restaurants and standing ovations before speeches. He joyfully recounted his conversations with Barbara Streisand and mentioned butt-dialing her later. He talked about the praise he garnered from celebrities and media personalities, akin to Trump showing off on stage, saying “people” “call” him all the time to compliment his work.
But, here’s the kicker—Fauci isn’t Trump on the campaign trail. This is a “diary,” after all; he’s essentially talking to himself. It adds another layer to the deeply disturbed psyche of Anthony Fauci. While Trump puffs himself up, Fauci seems to be gazing into a mirror, caught up in his own reflection.
“I’m a star… I’m a star, I’m a star, I’m a star,” Mark Wahlberg famously declares at the end of Boogie Nights, and it feels oddly applicable here.
On March 22, 2020, he wrote, “Press is going wild with me.” He detailed being front-page news in the Washington Post and having an op-ed by Maureen Dowd in the New York Times, along with a profile by Peter Nicholas in The Atlantic.
He received advice from Chris Wallace at Fox and dinner invitations from Chuck Todd and Jake Tapper. The media, in general, looks quite incompetent in this regard. They condemn Trump for threatening “Democracy,” but their approach to Fauci—an unelected official—has been quite lacking. He recalled closing schools in New York and California with just a couple of phone calls.
Really, mob bosses who make life-and-death decisions with phone calls display more self-awareness than Fauci, who seems almost amazed by his own power. “I can shut down schools! I can shut down whole states with a phone call!”
He meticulously noted the merchandise surrounding his image—the mugs, bobbleheads, bottle openers, and the St. Fauci iconography—though he concluded, rather unconvincingly, that he “did not like this one bit.”
Remarkably, he was even dishonest with himself in his own diary!
He often reflected on his encounters in high society, writing, “I was totally swamped” by fans seeking autographs and photos, without a hint of irony. “I couldn’t escape it… some might think it’s great to have people treat you like Elvis Presley.”
Yet, he still called the attention “unnerving,” as if he genuinely didn’t find joy in mingling with the “highest level AAA list” in Washington, D.C.
He recalled the notable guests at a party—“Super A list: Senator Mark Warner, Kellyanne Conway, Andrea Mitchell, David Ignatius,” and so on.
And if a party stands out as particularly gullible, it’s clearly the media.
It’s a tired narrative for conservatives to beat, but honestly, they all come off looking completely foolish now. The supposed defenders of democracy have missed the mark so badly over the past two decades. If an umpire had that poor of a track record, they wouldn’t stay employed.
Issues like Iraqi WMDs, DEI, illegal immigration, and many others have perhaps been overshadowed by the COVID crisis and Fauci’s role.
That call was way off the mark, yet Jake Tapper, Andrea Mitchell, CBS, the New York Times, and others acted as though it was a strike.
The idea of Anthony Fauci—a self-made cult figure—has possibly caused one of the most significant breaches of the American Republic in history.
We’re only beginning to see the extent of the damage. Learning losses, lasting effects on childhood, widespread death and destruction, businesses wiped out, millions deceased, and compounding issues with accountability. People were trapped in their homes, and many liberal adults ended up neurotic about mask-wearing in 2022.
All of this stems from the incredibly misguided thinking of Anthony Fauci.
So now we see it clearly. Dr. Fauci embodies the version of Mr. Drumpf that the political left always accused Trump of being.
And they welcomed his influence. “Destroy democracy, Dr. Fauci, do it harder.” They stood by as he undermined credibility more than Trump ever could, ruined the economy, and empowered China. Oh yes, we pray to you, St. Anthony.
I suppose the silver lining here, Dear Reader, is that our side had him figured out from the beginning.
Yes, the very same ordinary folks the media so often looks down upon. They recognized the true conman from the start.
At least we know that there are true guardians of the American spirit striving to resist the power-hungry folks and self-important experts.
Amen.
