Anthony Fauci has spent a lifetime working in public health. He isn’t perfect. As And the Band Played On discusses, his warnings about AIDS made it sound far more contagious than it really was. Unfortunately, after the Toddler declared that covid was no big deal (despite knowing that it was a deadly threat, as he admitted later), anyone pushing sensible public health measures for a pandemic was the big bad of the age. Last month, Republicans called Dr. Fauci before Congress so they could discuss how awful he was (funny, they’re much more eager to interrogate him than they are the people in the Epstein files).
Suspecting they’d use anything he said against him, Fauci pleaded the Fifth. Even before that, we have Fox News declaring we must make an example of him. Senator Tommy Tuberville, going with conspiracy theories about the origins of covid, declared Fauci should be locked up for killing millions (no, he didn’t). Despite his giving pregnancy advice to Katie Miller, that professional misogynist says Fauci is a narcissist monster. And despite the Toddler repeatedly invoking the Fifth over the years, Republicans are outraged anyone else would do it. RFK Jr simultaneously condemned Fauci for pleading the Fifth and flogged his bullshit book on Fauci.
As Paul Campos says, the Republican view is that Fauci ruined America by mandating such absurd precautions against a disease that was no worse than a bad cold, but he’s also a monster indirectly responsible for spreading a disease that killed millions. No, it doesn’t make sense, but it’s not like they can run on their track record.
Then there’s Sen. Bernie Moreno who declared Fauci is a monster who cannot stay free. By contrast, when his daughter Emily reported that her ex-husband, Rep. Max Miller was violently abusive to her and their daughter, Sen. Moreno said nothing that would endanger Miller’s re-election chances. This week, Moreno changed his tune and called on Miller to resign. My guess is that Moreno hoped Miller could ride out the storm and keep the seat Republican; now that the tide is turning, he wants Miller to step down before it’s too late to take him off the ballot. Meanwhile our president shrugs the charges against Miller off: “I’ve always thought he’s a very good person.” Given how little he cared about the allegations against Justice Brett Kavanaugh and SecDef Pete Hegseth, is anyone surprised?
Speaking of violence against women, it turns out that Daniel Moraff, the consultant who discovered and promoted alleged rapist Graham Platner, has his own alleged history of violence and assault (I believe the allegations).
Last but not least we have North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis. Since the Toddler forced him out of the race for re-election, Tillis has been showing signs of a spine. That includes questioning the choice of Toddler-toady Todd Blanche as new AG. Blanche assured Tillis and fellow holdout John Cornyn that policies he’d pushed like the Toddler’s slush fund and protecting the Toddler from IRS investigation were now dead. This appears to be baloney; nevertheless, Tillis is now fine with Blanche, just as he was fine with every cabinet pick, including RFK Jr. He even interviewed Pete Hegseth’s sister in law about domestic abuse allegations against Whiskey Pete, talked about how seriously he took that stuff — then voted for Hegseth as SecDef. Which he’s manifestly unqualified for, quite aside from the allegations. Tillis has been critical of the Iran war recently but let’s not forget — his votes helped lead us into it.
