OPINION:
On March 16, 2020, at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic emergency, President Trump announced his “15 Days to Slow the Spread” initiative, releasing nationwide social distancing guidelines asking Americans to avoid groups, work from home and close schools.
Standing behind the president at the podium was Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, who was guiding the administration’s pandemic response alongside Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator.
Fifteen days was then extended to 30. Schools remained closed throughout the rest of the school year, family reunions were canceled, churches were shuttered, a historic 22.1 million U.S. jobs were lost, and Americans who refused to get the vaccine or questioned the “science” were censored, canceled and, in some cases, fired. Older family members who caught the coronavirus died alone in hospital rooms, mothers were forced to give birth in solitude, wearing masks, and children turned to their screens, leading to spiking depression rates and increased eating disorders among our youth.
Lives were destroyed, families were ripped apart, and we, as a society, have yet to recover.
On April 23, 2020, Mr. Trump seemed to realize he had been hoodwinked by the “experts” within his own government and lashed out at Dr. Birx after one of the Coronavirus Task Force’s press briefings. Mr. Trump called Dr. Birx into the Oval Office and shouted, “You and Fauci have destroyed the country and the economy. I should never have listened to you. You have completely destroyed us.”
That account comes from newly released diary entries written by Dr. Fauci and made public by Sen. Rand Paul, Kentucky Republican.
“[Mr. Trump] kept saying this over and over again and was yelling at her,” Dr. Fauci penned. “I encouraged [Dr. Birx] that we are OK and at the end of the day she and I will be loved by the people we care about.”
According to Dr. Fauci’s diary, the people he cared most about were celebrities and the adoration of the mainstream media.
A diary entry on May 21, 2020, starts with the number of people dying from COVID-19 nationwide but then pivots to self-congratulation over his newfound fame.
“Big front-page article about me appeared in the Washington Post,” he wrote. “Very flattering. The situation with my national and international fame is explosive and really unimaginable. It is not hyperbole to say that today I am the most famous and talked about person in the country and one of the most recognizable person in the world.”
As the nation remained in quarantine, Dr. Fauci was dining in CNN anchor Jake Tapper’s Washington home. Dr. Fauci wrote about all the phone calls and text messages between the two. Mr. Tapper personally reached out to ensure CNN was not causing friction for him within the White House.
After Dr. Fauci had a heated debate with Rep. Jim Jordan, Ohio Republican, on CNN, another CNN anchor, Dana Bash, texted him saying he was “a better man” and relayed that fellow CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer had joked that no one would have blamed Dr. Fauci if he had told Mr. Jordan to “go f—- yourself.”
Dr. Fauci recalls a “great call with Barbra Streisand,” where she personally asked him whether it was OK for her to receive the mRNA vaccine, which later drifted into him demonstrating Amazon’s Alexa device for her by playing her songs, and then having to explain what Alexa was.
Actress Julia Roberts hosted Dr. Fauci on Instagram Live, sent him flowers and presented him with an award, Dr. Fauci wrote. He detailed how he was invited to appear on the TV show “Dancing With the Stars.” In another entry, Dr. Fauci discusses an Instagram post featuring model Tyra Banks and the online comments that accompanied it.
“One person said that Tyra was sexy, but that I was even more sexy than she was,” he penned.
Dr. Fauci’s obsession with fame is not the most dishonorable part of his diary entries, however. It exposes all the lies he was telling the American public, in contrast with his own personal actions and views.
Dr. Fauci publicly denied shutting down any schools. Yet his diary reveals conversations with New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s chief of staff, in which he directed them to close schools as well as bars and restaurants.
Dr. Fauci played down the lab-leak theory publicly and said the virus most likely originated in a Chinese wet market. Yet, according to his own hand, on Jan. 26, 2020, he wrote: “It now appears using epi data and genomic data that the first infection was in early December and was not connected to the market. … Now we know the market was not the source, it was the amplifier.”
Dr. Fauci wrote of his efforts to solicit scientists to nominate him for awards, many of which he went on to win. He received substantial prize money in the process as he humbly presented himself to the American public as a poor government servant.
Dr. Fauci will testify before Mr. Paul’s Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on Wednesday after being subpoenaed. He deserves more than the public tongue-lashing he rightfully will receive. He deserves federal prosecution — and any false statements he makes under oath would fall outside the scope of President Biden’s pardon, exposing him to precisely that.
• Kelly Sadler is the commentary editor at The Washington Times.
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