Sen. Rand Paul in recent days dropped a massive bombshell about the former head of the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Anthony Fauci.

Paul released a treasure trove of private diary entries and emails from Fauci to celebrity pals, friends, allied media figures, or his peers in epidemiology. There is an endless list of important takeaways from the new information, notably that Fauci was repeatedly and purposefully dishonest in order to get the public to comply with his policies and recommendations.

He realized lockdowns weren’t working, that cases fluctuated with no relationship to closures or mandates. After repeatedly publicly denying he had anything to do with school closures, his diary revealed that he’d personally advised politicians in New York and California to close schools in 2020.

FAUCI PRIVATELY TOOK CREDIT FOR COVID-19 LOCKDOWNS DESPITE PUBLIC DENIAL, NEWLY EXPOSED DIARY ENTRIES REVEAL

One of the most troubling is his immediate acknowledgment that the coronavirus might have originated through gain-of-function research in the Wuhan lab. Making a lab leak not only possible, but likely. Followed by publicly saying the exact opposite in order to protect himself, his profession and their research funding.

In many of his notes and emails, it’s obvious that Fauci is an extreme narcissist. Obsessed with media attention, accolades, paid awards, becoming famous, and paling around with celebrities like Julia Roberts, Barbra Streisand, or his Zoom calls with important figures.

There’s even panic and fear from the eminent “expert” when he realized he might have contracted COVID from a gathering where proof of vaccination was required for entry. Incredible, considering Fauci relentlessly advocated for such policies and demanded everyone get mRNA shots to protect others. And indefensible, given he never admitted that vaccine passports were useless, potentially harmful policies despite having personal proof they were.

Then there are the notes about his relationships with influential media figures. He describes several dinners with CNN’s Jake Tapper as part of their growing friendship. There’s a note about feeding interview questions to a guest that disagreed with him. He and CNN’s Dana Bash seem to be buddies too.

You’d think then that this has driven several national news cycles in legacy media. After all, there are hundreds of extremely damaging new pieces of information that undermine what Fauci said publicly. Scandalous and journalistically inappropriate associations with television hosts. Concerning revelations about world-changing policy being based on nothing.

But that would require legacy media to have a shred of intellectual honesty, an interest in the truth, or a willingness to cover subjects that make them or their party look bad. Instead, what we get is how USA TODAY covered the diary and emails, which is so unbelievably slanted and deliberately misleading that it beggars belief. Or would, if they had a single shred of integrity left among the tatters of their reputation.

FAUCI’S DIARY SHOWS HE FED QUESTIONS TO JOURNALISTS, BUILT FRIENDSHIPS WITH MEDIA FIGURES

In a new article covering the email release, USA TODAY decided to focus on…Fauci criticizing then-President Donald Trump. Unsurprisingly, Fauci wanted to keep the country shut down indefinitely, while Trump correctly realized that the lockdowns were destroying the country and must end.

Fauci served as chief medical adviser to President Donald Trump during the COVID-19 pandemic before later continuing in the role under President Joe Biden. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Here’s how their story starts.

“Dr. Anthony Fauci called President Donald Trump ‘out of control,’ a ‘true embarrassment’ and ‘an idiot’ in his personal diary as the nation’s top infectious disease expert worked in 2020 to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Fauci, who is a maliciously dishonest idiot himself, is treated as the hero in USA TODAY’s version of events. USA TODAY notes that Fauci wrote on May 22, 2020: “Trump getting out of control in pushing to open up the country and get the economy back before election day. He is desperate. This is all about re-election.”

That’s the vast majority of the article, with a few hand-waved references to Fauci’s narcissistic obsession with being on television. Just an endless series of complaints from Fauci about Trump and Republicans, surprise, surprise. Oh, and another article quotes another far left doctor from the Kaiser Family Foundation with a history of spreading dangerous misinformation on social media defending Fauci.

“Dr. Celine Gounder, an infectious disease specialist and epidemiologist, told USA TODAY the hearing has already become highly partisan. ‘There are those who would say this is about accountability for what happened during the pandemic,’ said Gounder, an editor-at-large for public health at the news site KFF, who writes the blog Underlying Conditions. ‘I think others would say that this is a witch hunt in terms of what was released from Dr. Fauci’s diary.'”

What a shock. A liberal “expert” who lied about masks and other COVID policies is defending Anthony Fauci. Who’d have ever guessed?

No interest in the contradictions, the hypocrisy, the inappropriate media friendships, the dishonesty about lockdowns, the lab leak, or masks. Just, Fauci didn’t like Trump because Trump contradicted him. And was right.

Dr. Anthony Fauci testifies before the House Oversight and Accountability Committee Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic at the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington, D.C., on June 3, 2024. The hearing covers findings from a 15-month Republican-led probe into Fauci and the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

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This is why the media has become what it is: a thoroughly untrustworthy source of hand-selected information to push the message they want to push. And promote the political party they want to promote. There is no intellectual honesty, no care given to accuracy or thoroughness. Just sheer unadulterated bias. And it’s why their reputation and public trust in these outlets has never been lower.

But no matter how hard they try, it can’t change the truth. Anthony Fauci misled the American people, repeatedly and purposefully. That’s the real story, not that a left-wing discredited expert disliked a Republican president who contradicted him.