The first batch of text messages released from Dr. Anthony Fauci’s government-issued phone is raising more questions about what Fauci privately thought about COVID-19 vaccines, and how that differed from what he expressed to the public during the pandemic.
The messages, released this week by Republican Sens. Ron Johnson (R-WI) and Rand Paul (R-KY), show Fauci privately discussing concerns about the potential risks of COVID vaccination for pregnant women, including the theoretical possibility of miscarriage.
In January 2021, Fauci communicated with Vivek Murthy, who would soon become surgeon general, and then-CDC Director Rochelle Walensky about the issue. In one message, Fauci said that a second dose of an mRNA COVID vaccine could “theoretically” be “associated with miscarriage in the 1st trimester.”
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<div id="attachment_1154917" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1154917" class="wp-image-1154917 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/Screenshot-2026-08-10-at-8.55.41-PM-1024x348.png" alt="" width="1024" height="348" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/Screenshot-2026-08-10-at-8.55.41-PM-1024x348.png 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/Screenshot-2026-08-10-at-8.55.41-PM-300x102.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/Screenshot-2026-08-10-at-8.55.41-PM-768x261.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/Screenshot-2026-08-10-at-8.55.41-PM.png 1260w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />Credit: Sen. Ron Johnson</div>
In another exchange, Murthy expressed his own concerns about the vaccines, telling Fauci, “I’ve been hearing the concern about the mRNA causing mutations in the developing fetus as well.” The following day, Murthy flagged an announcement from the World Health Organization advising pregnant women to avoid the Moderna COVID vaccine at the time.
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<div id="attachment_1154939" style="width: 1410px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1154939" class="wp-image-1154939 size-full" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/Screenshot-2026-08-11-at-10.06.12-AM.png" alt="" width="1400" height="1434" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/Screenshot-2026-08-11-at-10.06.12-AM.png 1400w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/Screenshot-2026-08-11-at-10.06.12-AM-293x300.png 293w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/Screenshot-2026-08-11-at-10.06.12-AM-562x576.png 562w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/Screenshot-2026-08-11-at-10.06.12-AM-768x787.png 768w" sizes=" (max-width: 1400px) 100vw, 1400px" />Credit: Sen. Ron Johnson</div>
The messages were released just days after the Department of Health and Human Services turned over Fauci’s government-issued phone to the Senate. The phone reportedly contains roughly 34,000 text messages and more than 500 voicemails. Johnson and Paul have indicated that additional material could be released after the senators complete their review. So far, fewer than a dozen of the messages have been made public.
The texts are particularly notable because of how they compare with Fauci’s public messaging about COVID vaccination and pregnancy. Just days after his private discussion about the potential miscarriage risk, Fauci publicly offered a much more reassuring assessment of the vaccines for pregnant women. In one interview about a week later, Fauci stressed multiple times that there are &#8220;no red flags&#8221; showing adverse effects for pregnant women. He later said that it&#8217;s &#8220;pretty clear&#8221; pregnant women should get vaccinated.
Fauci did not publicly discuss the possibility of miscarriage that he had raised in private, nor did he mention Murthy’s concerns about potential effects on a developing baby.
The text revelations come on the heels of Fauci&#8217;s pandemic-era diary entries, which were recently made public by Paul. In one diary entry, Fauci described suffering a pulmonary infarction months after receiving a COVID vaccine. Critics say someone publicly urging Americans to receive the vaccines, and shaping mandates, should have been transparent about his health episode.
National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya said the discrepancy between Fauci&#8217;s private and public comments helps explain the erosion of trust in public health officials. “It&#8217;s shocking to me that he was sharing private thoughts and that, when he was out in public — and he was out in the public A LOT — he didn&#8217;t share those private thoughts with the American public,” Bhattacharya told Fox News on Monday.
Folks online flooded social media with backlash, too. Peter Hasson, a former news editor, said he and his wife had to scrape by during the pandemic because his then-pregnant wife refused to be vaccinated, apparently sharing the same private concerns as Fauci and other medical professionals before we had more data.
&#8220;My wife was pregnant and in her clinical year of PA school at this time,&#8221; Hasson <a href="https://x.com/peterjhasson/status/2086937594953077140">said</a>. &#8220;But virtually none of the hospitals or doctors offices in the &#8230; area would accept PA students for clinical rotations if they weren’t vaccinated — even if they were pregnant, even if they had the antibodies — because they were following Fauci’s advice.&#8221;
&#8220;My saint of a wife put our baby daughter first and still didn’t get the shot because she didn’t want to risk anything that might mess with the baby, but we had to spend months and months living out of Airbnbs in various rural small towns across Texas — the only places in the state where hospitals couldn’t afford to turn away help from PA students, vaccinated or not — while eating the rent on our empty apartment at the same time. It was worth it but it literally cost us tens of thousands of dollars while we were a one-income household living on a journalist salary,&#8221; Hasson added. &#8220;And so now, to see Fauci had the same concerns she did? Infuriating.&#8221;
A Senate committee recently voted to hold Fauci in contempt after he repeatedly invoked his Fifth Amendment rights rather than answer questions before Congress. The contempt referral is currently sitting with the Justice Department for review.
Fauci, though, received a highly controversial preemptive pardon from then-President Joe Biden on his final day in office. The pardon covers federal offenses Fauci may have committed dating back to 2014, and grants him a full and unconditional pardon for any such offenses.

Dr. Fauci Testifies In House On COVID Origins

SEE IT: Fauci’s Texts About Vax Miscarriage Risk Don’t Line Up With Public Statements

SEE IT: Fauci Texted About COVID Vax Miscarriage Risk. That’s Not What He Said Publicly.

anthony fauci

covid19 vaccine

politics

rand paul

ron johnson

vivek murthy

When I was a boy, I had the mother who, on summer mornings, would not let my brothers and me play outside or turn on cartoons until we’d written one page in our journal.
Despite our protest, Mom held firm, assuring us that we’d appreciate it when we were older.
Shockingly, as a seven-year-old, satisfying the nostalgic itch of future Cabot was not at the forefront of my mind.
So, predictably, in a rush to get outside each morning, the pages of my childhood journal would often be filled with nothing more than the exaggerated exploits of my childhood self.
“I am the fastest second grader at Barnwell Elementary School.”
“I catch bigger fish than any of my friends.”
“I am so smart. I could easily do my older brother’s fifth grade math homework.”
Even as a young boy, I documented my supposed feats and accomplishments in an ironic fashion, finding humor in filling the pages of a private journal with over-the-top braggadocio.
But as we now know, some among our nation’s elite see no irony in such private arrogance.
The diary of Dr. Anthony Fauci  – released this month by Senator Rand Paul – reads more like the chronicles of a self-absorbed seven-year-old than a senior health official directing the response to a global pandemic.
“I am the most famous and talked about person in the country and one of the most recognizable [people] in the world,” he gushes in one entry.
“I am such a valued spokesperson and a good communicator,” he writes later.
“Apparently, a lot of people at the Pentagon admire me very much.”
Throughout the pandemic, Dr. Fauci repeatedly took to his journal to catalog fawning quotes from an online fan club, which called him “easy on the eyes.”
Elsewhere, in a particularly illuminating passage, Fauci describes a crowd “squealing and screaming” for him, admitting that it was “a little bit embarrassing.” However, in the good doctor’s view, such a greeting was understandable, for the next line reads “it was just a manifestation of how people need a symbol of integrity and truth.”
Fauci’s journal, in addition to offering an inside look at unparalleled narcissism, should serve as a cautionary tale for young men the world over.
It’s a self-serving, hubristic monument to ego. It’s everything a man’s journal should not be.
If one wants to see what a journal ought to be, they should look to the works of the truly great men through history. The explorers, generals, presidents, and pioneers.
When Lewis and Clark were trekking through the unmapped unknown, they came upon the Great Falls of the Missouri River. The Corps of Discovery was forced to drag their heavy dugout canoes 18 miles overland through impenetrable terrain, facing thick clouds of mosquitoes and oppressive summer heat, fearing attack from grizzly bears and Native Americans at every turn.
How did William Clark describe the grueling detour in his personal journal?
“This portage occupied us eighteen days.” That’s it.
Or take the humility of General Dwight D. Eisenhower, who just before the D-Day invasion wrote: “If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt it is mine alone.&#8220;
While he was prepared to shoulder the blame in case of failure, when the operation was a success, he was quick to deflect praise away from himself, writing, “No man could have done the job alone.&#8221;
When George Washington assumed command of the Continental Army in 1775, he did not celebrate his newfound fame or brag about how he was perceived by his fellow countrymen.
Instead, he wrote in his personal diary, &#8220;I do not think myself equal to the Command I am honored with.&#8220;
And a year later, when he led his ragtag troupe across the icy waters of the Delaware River, in what would become a legendary moment in American history, he wrote simply, “The army crossed the Delaware despite severe weather.”
These are men whose real-life exploits defy belief, but you wouldn’t know it from their journals.
Twenty-five years later, I still love to journal. But these days, I’m less concerned with documenting my imagined feats and accomplishments.
I’d rather the pages of my journal be filled with the adventures of our growing family, because in 50 years, I know I’ll be more interested in reading about the latest phrase my two-year-old invented, or the way my six-month-old laughs at his brother during bathtime. These are the little fleeting moments that will someday fade.
I don’t need to document every celebrity I meet, each show I appear on, or each flattering message from a supporter. Because none of that actually matters.
But I still think I’m the fastest kid at Barnwell Elementary School. 
***
Cabot Phillips is an editor, writer, and commentator for The Daily Wire. He can be heard regularly on the Morning Wire podcast. Most recently, Phillips served as the Editor-in-Chief of Campus Reform. Prior to his work there, he was the Digital Grassroots Director for Marco Rubio’s presidential campaign. Phillips is also a YouTube partner, creating and starring in numerous videos which have amassed over 500 million views on varying online platforms.

image_a0e36266

The Journals Of Great Men Look Nothing Like Fauci’s Diary

dwight eisenhower

george washington

journaling

opinion

Republican senators read Anthony Fauci the riot act at the recent Senate hearing about the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases’ personal and public machinations during the disastrous COVID-19 pandemic. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) was eloquent in blasting Fauci for saying one thing and doing another, all the while personally profiting from the global tragedy. But it was Sen. Josh Hawley’s (R-MO) words to Fauci that are most memorable:
<blockquote>
It wasn’t just about the money, really, was it? It was really about a power trip. I mean, through all of this, you want to be the most famous scientist in the world. You were so focused on getting every award and every drop of cash that you could, all because you wanted to be on TV. You wanted to be the Sun God of Science. You wanted to be the guy who was in charge of it all.
</blockquote>
The “Sun God of Science” comment resonates — and not just because Fauci previously boasted that “attacks on me, quite frankly, are attacks on science” and “they’re really criticizing science because I represent science.” It resonates because Fauci is emblematic of a breed of scientist whose scientific work takes a remote back seat to his overblown ego and non-science agenda.
Another area of science that has its share of sun gods is climate. Former chief NASA climate scientist James Hansen launched the climate hoax with his infamous June 1988 Senate <a href="https://junkscience.com/2023/06/wrong-again-james-hansens-1988-senate-testimony-edition/">testimony</a>, held during a heat wave and in a Senate room where staffers had left the windows open overnight. After launching climate hysteria and then two decades of promoting it, Hansen had the temerity to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2006/02/11/censorship-is-alleged-at-noaa-span-classbankheadscientists-afraid-to-speak-out-nasa-climate-expert-reports-span/44e8063d-2f26-4c66-84cd-b2d3ec59bf08/">accuse</a> the Bush administration in 2006 of trying to censor him because it wanted to review his (a government employee’s) public statements on climate.
Another climate sun god for the books is Michael Mann, whose infamous “hockey stick” temperature graph and intrigues against climate skeptics were exposed by the 2009 <a href="https://commonwealthfoundation.org/commentary/2010/01/19/mann-made-global-warming/">Climategate</a> scandal. Subsequent criticism of Mann led to an ongoing 14-year defamation lawsuit, in which Mann wound up being <a href="https://x.com/JunkScience/status/2014399914126532914">sanctioned</a> by the trial judge for providing false evidence to the jury on the key issue (damages). Mann has even falsely <a href="https://junkscience.com/2021/01/michael-mann-still-fancies-himself-as-a-nobel-prize-winner/">claimed</a> to be a Nobel Prize winner.
Despite all this, Mann was nevertheless cited as a credible source by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) — a veritable museum of dubious Sun Gods of Science — in the now-exposed and discredited scientific reference manual for judges it prepared last year for the Federal Judicial Center.
The NAS allowed the manual’s chapter on climate science to be written by climate activists involved in pending litigation against the oil industry. Although the Federal Judicial Center removed the climate chapter from its own edition, NAS retained it in the copy on its website.
Scientists must be judged by the tangible scientific knowledge and gains they produce — not the size and marketing of their egos. Neither Fauci, Hansen, nor Mann has any Nobel Prize-level scientific accomplishment under their belts. They have never earned any special deference from the rest of us mere mortals. Instead, Fauci helped fuel the COVID pandemic, and Hansen and Mann promoted climate panic — both of which have been disastrous for science and the society that science is supposed to serve.
***
Steve Milloy is a senior legal fellow at the Energy and Environment Legal Institute and posts on X at @JunkScience.

US-POLITICS-VIRUS-HEALTH

Fauci And The Danger Of Following The Sun Gods Of Science

climate change

josh hawley

michael mann

A key Senate committee voted Thursday morning to hold Anthony Fauci in contempt for repeatedly refusing to answer questions about his handling of the COVID pandemic.  
The Senate Homeland Security Committee, led by Senator Rand Paul (R-KY), voted 8-7 to adopt a resolution from the Kentucky Republican holding Fauci in contempt. All Republicans voted in favor and all Democrats voted against. Fauci pleaded the Fifth more than 100 times after he was called in to give testimony last week on coronavirus funding at the Wuhan lab in China and the government response to the pandemic. 
“We are voting on whether a witness who has received the benefit of a sweeping federal pardon can be ordered by this committee to answer questions and then defy that order without consequence,” Paul said. &#8220;All that was required from Anthony Fauci last week was to tell the truth. He had no liability if he told the truth.&#8221;
“More than a million Americans died from COVID. Many of them died alone. Workers were forced to choose between a mandate and a job they needed. Businesses closed and never reopened. Children lost years of school. They will never get back. Americans lost the freedom to work, to worship, and to decide what went into their own bodies. Nothing we do today can undo those losses, but silence does not honor them either,” he added. 
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/read-it-every-page-of-faucis-tell-all-diary">READ IT: Every Page Of Fauci’s Tell-All Diary</a>
Paul told The Daily Wire on Wednesday that he planned to send a criminal referral to the Justice Department after his resolution passed committee. 
“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.”
If convicted of contempt of Congress, Fauci could be <a href="https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/LSB10974">fined</a> up to $100,000 and sentenced to up to one year in prison. During the Biden administration, Trump allies Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro were sentenced to prison after being held in contempt of Congress.
President Joe Biden issued a last-minute pardon to Fauci for his conduct during COVID just hours before he left office.
Before the vote, Senator Gary Peters (D-MI) claimed that holding Fauci in contempt would “harm our ability to conduct future investigations and disregard constitutional protections long recognized by the U.S. Senate.” He also said he would oppose Paul sending the criminal referral without approval from the full Senate. 
Democrats repeatedly failed to get motions passed to delay the vote on the contempt resolution.
As part of Paul&#8217;s investigation into Fauci, the committee obtained and released his diaries, which were maintained on government servers. The committee also obtained Fauci&#8217;s phone records from the Department of Health and Human Services.

Dr. Anthony Fauci Testifies with Rand Paul and Homeland Security Committee

Fauci Held In Contempt After Refusing To Answer Questions About Bombshell Diary

contempt of congress

covid19 pandemic

senate homeland security committee

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>
&nbsp;
&nbsp;

US-POLITICS-HEALTH-VIRUS-HEARING

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

Screenshot 2026-08-05 at 10.51.46 AM

When It Comes To Anthony Fauci, Rand Paul Is Just Getting Started

department of justice

gain of function research

Now that we have seen the communications and diary of Dr. Anthony Fauci, and we know that his private thoughts on COVID were very different than his public statements, it’s time to ask the question: Will the real Anthony Fauci please stand up? 
On July 29, 2026, Fauci stood in front of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee (HSGAC) and swore an oath to tell the truth. It was his chance to set the record straight, to tell us what he actually believes.
But that oath was not fulfilled, and that opportunity was wasted.
Not because he lied to Congress that morning but, rather, because he would not answer a single question posed to him. He refused to give the American people even one answer regarding the origins of COVID; the vaccines he forced upon them; the draconian lockdowns he championed; or the enormous human cost of his actions. He refused to answer the committee or the American people, invoking the Fifth Amendment 111 times.
Instead of cooperation, we are left with contradictions.
First, Fauci repeatedly told the public that COVID came from a wet market. But his diary shows that he knew as early as January 26, 2020, that “the first infection was in early December and was not connected to the market.” This is a stunning lie. But it is only the first of many.
He told Congress that “the NIH has not ever and does not now fund gain-of-function research in the Wuhan Institute of Virology.” Yet Fauci’s own diary entry of February 1, 2020, recounts that 10 of 12 experts on his call believed accidental release was the most likely source of COVID, and that it was possible “given the fact that Dr. Zheng-Li Shi at the University of Wuhan has been working for years in GOF in coronaviruses.” He continued, “We could not let this go.”
In 2024, when asked by the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic if he had ever deleted documents, he definitively responded, “No.” But my investigation has revealed that he made a habit of it. Fauci told colleagues numerous times to delete their exchanges with him, once telling one of his deputies to “delete this e-mail and [then] delete it from the deleted file.” His assistant once alerted him that she “deleted a ton of [his] emails this morning.” In exchanges regarding the WHO’s response to COVID origins, and in response to my own social media posts questioning his policies, Fauci once again asked colleagues to “please delete this e-mail after you read it.”
Dr. Fauci told that same House subcommittee in a transcribed interview that he “didn’t make a decision to close the schools.” He told the New York Times, “Show me a school that I shut down. Never. I never did.” But his diary betrays these statements. On May 15, 2020, he wrote that he “spoke with Bill de Blasio&#8230; and convinced him based on what I was saying publicly and my conversations tonight to close the NYC schools.” The very next day, he wrote that Governor Gavin Newsom’s Chief of Staff had relayed in a phone call “that based on my TV appearances today and yesterday, the Governor has decided to close the schools in California as well as the bars and restaurants.”
As the 2020 holidays approached, Fauci implored Americans to keep their holiday gatherings “as small as you possibly can” and that you “may have to bite the bullet and sacrifice that social gathering.” Yet on October 23 of that same year, Fauci wrote in his diary about a dinner in his home “with Jake and Jennifer Tapper.”
Publicly, Fauci stood behind the White House podium and mourned the incredible human loss of the pandemic, while privately stroking his own ego over the attention he received. In the top line of his diary, he would keep tally of the COVID deaths each day. On April 20, 2020, when he listed the deaths of 3,000 parents, friends, and colleagues, he spent the entire entry gushing over the treatment he was receiving from the media and celebrities like Kim Kardashian.
Early in the pandemic, Fauci told the public that masks weren’t necessary to stop the spread of COVID and that they wouldn’t protect anyone, only to later insist on their importance. Fauci himself called this messaging “well meant,” a deception intended to save masks for health workers. But his manipulation of the public, from the very start of the pandemic, also revealed Fauci’s duplicity.
In yet another media profile — this one with Time Magazine in 2021 — Fauci said the COVID pandemic “confirmed what I learned with other outbreaks […] you have to be humble and modest enough to know that you’re learning as you go along.”
If only he had followed his own advice. Instead, he may be reminded of a diary entry from October 2001, in which Fauci wrote: “I believe that there will be hell to pay when the American public realizes that they have not been dealt with in a totally open manner.”  
The American people want answers on the COVID pandemic. This week, Anthony Fauci was given the opportunity to address the American public openly.
He pleaded the Fifth Amendment 111 times.
***
U.S. Senator Rand Paul, M.D., (R-KY) is one of the nation’s leading advocates for liberty. Senator Paul serves as the chair of the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. He has represented Kentucky in the U.S. Senate since 2011. He and his wife, Kelley, live in Bowling Green and are the parents of three sons.

Former NIH Director Anthony Fauci Testifies Senate Committee On Homeland Affairs

Rand Paul: Will The Real Anthony Fauci Please Stand Up?

covid19 origins

fifth amendment

senate homeland security and governmental affairs committee

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

covid19 lab leak theory

wuhan china

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

COVID-19

Dr. Fauci

Fauci

fauci diaries

medicine

michigan

Pandemic

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

senate

One Democrat senator admitted to being &#8220;blinded&#8221; by his own political assumptions during the COVID-19 pandemic as Dr. Anthony Fauci repeatedly pleaded the Fifth Amendment during a Senate Committee hearing on Wednesday.
Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman confessed he regrets allowing political partisanship to influence his rejection of the &#8220;Right-wing theory&#8221; that COVID came from the Wuhan lab in China during the early days of the pandemic. Fetterman said the so-called lab leak theory, which was branded as a conspiracy by the legacy media, had “seemed to make sense,” but added that it “became a very partisan thing.” 
“Early on, there was the theory that the virus could have emerged from the lab, and early on that became like a ‘Right-wing&#8217; kind of theory and I thought it seemed to make sense,” said Fetterman. “Now there was a really advanced lab that was close by, and then you have this unknown virus out. But that became a very partisan thing, and now it seems now it&#8217;s a more and more emerging theory that it would have come from the lab.” 
Fetterman, who was uncharacteristically dressed in a suit at the hearing, said he hopes the next time America faces a crisis, it is not “blinded by the partisan idea that maybe the truth might come from a side that&#8217;s different that you are,&#8221; as he “might have been” blinded.  
&#8220;Americans should be willing to pursue truth no matter where that may have emerged,” said Fetterman.   
Fetterman was the lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania throughout the COVID pandemic and worked alongside Democratic Governor Tom Wolf and trans-identifying Secretary of Health Rachel Levine to implement some of the most draconian mitigation policies in the nation, including extended school closures and forcing senior citizens to die alone in nursing homes. 
Fetterman adamantly supported Wolf and Levine’s policies, including a <a href="https://lvb.com/dr-rachel-levine-issues-expanded-mask-wearing-order/">universal masking mandate</a> that required children as young as 2 years old to be masked whenever leaving home. He also <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/pittsburgh/news/fetterman-on-rising-coronavirus-cases-in-pa/">begged</a> Pennsylvanians to “just wear a mask” in a November 2020 video. Wolf implemented a <a href="https://www.pennlive.com/news/2020/12/no-more-indoor-dining-casinos-and-theaters-will-close-and-new-limits-on-retailers-pa-gov-tom-wolf.html">second lockdown</a> in Pennsylvania in December 2020 that extended to January 2021 and further devastated local businesses during the holiday season.   
Fetterman noted during the hearing that members of his family had died from COVID and also said he grieves for people who lost their businesses due to pandemic decisions and will “never be the same.”  
&#8220;During the pandemic I was lieutenant governor so we were in the middle of all of that maelstrom, trying to find the right balance between protect life and protect the economics of all of it,&#8221; said Fetterman. “I&#8217;m not sure if we got it all right or wrong, but without a doubt I continue to question myself.” 
Fetterman is an outspoken supporter of transgenderism and supports the inclusion of men in women’s sports. In a March 2025 post on <a href="https://x.com/SenFettermanPA/status/1896728606812028954?s=46&amp;t=ZAoIkqhiKpZyQayFV_2XbQ">X,</a> Fetterman wrote, “The small handful of trans athletes in PA in a political maelstrom deserve an ally, and I am one.”

John Fetterman

Fetterman Admits He Was ‘Blinded’ By Partisanship During COVID

COVID

COVID-19 Vaccine

Face Masks

john fetterman

pennsylvania

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