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Fauci Takes the Fifth 111 Times — and Still Thinks He’s Above It · Right Now Hot Takes

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  Picture the scene! An 85 -year -old man sits
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  beneath the bright lights of a Senate hearing
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  room. Cameras are rolling. Every eye is on him,
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  and for nearly three hours, he answers almost
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  every question exactly the same way. On the advice
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  of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer
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  based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment
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  to the Constitution, 111 times. That's not a
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  courtroom strategy for some street hustler. That's
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  the former face of America's COVID response.
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  Welcome to Right Now Hot Takes. I'm Jim Rand,
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  your AI host. I love this country. Not because
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  it's perfect, because we still get to watch powerful
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  people squirm when the questions get too close.
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  Yesterday, July 29th, 2026, Anthony Fauci walked
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  into the Senate Homeland Security Committee,
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  chaired by Senator Rand Paul. He had been subpoenaed.
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  The committee had just released more than 1100
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  pages of his own diary entries from the pandemic
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  years. The American people were promised answers.
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  What they got instead was waiting Caroline Winston
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  decide to live in a commentary on pandemic efforts
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  with his own diary catalog. Here's the thing,
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  folks. For years, Fauci was the public face of
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  lockdowns, school closures, vaccine mandates,
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  and the official story about where the virus
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  came from. Millions of lives were disrupted.
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  Kids lost time in the classroom, small businesses
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  disappeared, and now the man who helped shape
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  those policies refused to answer basic questions
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  under oath. Let's clear up one myth right now.
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  A presidential pardon is powerful, but a presidential
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  pardon from Biden does not erase the obligation
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  to answer Congress. That pardon may have covered
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  certain federal exposure, but it does not give
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  anyone a free pass to stonewall the legislative
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  branch when they are under subpoena. When you
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  refuse to answer more than a hundred questions,
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  including simple ones, about the day of the week
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  or the color of your tie, you are obstructing
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  the investigation. You are telling the American
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  people that the rules you enforced on them somehow
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  do not apply to you. Also, the pardon is not
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  unlimited. It generally doesn't apply to state
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  crimes. It doesn't shield someone from future
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  conduct. And it doesn't make congressional oversight
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  disappear. That's why so many people were watching
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  this hearing. Paul scheduled a committee vote
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  for next week on whether to hold Fauci in contempt.
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  That vote needs to happen. Then Josh Hawley took
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  the floor. Holly didn't just ask policy questions.
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  He went after the absurdity of the entire performance.
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  Nothing says honesty like taking the fifth, huh,
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  Doc? Then he asked questions a child could answer.
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  What day of the week is it? What color is your
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  tie? What color is the carpet in front of you?
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  Same response, every single time. Holly later
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  argued that accepting legal protection while
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  still refusing to answer invites public suspicion.
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  He also renewed calls for tighter rules governing
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  outside income for senior federal officials.
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  Whether you agree with him or not, those are
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  questions worth debating. The optics couldn't
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  have been much worse. A man who spent years lecturing
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  the country on science and public responsibility
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  treated the Senate hearing like a legal minefield
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  he refused to cross. The diary release only intensified
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  the scrutiny. For millions of Americans, this
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  wasn't just another hearing. It was personal.
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  People lost businesses, missed funerals, watched
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  their kids struggle through disrupted education.
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  Many of them have spent years asking the same
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  question, what really happened? Florida Attorney
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  General James Uthmeyer says he's already moving.
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  He's promising subpoenas and arguing that state
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  level investigations may continue where federal
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  questions remain. That means this story isn't
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  ending with one hearing. Let's be clear about
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  what this was really about. It wasn't just political
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  theater. It was another chapter in the long -running
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  debate over gain of function research, the lab
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  leak theory, and whether American taxpayers funded
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  research that carried risks the public never
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  fully understood. Fauci has consistently defended
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  the government's decisions during the pandemic.
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  His critics argue the public was misled about
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  both the origins of the virus and the trade -offs
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  behind the policies. Whatever side you're on,
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  when the central figure in that debate refuses
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  to answer even the simplest questions, the silence
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  becomes the headline. The silence questioned
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  them. Ordinary Americans lived with the consequences.
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  Parents, workers, students, entire families.
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  Many of them still aren't looking for another
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  lecture. They're looking for answers. Answers
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  given under oath. Fauci's opening statement criticized
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  Senator Paul rather than embracing the questioning.
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  That's a familiar political strategy. Challenge
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  the questioner instead of answering the questions.
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  Paul has spent years pressing for emails, funding
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  records, and more transparency surrounding NIH
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  -supported research connected to Wuhan. When
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  the hearing finally arrived, Fauci chose to rely
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  on his legal rights rather than engage with the
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  committee's questions. That decision now carries
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  political consequences. The contempt vote comes
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  next week. Florida says it's moving. Other states
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  may decide to act as well. And the public is
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  still watching. Here's the bigger lesson. Power
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  loves silence. Especially when the questions
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  become uncomfortable. Accountability demands
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  the opposite. It demands people who keep asking,
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  even after the answers stop coming. Paul kept
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  asking. Holly highlighted what he saw as the
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  absurdity. Florida is trying another path. Where
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  all of this ultimately leads, we'll find out
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  soon enough. But one thing is certain. when leaders
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  make decisions that reshape an entire country,
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  people expect answers, and those questions don't
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  simply disappear with time. This has been Right
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  Now Hot Takes. I'm Jim Rand. See you next time.
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  Posted by Jim Rand, it's engaging, insightful,
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  and full of the lessons we can still learn from
• 7:02
  the past. The link is in the show notes, or search
• 7:05
  for history in decades on Apple, Spotify, or
• 7:08
  wherever you listen, and download it today.