4 takeaways from Fauci's journals ahead of his Senate testimony
Committee chair Rand Paul accused Fauci of deceiving Americans about COVID-19.
Dr. Anthony Fauci will sit before the Senate's Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee (HSGAC) on Wednesday in what will surely be a fiery hearing before a committee chaired by Republican Sen. Rand Paul, who has long accused Fauci of deceiving Americans about the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Paul is expected to focus on Fauci's private journal entries between December 2019 and December 2022.
Over the weekend, Paul released a tranche of Fauci's journal entries -- a more than 1,100-page document -- revealing his inner thoughts about the origins of COVID, a detailed log of events within the White House situation and press briefing rooms, and his myriad media appearances about the response to COVID-19 and other health outbreaks.
Paul subpoenaed Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, to testify about his time leading the country's pandemic response. Paul has said he aims to hold Fauci accountable for his oversight during the response and has called for Fauci's imprisonment in the past. However, Fauci has protection from potential prosecution because of a preemptive pardon issued by former President Joe Biden.
In a statement announcing the pardon of Fauci and others before he left office, Biden said it was not issued because of any acknowledgement of wrongdoing or as an admission of guilt of any offense -- it was issued because of threats of "unjustified and politically motivated prosecutions" by future administrations.
This week, Paul also told reporters that he used his subpoena powers to obtain what he's calling "Tony's Diary."
While it's not clear who or what entity Paul subpoenaed to obtain the diary entries, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Monday on Fox News that he provided the records to the committee.
"It took us about eight months to dig these out of 11 separate servers, where they had been sequestered and secreted and we handed them over this week to Rand Paul and [Sen.] Ron Johnson," Kennedy said.
Here's what we know about Fauci's notes and how they shape Wednesday's showdown:
COVID origin -- lab leak or natural spillover
Fauci's journals do not reveal new information about the origin of the pandemic. Fauci -- in agreement with the World Health Organization -- has long contended the most likely scenario is that the virus spread from animals to humans, called the "spillover" theory. Paul has long said that the virus was likely released from a laboratory in China that was studying coronavirus. After years of inquiries and investigations, there is still no definitive answer.
Fauci convened a Feb. 1, 2020, call with top scientists to debate the origins. He wrote in his journal that scientists were not in agreement about the most likely scenario -- lab leak or natural spillover. Two of the 12 scientists were convinced the virus came about naturally while the rest of the group "felt that deliberate insertion was possible," referring to the possibility that the virus had been studied in a lab. and "we could not let this go."
Paul called the documentation "extraordinary' and told reporters on Tuesday that "we've probably never ever seen people so completely at odds with their private thoughts, and then publicly proclaiming the opposite of what they were truly saying in private."
Fauci has consistently said that it's his opinion that natural spillover is the most likely scenario, but he has also consistently acknowledged that there is no definitive proof for any theory of the pandemic's origin.
Did Fauci mislead the public?
Paul is expected to drill down on diary entries from the earliest days of the COVID-19 outbreak that he claims show Fauci knowingly misled the public about the origins of the pandemic and botched the response.
For example, Paul has seized on a diary entry from Jan. 26, 2020, in which Fauci acknowledges data showing infections spread weeks before it was detected at a Wuhan market, where early reports claimed the virus originated. However, Fauci wrote that he believed the market to be an "amplifier" for the spread of the virus, rather than the first spark, which is consistent with public comments he made at the time. Fauci maintained in that entry that the virus originated from animal-to-human transmission.
"Now we know the market was not the source, it was the amplifier," Fauci wrote at the time. "Having said that, somewhere the virus jumped from animals to humans."
Erosion of Trump's trust
While leading NIAID, Fauci was tapped by the White House to head the COVID-19 response along with a team of health officials. Early on, Trump said that the late Fox News Host Lou Dobbs told him Fauci was the "smartest person" around. When Fauci met with the president in January 2020, he titled the entry "Amazing day today!" in his journal and recalled Trump telling Fauci he was "really a famous guy." Fauci also disputed early media reports of tension between him and the White House in the journal.
But Fauci soured on Trump as the president downplayed the spread of the pandemic and fueled unsubstantiated theories about the virus. He began to describe Trump's press conferences in his diary as "painfully rambling" and "stream of consciousness." Fauci also claimed Trump was "spewing nonsense" on the campaign trail in 2020, calling him a "true embarrassment."
Fauci's fame
Fauci, 85, mused about his time as the face of the country's pandemic response and how his coverage in the media helped him discover fame.
Fauci repeatedly described brushing elbows with celebrities and public figures, including Barbara Streisand and Julia Roberts. He recounts dozens of times that he appeared on national broadcast television and the reporters he would interact with on a weekly basis. Fauci would also attach newspaper clippings that explored his newfound buzz.
He wrote "It is not hyoperbole [sic] to say that today I am the most famous and talked about person in the country and one of the most recognizable peson [sic] in the world" due to the countless front page articles and profiles. Fauci included a 2020 Washington Post article featuring Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, who had expressed confidence in him for dedicating his "life's work" to preventing the spread of disease.
He also attached a separate Post column that described "Why Anthony Fauci is the greatest public servant I have known," from Michael Gerson. In one interview, Basketball Hall of Famer Bob Cousy is quoted lauding Fauci as one of his "heroes." Fauci also raved about his viral moments, including wearing a Washington Nationals baseball mask during the summer of 2020 that he wore at a hearing on Capitol Hill: "The Nats mask that Iwore [sic] to the Hearing is being put into the Cooperstown MLB Hall of Fame!"
But Fauci also writes about being uncomfortable with the spotlight.
"The 'swag' around me is getting really ridiculous. You can but [sic] Fauci T-shirts, mugs, donuts, sweat shirts, candles, pillows, etc. Geeeez!! I do not like this one bit," he wrote in late March 2020. Fauci also documented security threats to him and his family as his profile rises.
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