A Senate panel investigating Dr. Anthony Fauci has reportedly obtained a copy of the cellphone he used during the COVID-19 pandemic ahead of a key committee vote Thursday to hold him in contempt of Congress. 
The <a href="https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/anthony-fauci-covid-phone-senate-96ebd8be?st=68LAAW">Wall Street Journal</a> reported Wednesday that the Department of Health and Human Services, which is led by Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr, transferred a copy of the phone&#8217;s records to the Senate Homeland Security Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. 
Fauci used the phone during his tenure as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, according to The Journal, which also revealed that Sens. Ron Johnson (R-WI) and Rand Paul (R-KY) have obtained &#8220;millions of additional Fauci-related pages&#8221; from government servers.
On Wednesday, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/when-it-comes-to-anthony-fauci-rand-paul-is-just-getting-started?topStoryPosition=undefined&amp;author=Mary+Margaret+Olohan&amp;category=Original&amp;elementPosition=0&amp;row=1&amp;rowHeadline=Top+Stories&amp;rowType=Top+Stories&amp;title=When+It+Comes+To+Anthony+Fauci%2C+Rand+Paul+Is+Just+Getting+Started">The Daily Wire</a> interviewed Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Rand Paul, whose release of Fauci&#8217;s private diaries helped set the stage for an explosive Capitol Hill hearing where Fauci invoked the Fifth Amendment more than 100 times.
“Historically, votes like this have gone to the full Senate, but I think there’s no absolute rule that says we can’t send it directly to the Department of Justice,” Paul said. “So my plan is that if we win the vote on Thursday, to immediately send it to the Department of Justice with a recommendation for prosecution, even if it passes the whole Senate.”
Paul’s office sent two criminal referrals to the Biden Justice Department, the senator said, and two more under President Donald Trump’s administration.
“This will be the first time that our entire committee or the majority of our committee sends it,” he noted. “So we’ll see what happens. We’ll discuss with [Senate Majority Leader John] Thune whether or not he thinks he can get the votes to do it on the floor.”
A floor vote would require 60 votes to pass, meaning Democrats would have to cooperate. Last week, Thune said that Fauci’s answers were “completely inadequate” and that the floor vote was “certainly an option that ought to be available to us.”
Paul told The Daily Wire that he does not expect Democrats to support a contempt vote and that he wants the Justice Department to prosecute Fauci for contempt of Congress. He plans to send the DOJ a legal brief arguing that Fauci could not invoke the Fifth Amendment because President Joe Biden&#8217;s pardon eliminated any risk of self-incrimination, leaving him with only an obligation to answer truthfully.
Statutory penalties for <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/2/192">contempt of Congress</a>, a federal misdemeanor, carry fines between $100 and $100,000 and a mandatory sentence of one to 12 months in prison.
“This is an important case because I think a lot of people anticipate that President Trump is going to issue similar pardons to many people in his administration who will end up being called before Congress, and the precedent here is important,” Mark Osler, a law professor and pardon power expert, told the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/fauci-fifth-amendment-congress-justice-department-paul-868a0dfcf016d830571fb6a78afae4f9">Associated Press. </a>
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US-POLITICS-HEALTH-VIRUS-HEARING

Fauci’s COVID Phone Turned Over To Senate Panel Ahead Of Contempt Vote

Anthony Fauci

Coronavirus

COVID-19

fauci diaries

Health

Investigations

News

Pandemic

Politics

Rand Paul

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Senate

U.S. Senate

Newly released emails show that Dr. Anthony Fauci, while serving as a top member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, pressured Dr. Deborah Birx to back his play and conspired to get Dr. Scott Atlas ousted from the team.
In a series of emails shared by economic historian Phil Magness on Monday, Fauci spoke with other officials like Birx and then-NIH Director Francis Collins about how to get rid of Atlas and how they could best coordinate their efforts to discredit the &#8220;Great Barrington Declaration&#8221; — which made the case against broad lockdowns and advocated for achieving herd immunity by providing &#8220;focused protection&#8221; for vulnerable populations — and its authors.
The exchange began on October 11, 2020, when Fauci shared an article from the far-left publication &#8220;The Nation&#8221; with Collins. The article, written by epidemiologist Gregg Gonsalves, framed the ideas of herd immunity and focused protection as &#8220;deadly delusions.&#8221; On October 14, Gonsalves <a href="https://x.com/PhilWMagness/status/2084428976047509686">responded</a> to both Collins and Fauci in an email with a subject line that read, &#8220;Thank You For Your Frank Comments on Herd Immunity (Larry Kramer Would Be Proud).&#8221;
Further correspondence from that same day showed Fauci coordinating with Gonsalves, Birx complaining about Atlas, and Fauci bragging to Gonsalves about how he was working to <a href="https://x.com/PhilWMagness/status/2084428093234573461">undermine</a> Atlas at the White House.
&#8220;I am trying to get this jerk shut down by working from within the White House,&#8221; Fauci said of Atlas. &#8220;They promise they will handle it and nothing happens. I will keep trying.&#8221;
&#8220;I&#8217;m just glad it&#8217;s in the open who has been undermining Tony and I at the White House and who was manipulating the data,&#8221; Birx replied. &#8220;We are pushing back very hard.&#8221;
In another <a href="https://x.com/PhilWMagness/status/2084429691016958291">October 14 email</a>, Fauci compared proponents of the Great Barrington Declaration (GBD) to &#8220;AIDS denialists&#8221; — a move that Magness found ironic since Fauci himself had spread false information about AIDS in the 1980s, saying that it could be transmitted through casual contact.
Gonsalves continued to complain about  GBD advocates in yet another email from <a href="https://x.com/PhilWMagness/status/2084427800740536813">October 14</a>, saying, &#8220;Don&#8217;t even get me started. Martin Kulldorff, Sunetra Gupta, and Jay Bhattacharya (with who I am part of a grant, BTW), can suck it. I have never been so ashamed of my community of epidemiologists/decision-scientists.&#8221;
On October 15, Fauci emailed Birx directly to relay a <a href="https://x.com/PhilWMagness/status/2084427218894135701">conversation</a> he&#8217;d had with presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner, saying that he&#8217;d been lobbying the White House adviser to help him get rid of Atlas.
&#8220;I really laid it on him but he still does not completely understand how dangerous this guy is. He is still in the realm of &#8216;differences of opinion,'&#8221; Fauci wrote, pressing Birx to follow up and drive the point home with Kushner. &#8220;You have got to speak with Jared and confirm what I said that this guy is killing people. I likened him to the AIDS denialists of the 1980s.&#8221;
The thread concludes with an <a href="https://x.com/PhilWMagness/status/2084425142944387310">email</a> sent by Fauci to Birx on October 16, 2020, in which he tells her what to say since he will not be present at task force meetings that day.
&#8220;Over the past week I have come out very strongly publicly against the &#8216;Great Barrington Declaration.&#8217; Scott Atlas may try to counter this. Please speak out for me,&#8221; Fauci directed, asserting that Atlas was also likely to deny the possibility that COVID-19 could cause residual effects. &#8220;This is all part of his theme that infections do not bother healthy people. Please speak out when he tries to play these things down.&#8221;
Fauci was supposed to testify on Capitol Hill last week, but spent the entirety of his time responding to questions — from queries about the origins of the pandemic to the color of his tie — by invoking his Fifth Amendment rights.

Dr. Fauci Testifies In House On COVID Origins

Emails Show How Fauci Conspired Against White House COVID Adviser

New Fauci Emails Show Him Pressuring Birx, Conspiring Against Atlas

Dr. Deborah Birx

Media

Scott Atlas

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. laid into CNN anchor Dana Bash during a Sunday morning interview, arguing that her network — and media across the board — had been complicit in efforts to silence anyone who raised questions about the COVID-19 pandemic orthodoxy.
Kennedy began by pointing out just how quickly Constitutional rights had been trampled as people who spoke out or refused the COVID-19 vaccines faced cancellation, getting fired from their jobs, or worse — and Bash immediately tried to move the conversation in a different direction.
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
This was a long-overdue moment on CNN.
RFK Jr. called out the network on air for helping to silence dissent during COVID.
Dana Bash was getting visibly irritated, after she repeatedly tried to move the conversation away from censorship.
Then he aimed his fire at Dana Bash… <a href="https://t.co/yHmIxjgz25">pic.twitter.com/yHmIxjgz25</a>
— Overton (@overton_news) <a href="https://x.com/overton_news/status/2083918836999332300?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 2, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.x.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;We need to protect our constitutional rights. That is the primary obligation in our country,” Kennedy began.
&#8220;What does that mean?&#8221; Bash asked.
&#8220;Well, during COVID, we completely dismantled our constitutional rights. We began censoring people in violation of the First Amendment,&#8221; he explained, but Bash interrupted.
&#8220;You’re saying what not to do, I’m asking what to do,&#8221; she protested.
Kennedy pushed back: &#8220;Well, that’s something to do. That is the number one priority: we protect the Constitution.&#8221;
&#8220;Forgive me, but you’re talking about rights and I’m asking about a potential public health crisis that is coming. But I do want to … let’s …&#8221; Bash tried to redirect him.
&#8220;And one of the mistakes we made last time was suppressing those rights. So people weren’t being heard. Doctors who were saying, ‘You’re doing it wrong,’ were being marginalized and vilified,&#8221; Kennedy made it clear that he was not going to be deterred.
Bash tried once more, saying, &#8220;Again, I really want to move on …”
&#8220;Yeah, of course you want to move on because you were part of the problem!&#8221; Kennedy shot back.
&#8220;No! I wasn’t part of the problem!&#8221; Bash objected.
&#8220;There was absolute press malpractice. Your job is to have a fierce skepticism toward authority, and you weren’t doing that,&#8221; Kennedy continued, arguing that many in media were to blame for doing the same. &#8220;You were beating up on people who were dissenting!&#8221;

HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr Testifies At Senate Finance Hearing

RFK Jr. Unloads On CNN Anchor Over COVID: ‘You Were Part Of The Problem!’

RFK Jr. Unloads On CNN Anchor Over COVID: 'You Were Part Of The Problem!'

Dana Bash

Dr. Ashish Jha the former White House COVID 19 Response Coordinator now <a href="https://x.com/joshrogin/status/2083955507455279595?s=46">says</a> the origin of the coronavirus pandemic was likely a lab leak from Wuhan than a natural outbreak.
Jha made the comments recently and described how his thinking has shifted. “This is going to surprise some people,” he said. “When I went into the White House, my view was this was almost surely a natural outbreak, maybe a lab leak. Based on information I’ve learned and based on information I’ve seen, I have come to conclude it is more likely to have been a lab leak … We still need transparency and accountability on this.”
Jha was very wary of the limits of what is known. He said that no one in the United States could know for sure, and that the only people who do know for sure are the officials in China who have been less than forthcoming with the information. Transparency and accountability remain necessary, he repeated.
The comments emerge as <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-hero-complex-that-held-america-hostage?author=Ben+Shapiro&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=The+Hero+Complex+That+Held+America+Hostage">details</a> from Anthony Fauci&#8217;s personal diary have drawn attention. Those private writings, released by Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), include an entry from as early as January 26, 2020, in which Fauci recorded that the virus almost certainly did not come from a wet market — a theory floated early on in the pandemic. The diary shows Fauci privately treated a laboratory connection as the more plausible explanation, despite his public insistence on a natural origin.
Jha presented his conclusion as his current best judgment after reviewing the information available to him. He did not claim final proof. The gap between early public emphasis on a natural spillover and the private assessments now coming to light keeps attention on how the origins question was handled even from the very beginning.
Both Jha&#8217;s comments and the diary entries underline the same basic problem: without fuller access to data and records from the relevant laboratories and early outbreak sites in Wuhan definitive answers stay incomplete.
The diary entries from Fauci show that private doubts about the wet market explanation existed at high levels from the first weeks of 2020. Jha has now put a similar assessment on the public record years later. Full answers still depend on greater transparency from the relevant officials in China.

Fauci Pleads The Fifth Amendment In Senate Covid Hearing

Biden COVID Czar Finally Admits Virus Came From Chinese Lab

Ashish Jha

Fauci hearing

White House

As newly released diary entries have thrust Dr. Anthony Fauci back into the spotlight, Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed&#8217;s own pandemic-era podcast offers a glimpse into just how closely he aligned himself with the former White House adviser.  
El-Sayed had hosted a podcast sporadically since 2019, but just seven days into the COVID-19 pandemic, he ramped up production to two episodes a week focused on the virus and public health policy. A review of the episodes by The Daily Wire found that El-Sayed repeatedly praised Fauci, defended his handling of the pandemic, and echoed many of his positions while attacking the former NIH official&#8217;s critics.
In a 2021 <a href="https://www.crooked.com/podcast/a-second-opinion-with-dr-anthony-fauci/">interview</a> with Fauci, El-Sayed described him as the “face of infectious disease science and medicine dating back all the way to the first outbreak of HIV/AIDS in the 80s.” 
“Throughout the pandemic, his honesty, candor, and stubborn insistence on science have been a source of confidence and comfort for many of us,&#8221; El-Sayed said while introducing Fauci. &#8220;Even if it’s meant he’s become a lightning rod for trolls on the right.” 
The “trolls on the right” comment seemed to be describing Fauci critics like Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY).
On Wednesday, Paul and Fauci met again in Congress after Paul released pages from Fauci&#8217;s diary that he says contradict the former COVID adviser&#8217;s public messaging on the virus&#8217;s origins, his views of political figures including President Trump, and his preoccupation with media attention and fame. 
During the 2021 interview, El-Sayed used the podcast episode to accuse Paul of putting politics ahead of science. Fauci agreed.
“Though he should know better, Dr. Senator Paul has chosen feeding red meat to his political base over following the science that he trained on,” said El-Sayed. “We were fortunate that Dr. Anthony Fauci was there to check him every single time.&#8221;
He lamented that &#8220;the country’s top infectious disease expert has to routinely spar with another doctor in the Senate over basic science around getting vaccinated or wearing a mask in the pandemic.”
El-Sayed also argued that Paul and other vaccine skeptics had exploited what he called the evolving nature of scientific guidance.
“People like Rand Paul and the legions of vaccine resisters they inspire have exploited a peculiar aspect of this pandemic,” El-Sayed said. “The fact that all of us are trying to interpret changing science in real time.”
Like Fauci, El-Sayed built much of his public profile during the pandemic by presenting himself as a physician and public health expert while advocating for some of the country&#8217;s most aggressive COVID mitigation measures. In 2021, he pushed for Michigan to go back under another statewide lockdown, suggested fining businesses that attempted to open, and criticized Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis for allowing kids to return to school without mask mandates.
The pandemic also elevated El-Sayed&#8217;s national profile. In addition to his podcast, he made frequent television appearances and later became a CNN contributor.
El-Sayed, who earned a medical degree but has never completed a residency or obtained a medical license to practice medicine, is now seeking Michigan&#8217;s open U.S. Senate seat.
Fauci&#8217;s diary resurfaced this week as he appeared before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. During Wednesday&#8217;s hearing, Fauci invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination 111 times while answering questions about the diary entries and his handling of the COVID pandemic.
Former President Joe Biden issued Fauci a preemptive pardon during the final hours of his presidency.

Abdul_Fauci_mirror

Could Americans Be Voting For Fauci 2.0 Without Realizing It?

Abdul El-Sayed

Dr. Fauci

Fauci

medicine

Michigan

Podcast

Dr. Anthony Fauci refused to turn around and face some of the people who were hurt by the draconian regulations and lockdowns he pushed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Fauci, on Capitol Hill for a Wednesday <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/fauci-faces-congress-as-explosive-diaries-take-center-stage?topStoryPosition=undefined&amp;author=Daily+Wire&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=0&amp;row=1&amp;rowHeadline=Top+Stories&amp;rowType=Top+Stories&amp;title=After+Fauci+Pleads+The+Fifth%2C+Rand+Paul+Makes+Contempt+Move">hearing</a> reviewing his statements and actions throughout the pandemic, spent most of his time refusing to answer questions — even those as benign as &#8220;what color is your tie?&#8221; — and invoking his Fifth Amendment rights. But under direct questions from Senator Bernie Moreno (R-OH), Fauci took things a step further and refused to even look at the people seated behind him in the gallery.
Moreno first asked if Fauci could identify his own attorney, who had just been kicked out of the hearing for repeatedly attempting to speak when he hadn&#8217;t been called on. &#8220;Who is David Schertler?&#8221; Moreno asked, and Fauci immediately invoked the Fifth Amendment — prompting Moreno to ask what the Fifth Amendment said.
Fauci, after a brief consultation with his attorney, did not answer but again invoked his rights.
Moreno went on to explain that Schertler previously represented disgraced former Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and was known as the guy to call &#8220;when you&#8217;re in deep sh*t.&#8221; Schertler represented Menendez&#8217;s campaign and his wife in 2023, who were the subjects of a Justice Department probe at the time.
Turning back to Fauci, Moreno asked, &#8220;Do you feel like you&#8217;re in deep sh*t?&#8221;
Fauci again invoked his Fifth Amendment rights.
&#8220;Clearly what you think today is that somehow you&#8217;re above reproach. Somehow you feel like you don&#8217;t need to be treated like a normal American,&#8221; Moreno said to Fauci, and then pivoted to address the audience. &#8220;Can you do me a favor, in the audience, and stand up if during the time of the COVID pandemic, you were called a &#8216;racist&#8217; for calling the virus the &#8216;Wuhan virus&#8217; or the &#8216;China virus,&#8217; if you thought the six-foot rule was total crap, if you thought the vaccine wasn&#8217;t something that you should take, if you thought it was outrageous the way the mask policy was rolled out, if you were fired from your job for not taking that vaccine — including members of the military — if you thought closing schools was catastrophically stupid, and &#8230; saying these things made you somehow a lesser human being.&#8221;
People in the gallery began to stand up in the rows behind Fauci — just two or three at first, and then more than a dozen were standing.
&#8220;Dr. Fauci, could you just turn and look at the people behind you?&#8221; Moreno asked. Fauci ignored the request and looked straight ahead. &#8220;You&#8217;re not willing to do that? It&#8217;s not a question. It&#8217;s not a question.&#8221;
One of Fauci&#8217;s lawyers tapped him on the shoulder then, and while he did turn to speak with the attorney, he kept his head low and pointedly did not look at the people standing behind him.
&#8220;To your lawyers, it&#8217;s not a question, it&#8217;s a request,&#8221; Moreno added. &#8220;All you have to do is look up from your lawyers and look at the people who were absolutely shamed for saying what we now know to be the truth. You can&#8217;t even look at them? That&#8217;s a question. Are you able to look at them?&#8221;
When Fauci still said nothing, Moreno told the audience members that they could sit. Fauci&#8217;s mic was off, but he could barely be heard repeating his invocation of the Fifth Amendment like a mantra as they sat.

Fauci Won’t Even Look At People Hurt By COVID Regulations He Pushed

Lockdowns

School Lockdowns

President Donald Trump unloaded on Dr. Anthony Fauci on Tuesday morning, declaring that the former top doc’s star power plummeted whenever he was in the room with him.
&#8220;When he was with Biden, he was like the God. When he was with me, he wasn&#8217;t even close,&#8221; Trump told Fox News host Steve Doocy.
The president said he was never under the controversial doctor&#8217;s spell, revealing he would have kicked Fauci to the curb if he had known then what he knows now, claiming that he barely listened to him anyway.
Trump blasted Fauci’s flip-flops during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, calling out the dizzying, back-and-forth guidance on face coverings.
&#8220;He started off saying, &#8216;Don&#8217;t wear them.&#8217; Then he said, &#8216;Wear them.&#8217; Then he said, &#8216;Don&#8217;t wear them.&#8217; And I lost a lot of respect for him during the period of time,&#8221; Trump said, mocking the mixed signals. &#8220;I said, &#8216;What are you doing?'&#8221;
The president&#8217;s comments come after Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Rand Paul (R-KY) released a trove of previously private Fauci diaries ahead of Fauci&#8217;s expected testimony this Wednesday. The <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/faucis-personal-diary-highlights-shocking-contradiction-on-covid-fatality-rate">diaries</a> appear to show that Fauci misled Congress about the coronavirus fatality rate in the early days of the pandemic.
On Tuesday, Trump slammed Fauci’s obsession with locking down the nation, boasting that he stepped in as a &#8220;federalist&#8221; to let state governors call the shots instead of bowing to Washington bureaucrats.
While blue-state governors locked their doors and threw away the keys, Trump pointed out that red states opened up fast — and fared far better for it.
&#8220;He wanted everything closed,&#8221; Trump insisted. &#8220;It just turned out that closing wasn&#8217;t so good&#8230; Some of the states that fared the worst in terms of the spread were actually closed. OK, explain that. Nobody can explain that.&#8221;
Trump said he always maintained COVID came straight out of a Wuhan lab, which mainstream media and Fauci initially pooh-poohed. He touted his administration&#8217;s success with Operation Warp Speed and cranking out ventilators for the world.
As for Fauci, Trump claimed that he made sure to distance himself from the career bureaucrat. While he didn&#8217;t hate the man personally, Trump said he couldn&#8217;t stand his policies, taking a parting shot at President Biden for rolling out the red carpet for the doctor.
Not only did Biden treat Fauci like royalty, Trump noted, but he handed him a high-ranking post and a presidential pardon to boot, saying, &#8220;I didn&#8217;t agree with what he was saying or what he was doing. And when Biden came in, he inherited him and he gave him a tremendously high position. And then he gave him a pardon.&#8221;

Trump/Fauci

Trump Unloads On Fauci After Diary Revelations, Then Reveals ‘God’ Theory

COVID

Donald Trump

Dr. Anthony Fauci recommended White House adviser Stephen Miller move into a hotel for two weeks after his wife, Katie Miller, tested positive for COVID-19 while 10 weeks pregnant, according to newly released diary entries.
The entries were released Saturday by Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), who <a href="https://www.paul.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/2026.07.24_Tonys-Diary-Package.pdf">obtained</a> them during his investigation into the origins of COVID-19 and gain-of-function research ahead of Fauci&#8217;s planned testimony on Capitol Hill in the coming week.
&#8220;COVID-19 hits the White House!!&#8221; Fauci wrote on May 8, 2020. &#8220;Yesterday, it was revealed that the personal valet of the POTUS tested positive for Sars-CoV-2. However, today it was noted that Katie Miller tested positive. She was negative yesterday and positive X2 today!!!&#8221;
&#8220;She had sxs (sic) in the Sit room yesterday and sat next to Steve Hahn and behind Azar,&#8221; Fauci continued, listing a number of officials who had all attended the same briefing. &#8220;I was on the other side of the room from her, but she was coughing in the room. She sat next to Olivia Troye when she was coughing and, in the afternoon, yesterday, Olivia sat right next to me in the Ward Room of the West Wing for 45 minutes. In the room were Deb Birx, Steve Hahn, Bob Redfield, Tyler Ann, Seema Verma.&#8221;
Fauci went on to note that White House adviser Stephen Miller had tested negative even after his wife had tested positive — a relief for the White House chief medical adviser because he&#8217;d spent some time in close proximity to Miller.
&#8220;I spent much time on phone this evening advising Katie and Steve Miller as to what they should do,&#8221; Fauci continued. &#8220;She is 10 weeks pregnant. I advised that Steve must move out of the house into a hotel; he still has to self-isolate for 14 days. If he stays in the house, whether or not he gets infected, he still must self-isolate for 14 days after Katies (sic) tests negative. His clock will start after he separates from Katie and so he should start the clock now.&#8221;
Fauci explained that because he was a &#8220;low risk exposure,&#8221; he self-imposed a &#8220;modified quarantine&#8221; in which he would &#8220;get tested every day, would wear a mask ontinually (sic), and would spend most of my time either alone in my home office or alone in my NIH office and would go to White House or Congress with precautions of universal mask wearing and phycial (sic) distancing.&#8221;
He also noted that he was monitoring Katie Miller via phone, noting that she&#8217;d been very anxious about her health and that of her unborn child.
&#8220;She is very anxious about getting very ill since she is 10 weeks pregnant. Tonight she had an anxiety reaction. I calmed her over the phone. Her pulse Ox is fine and she is afebrile,&#8221; he wrote.
His other main concern was the fact that some of those who&#8217;d been seated close to Katie were not doing enough to mitigate the potential spread of the virus.
&#8220;Marc Short and others close to Katie really should do some sort of quarantine (even if modified), but they are not even wearing masks. Not a good metric,&#8221; he complained.

Stephen Miller

Fauci Advised Stephen Miller To Leave His Pregnant Wife Alone With COVID, Get A Hotel

Alex Azar

Robert Redfield

While publicly urging Americans to avoid family gatherings and maintain &#8220;social distance,&#8221; Dr. Anthony Fauci was also busy behind the scenes cultivating a chummy friendship with CNN anchor Jake Tapper.
Fauci&#8217;s meetings and family dinners with the longtime CNN personality were revealed in a series of <a href="https://www.paul.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/2026.07.24_Tonys-Diary-Package.pdf">diary entries</a> made public on Saturday by Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), who uncovered them during his lengthy and thorough investigation into Fauci and the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The former White House chief medical adviser thoroughly documented his actions throughout the pandemic — with a heavy focus on his own media appearances and coverage, particularly when it was overly flattering — and referenced an interview with Tapper that took place on April 12, 2020. During that interview, Fauci conceded that Tapper had asked tough — but reasonable — questions, and then had called him directly afterward to make sure that the interview had not caused him &#8220;any problems.&#8221;
&#8220;Potential big problem (we shall see). NY Times reporting on an answer to a question that I gave on CNN yesterday (see above). Jake Tapper asked me if we had closed down earlier, whould (sic) that have saved lives. I said it is complicated; he persisted and I said obviously, if you close earlier there would have been lives saved, but the decision was complicated,&#8221; Fauci wrote. &#8220;I could have answered the question better and with more clarity, but the Times is now saying that I was implying that the POTUS was to blame for additional deaths according to me. The far right is tweeting to fire me. The POTUS even re-tweeted the tweet that said to fire me. We shall see how the day goes &#8230;&#8221;
Fauci said that he later met with President Donald Trump, who said that he did not have an issue and business continued as usual.
Of the press briefing that followed, he said, &#8220;I went out and explained that I was being hoest (sic) in my answer to Jake, but that I was not implying that anyone was responsible for more deaths &#8230; Phone call with Jake Tapper. Jake wanted to make sure the interview did not cause me any problems.&#8221;
Later that month, Tapper spoke with Fauci about an interview he&#8217;d done with Coronavirus coordinator Deborah Birx. Of that exchange, Fauci wrote, &#8220;I was not on Sunday shows. Deb was on CNN with Jake Tapper and did not answer the question of whether it was a mistake for the POTUS to talk about injecting or swallowing bleach. Jake wrote me a text afterwards and said: “Birx has lost her way I fear. She has chosen to focus on defending the president and attacking the press. Odd.&#8221;
On May 4, 2020, Fauci referenced a CNN interview in which Tapper had been hard on the Trump administration&#8217;s &#8220;inadequate&#8221; response to the pandemic — but had spared him the ire reserved for the president: &#8220;Jake Tapper did a segment last night on the inadequate response of the Trump administration to the pandemic. I came out relatively well.&#8221;
Later that month, when Katie Miller, a spokesperson for Vice President Mike Pence, tested positive, and Fauci was directly exposed to SARS-CoV-2, he got a call from Tapper making sure that he was all right.
&#8220;Jake Tapper called me and asked whether I was going inot (sic) quarantine. I explained to Jake that I would do a “modified quarantine” since I was a low risk exposure to Kstie (sic). Thid merans (sic) that I will get tested every day, would wear a mask ontinually (sic), and would spend most of my time either alone in my home office or alone in my NIH office and would go to White House or Congress with precautions of universal mask wearing and phycial (sic) distancing. I tested negative yesterday and will get tested every day for 14 days and then 1 time per week,&#8221; he wrote, adding in a subsequent entry that Marc Short was not taking enough precautions.
&#8220;Marc Short (whom I resally (sic) like) practically sits on Katie’s lap and he is vey (sic) close to the VP. Yet he is not even wearing a mask. He actually should be self-quarantining. He was at a much greater risk than I.&#8221;
On July 1, Fauci mentioned a dinner with Tapper and his wife: &#8220;Had dinner over Jake Tapper and Jen Tapper’s home in DC. Terrific couple. Friendship building.&#8221;
By late July, Fauci was feeding questions to Tapper ahead of interviews with other officials: &#8220;Brett Giroir on Tapper (State of the Union) talking bullsh*t about testing with Jake pressing him. I gave Jake some questions to ask him.&#8221;
And Tapper was calling Fauci to complain about President Trump: &#8220;Jake Tapper woke me up at 11:23 AM (I went to bed early) furius (sic) at POTUS for tweeting about the fact that Jake severly (sic) questioned Brett Giroir on SOTU CNN show today. Jake was really pissed at the craziness of it all.&#8221;
In later entries — into the fall of 2020, as Americans were preparing to host holiday dinners via Zoom — Fauci mentioned another dinner at the Tapper home: &#8220;Had dinner at my home with Jake and Jennifer Tapper. Relaxed, good time. Jake clearly believes that Trump is totally nuts.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Tapper texts Fauci to attack Laura Ingraham and defend the integrity of Dartmouth <a href="https://t.co/pLW5c1zuja">pic.twitter.com/pLW5c1zuja</a>
— Emily Jashinsky (@emilyjashinsky) <a href="https://x.com/emilyjashinsky/status/2081488487337906438?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 26, 2026</a></blockquote>
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In a later exchange, after Fauci appeared on Fox News with host Laura Ingraham, Tapper texted to mock Ingraham, saying it was a shock that she&#8217;d graduated from Dartmouth.

Inside Fauci’s Behind-The-Scenes Bromance With Jake Tapper

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Dr. Anthony Fauci, the former chief medical advisor to the president, appears to have misled Congress about the coronavirus fatality rate in the early days of the pandemic, making statements in private that contradicted his public testimony.
Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Rand Paul (R-KY) released a <a href="https://www.paul.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/2026.07.24_Tonys-Diary-Package.pdf#&amp;_intcmp=fnc_politics_article_main-content_article-body_6_1">trove of previously private Fauci diaries</a> ahead of his expected testimony this Wednesday before a key oversight committee. 
A February 8, 2020, journal entry shows Fauci recounting a phone call with former CDC Director Tom Frieden in which he compared the novel coronavirus to a &#8220;bad influenza&#8221; and predicted a lower-than-expected fatality rate.
The Daily Wire is publishing excerpts from Fauci’s journal without any edits or spelling corrections.
“Tom Frieden called me this AM and we discussed various aspects of the outbreak. He and I are on the same page in thinking tht this is acting like a bad influenza in its transmissibility and that the denominator is much greater than 34,867 (above) making the case fatality rate (CFR) more like 0.2-0.3 % rather than 2.0%,” he wrote. 
At that moment, Fauci estimated more than 34,000 infections and 724 deaths.  
About a month later, however, the physician — who privately blushed about his rising public profile — presented Congress with a markedly different assessment of the disease. <a href="https://docs.house.gov/meetings/GO/GO00/20200312/110713/HHRG-116-GO00-Transcript-20200312.pdf?utm_source=chatgpt.com">Testifying under oath</a> at a March 11 hearing, Fauci responded to a question from Rep. Michael Cloud (R-TX) about the similarities between COVID-19 and influenza.
“The seasonal flu that we deal with every year has a mortality of 0.1 percent. The stated mortality overall of this when you look at all the data including China is about three percent. It first started off as two and now three,” <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yp717hJVI5Y&amp;t=2810s">Fauci told the panel.</a> &#8220;I think if you count all the cases of minimally symptomatic or asymptomatic infection, that probably brings the mortality rate down to somewhere around one percent, which means it is 10 times more lethal than the seasonal flu. I think that is something that people can get their arms around and understand.&#8221;
During the hearing, Cloud questioned Fauci about whether COVID-19 was more lethal than previous diseases, including H1N1, commonly known as swine flu.
“No, absolutely not,” Fauci said. “The 2009 pandemic of H1N1 was even less lethal than the regular seasonal flu.” 
“I&#8217;m trying to help the American people know where to appropriately set their gauge,” Cloud fired back. 
Fauci doubled down on the alarm bells, despite privately downplaying the virus&#8217;s lethality.
“I think to set the gauge is that this is a really serious problem that we have to take seriously. I mean, people always say, &#8216;Well, the flu, you know, the flu does this, the flu does that.&#8217; The flu has a mortality of 0.1 percent,” Fauci said. “This has a mortality of 10 times that, and that&#8217;s the reason why I want to emphasize we have to stay ahead of the game in preventing this.” 
The newly revealed contradictions come after <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/new-fauci-diaries-reveal-celebrity-obsession-at-height-of-covid-crisis?author=Jacob+Wheeler&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=3&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=New+Fauci+Diaries+Reveal+Celebrity+Obsession+At+Height+Of+COVID+Crisis">The Daily Wire reported</a> Fauci’s obsession with media attention as the coronavirus pandemic claimed lives and overwhelmed hospitals around the globe.
“Press still hot and heavy about me,” Fauci wrote on April 7, 2020. “Multiple stories per day directly or indirectly involving me.”
Weeks later, hundreds of thousands of infections spread worldwide, and nearly 10,000 had died from the virus when Fauci penned the following journal entry on May 21, 2020. 
“Big front page article abut me appeared in the Washington Post. Very flattering. The situation with my national and international fame is explosive and really unimaginable. It is not hyoperbole to say that today I am the most famous and talked about person in the country and one of the most recognizable peson in the world,” Fauci wrote.

Dr. Fauci Testifies To Senate Health Committee On Country’s COVID-19 Response

Fauci’s Personal Diary Highlights Shocking Contradiction On COVID Fatality Rate

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Science

Senator Paul

Just two days after the first case of the novel coronavirus was confirmed in the United States, Dr. Anthony Fauci was already imagining himself to be an adversary to President Donald Trump.
Fauci wrote about the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic in a series of <a href="https://www.paul.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/2026.07.24_Tonys-Diary-Package.pdf">diary entries</a> — published Saturday by Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) ahead of Fauci&#8217;s planned Capitol Hill testimony on Wednesday — and it was clear that the former White House medical adviser fancied himself to be the guy who would tell the truth even if doing so provoked the ire of the president.
The first confirmed case — involving a man who had recently traveled from Wuhan, China, to Snohomish County, Washington — was reported on January 20, 2020.
Fauci wrote about that the following day, saying, &#8220;He walked into a clinical with fever and respiratory sxs and was smart enough to mention that he just came from Wuhan.&#8221;
He followed that comment with a list of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/new-fauci-diaries-reveal-celebrity-obsession-at-height-of-covid-crisis">nine interviews</a> he&#8217;d done with various media outlets about the rapidly spreading virus.
On January 22, Fauci noted that the United States was moving to contain the spread by routing all travelers from Wuhan through five airports where they could be screened upon arrival — &#8220;Chicago ORD and Atl airports added to entry screening with JFK, LAX, and SFO,&#8221; he wrote — and he noted that worldwide, there had been 400 reported cases and nine deaths.
Just above his usual daily list of media appearances, he wrote, &#8220;On the interview below (FOX Business with David Asman) one of the panel asked me to comment of a clip he played where Trump said that everything is under control. Xi Jinping told him everything is under control.&#8221;
He then suggested that Trump might view it as a direct contradiction when he said that the situation was being taken &#8220;very seriously,&#8221; adding, &#8220;I had to answer that we are taking this very seriously and that Americans should not be frightened or worry, but we are taking it seriously. Let us see if this pits me against the POTUS.&#8221;
If Fauci&#8217;s later entries are to be believed, Trump was clearly unbothered by that particular comment. Two weeks lates, on February 6, Fauci wrote, &#8220;When we walked in the POTUS was not yet in the room. When he walked in with Melania, the first thing he did was say, &#8216;Anthony, come here and say hello to Melania.&#8217; Then, to my embarrassment in front of everyone (Kellyanne, Mick, Bob O’Brien and many in Cabinet) he told Melania that I was the smartest person in the world.&#8221;

Donald Trump Anthony Fauci

Fauci Already Imagined Himself As Trump’s Adversary In January 2020

Fauci Already Imagined Himself As Trump's Adversary In January 2020

Dr. Anthony Fauci rejected questions about the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic and funding sent from the United States to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, saying that he was &#8220;wasting&#8221; time by addressing the concerns posed by members of Congress.
Fauci&#8217;s private thoughts were presented for public consumption when Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) — who was responsible for asking many of the aforementioned questions — published a number of diary entries he&#8217;d uncovered while investigating the former White House medical adviser.
Paul shared a lengthy thread on X, complete with screenshots of some of the most relevant diary entries, and added some of his own notes ahead of Fauci&#8217;s scheduled testimony before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on Wednesday.
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9/9 July 12, 2021. Fauci complains about &#8220;how many hours we are all wasting&#8221; answering letters he calls &#8220;fundamentally driven by conspiracy theories&#8221; — from senators he names, including me. 
Asking who funded the research is not a conspiracy theory. It&#8217;s oversight. <a href="https://t.co/ZgjIrsyAam">pic.twitter.com/ZgjIrsyAam</a>
— Senator Rand Paul (@SenRandPaul) <a href="https://x.com/SenRandPaul/status/2081093837397659942?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 25, 2026</a></blockquote>
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On July 7, 2021 — long after it was first posited in January of 2020 that a new coronavirus strain could have been leaked from the Wuhan lab, either intentionally or accidentally — Fauci wrote that he had actively encouraged members of the National Security Council to work with several &#8220;qualified&#8221;virologists to dig into the pandemic&#8217;s origins. Two of the four virologists he&#8217;d recommended to the NSC came out with a paper that same day arguing that the virus had occurred naturally.
On July 9, Fauci complained about &#8220;how many hours we are all wasting&#8221; taking questions about whether or not U.S. funding for the Wuhan lab had been used to conduct dangerous &#8220;gain-of-function&#8221; research that would have made the virus more deadly.
&#8220;It is important to point out how many hours we are all wasting in responding to the multiple letters from senators and congressmen fundamentally driven by conspiracy theories that the NIH has funded work at Wuhan institute of virology that led to SARS-CoV-2,&#8221; he wrote. &#8220;For example, over the weekend I was on multiple zoom calls with my staff fine-tuning the letters in response to the multiple questions.&#8221;
He referenced Paul as one of the senators asking questions, and then voiced surprise that he&#8217;d also received questions from Senator Richard Burr (R-NC) because &#8220;he generally is a friendly person to me.&#8221;

Fauci Complains Questions About COVID Origins Were ‘Wasting’ Time

Fauci Complains Questions About COVID Origins Were 'Wasting' Time

Wuhan Institute of Virology

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