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- [00:00]
Talkspace Advertiser
This podcast is sponsored by Talkspace.
- [00:02]
Talkspace User
Last year I went through many different life changes. I needed to take a pause and examine how I was feeling in the inside to better show up for the ones who need me to be my best version of myself.
- [00:15]
Talkspace Advertiser
When you're navigating life's changes, Talkspace can help. Talkspace is the number one rated online therapy bringing you professional support from licensed therapists and psychiatry providers that you can access anytime, anywhere.
- [00:27]
Talkspace User
Living a busy life, navigating a long distance relationship, becoming a first stepfather, Talkspace made all of those journeys possible. I could speak with my therapist in the office. I could speak with my therapist in the comfort of my home. I was never alone.
- [00:41]
Talkspace Advertiser
Talkspace works with most major insurers and most insured members have a $0 copay. No insurance, no problem. Now get $80 off your first month with promo code space80 when you go to talkspace.com match with a licensed therapist today at talkspace.com save $80 with code space80@talk talkspace.com this podcast is sponsored by Talkspace.
- [01:03]
Talkspace User
Last year I went through many different life changes. I needed to take a pause and examine how I was feeling in the inside to better show up for the ones who need me to be my best version of myself.
- [01:15]
Talkspace Advertiser
When you're navigating life's changes, Talkspace can help. Talkspace is the number one rated online therapy bringing you professional support from licensed therapists and psychiatry providers that you can access anytime, anywhere.
- [01:28]
Talkspace User
Living a busy life, navigating a long distance relationship, becoming a first stepfather, Talkspace made all of those journeys possible. I could speak with my therapist in the office. I could speak with my therapist in the comfort of my home. I was never alone.
- [01:42]
Talkspace Advertiser
Talkspace works with most major insurers and most insured members have a $0 copay, no insurance, no problem. Now get $80 off your first month with promo code SPACE80 when you go to talkspace.com match with a licensed therapist today at talkspace.com save $80 with code SPACE80@talk space.com.
- [02:07]
Dave Smith
What's up? What's up everybody? Welcome to a brand new episode of Part of the Problem. I am Dave Smith. Rob is out today, just me for this episode. But we will both be down in Fort Lauderdale tomorrow. Tomorrow and Friday, uh, me and Rob will be down at the improv down there. Comicdabesmith.com if you want to grab tickets. I'll be jumping on a plane tomorrow. I flight, my flight. I didn't make it to to Cincinnati last night but I will be doing my best to make it down to, to Fort Lauderdale tomorrow. And I'm being told flights will are all on on time and on schedule. So there you go. And of course, I'll be traveling a lot over the the rest of the summer and into the fall. So come check out me and Robbie the Fire Bernstein on the road if you can. Will be in Appleton, Wisconsin, August 13th through 15th. That the comedy mothership in Austin, Texas. Comedy 28 through 30th. Go grab those tickets now. They will sell out quickly and that's always a real fun weekend. Louisville, Kentucky, Fort Worth and Dallas, Texas, Salt Lake City. Got dates in Las Vegas, in Portland, Maine, not Portland on the east coast and then San Diego, California. Comic tapesmith.com for all those ticket links. All right, so today, this morning, some of you may have seen Anthony Fauci, long awaited, testified before Rand Paul's Senate subcommittee. And I, I don't know, this was to me a very, very surreal moment. I was really surprised by what happened, which I rarely am. I did not, you know, I look, maybe, maybe some of you, I got this right when I got it wrong, but I did not think he was going to go in and plead fifth the whole time. There's a little bit of a legal question here. It is above my pay grade. Talk to a lawyer friend if you got one. But there is a bit of a question here because of the somewhat unprecedented or at least certainly unusual nature of Anthony Fouch's pardon. He's, you know, being pardoned for like these blanket crimes. You know, typically speaking, a pardon, as most people understand it, is like somebody's convicted of a crime and you pardon them for that crime that they've been convicted of. But of course, Tony Fauci has not been convicted of a crime, but did receive a pardon. And it's kind of a blanket pardon and it's for this long period of time. And then there's questions people are debating, like whether or not that pardon applies to this testimony also or whether it doesn't. But I guess kind of the legal question here is that like if you're being, if you're, if you're being subpoenaed and you're taking the Fifth Amendment, the Fifth Amendment says that you have the right to not incriminate yourself, but if you've already received a pardon, you really can't incriminate yourself. And so if you are pleading the Fifth, then it would have to be for something that you are incriminated about. And so then it just, it opens up A lot of other legal questions about what could be pursued here, but that is not my area of expertise, and it's not particularly my area of interest. I'm just more interested in kind of the moment and what it says about our country and what people can learn from it. I. First of all, I'll just say that there's. There is something to me, as I said, it feels very surreal. It's six years later, you know. Well, a little bit more than six years, I guess, because it started in March and we're in the summer. But, like, six years ago today, we were in the height of it, and we.
- [05:56]
Dr. Anthony Fauci
And.
- [05:56]
Dave Smith
And it lasted for years and years, and this guy was the face of it. You know, there's. Now, it is true, as Fauci will kind of lean on now when he says, I didn't lock anything down, like, it is true that he was not a lockdown governor and he was not the president of the United States of America.
- [06:13]
Rand Paul
And he.
- [06:13]
Dave Smith
Okay, but he was. This guy was literally. And everybody. We all lived through this together, right? I'm not exaggerating when I say he was the face of the government response to the pandemic. And. And more than just the face of it, he was. His role was like the. The person there to give the scientific rationale for the totalitarianism. Like, yes, yes, yes. There's this governor who just declared it illegal for you to have a funeral for your father. And, you know, you, American citizen might be wondering to yourself in some faint part of your mind, like, but I thought this was the United States of America. How can the government possibly say it's illegal for me to go to work and illegal for me to have a funeral for a dad for my dad, and illegal for me to have, like, a play date with my kids? Like, how. How can the government possibly say that they don't have the right to. But, hey, we got this guy in a white coat who's got all this science, you know, to tell you that. So, like, that's the role this guy played. And okay, now, this thing, Covid, as I talked about a little bit on the last episode or two episodes ago, but, you know, this thing, Covid, you know, understand for me personally, and I'm not trying to just make it about me, obviously, because it was a huge thing for the country. It upended tens of millions of people's lives. It's Covid. And the COVID response, let's be clear, the response. Because, you know, sometimes when you say Covid, it still makes it sound like, you're talking about the virus, but what I'm talking about right now is the lockdowns and the man dates and all of that stuff that there's really almost no other policy in my lifetime that you could compare it to, where it's. It's. It upended so many people's lives, tens, if not hundreds of millions of people in the country, and almost nobody escaped it unscathed completely. There's. There's almost nobody, you know, whose life wasn't at least someone affected by Covid in some way. There's, you know, like, literally, you'd have to go to people who are, like, really living rural lifestyles, you know, to have been completely unaffected by it. And. And anyway, so there's a. And this guy was the face of it. Now, again, like I said, for me personally, this was also a time where I kind of made my bones in the. The industry, and my show took off and my profile took off, and a lot of it was over this. Over this issue. You know, I was. I. I was going on Rogan's podcast, man, at the height of COVID and we were going so hard against this. And it was a crazy time, you know, it was a crazy time. I remember, literally, you got to understand, for me, you know, I was just, you know, really just starting to. To bubble up a little bit in my career. And all of a sudden, I'm on Rogan's podcast, and Fauci and President Biden are directly responding because of the misinformation that we put out on the show. And, you know, anyway, for me, it was just. It was a thing that I took a very hard stand on. It was a very big issue. It became like this national thing. I was on a lot of the biggest shows, you know, about it, did a lot of debates about the topic.
- [09:34]
Dr. Anthony Fauci
And.
- [09:35]
Dave Smith
And now, six years later, to see this guy, this pathetic little demon, come back testifying before Congress or before the Senate subcommittee, he's been given a pardon. You know, it's like, it's. It's this. This guy talked. He was so. As he was filling the role of being, you know, the. The face of selling the totalitarianism with pseudoscience bullshit justifications. I mean, he spoke with such certainty. He lectured the rest of us. He very casually told, you know, with no rest of us, we just didn't understand science. And that's why you plebs were going to have to give up Christmas for the third year in a row. That's why you couldn't have a funeral for your dad. That's why you couldn't go see your. Your suicidal, depressed aunt. You know, like, I mean, millions of real stories like this that why your, like autistic son's special needs school ought to be shut down. And he's justifying it off this science. And then it gets revealed that he is completely full of the whole time to cartoonish levels. It's now been revealed it's a slam dunk. And he comes back and pleads the fifth. Just absolutely torches his own credibility. Proves all of us critics of him right, and just lets you know that he cannot answer these questions because they really might, even with an auto pen. Goddamn pardon. His lawyers are going, we're not comfortable with you asking, answering these questions because they might incriminate you criminally. That's what's going on here. All right, guys, let's take a moment and thank our sponsor for today's show, which is Gold Back. If. If you haven't watched my interview with Jeremy Cordon, he's the CEO over at Gold Back. Click over and watch that. It's a. It was a really good interview. It was one of those ones that stuck with me. There's a lot of problems that we have in this economy that we talk about on the show all the time. Right up there at the top is the debasement of the currency. And that's the problem that Gold Back is trying to solve. The dollar has lost over 99% of its value as measured in gold. Now, one of the major problems with gold is that it's not treated as money anymore. But Gold Back is tackling that. They're real 24 karat gold that you can spend like cash. They're one of the most affordable ways to own fractional gold. And they've already become the leading non crypto alternative currency out there. No accounts, no fees, no data tracking, just person to person transactions in a currency tied to gold accepted at thousands of businesses across multiple states. So stop relying on a broken system. Head to Goldback.com Dave to learn more. That's Goldback.com Dave. All right, let's get back into the show and don't give me listen man again. So people, like, don't get it confused that there's a huge difference. I'm not. If anyone wants to be like, oh, so you're saying if anyone ever pleads the fifth or something like that, then that means that that's evidence of their guilt or something. But it's like now, dude, the, the idea of the fifth amendment is to prot. From a tyrannical government. Okay. That's actually kind of the idea of all the amendments, if you really want to go look at them, or just about most of them, most of the good ones, especially the early ones. But the idea is that if the government's trying to prosecute you, they're trying to. If the government is trying to. This is the idea of the, of the Fifth Amendment right. If the government is trying to deprive you a citizen of your liberty, then you have certain rights before they can just take your liberty away. And one of those rights is that you have the right to not incriminate yourself.
- [13:14]
Senate Committee Member
Right.
- [13:14]
Dave Smith
Okay. That's. That's very different from saying a government employee has the right to not incriminate himself. When being asked questions about depriving all of the American people of their basic rights. It's pretty obvious to see what a basic perversion that is. But look, we're going to go through some of the hearing here. I don't know, you know, what else to say about this. It's. It's infuriating to look back on it. It's also there. There is something cathartic about was. It's crazy how in the span of really a few short years, because if you go back to, I, you know, I say it was six years ago, but really it was even less than that because through.
- [14:05]
Bernie Moreno
In.
- [14:05]
Dave Smith
In, you know, the summer of 21 five years ago, Foushee hat was absolutely on top. Biden was in now and he was running the vaccine mandate regime, and he was, you know what I mean? Like, he was on top of his game. And then it was like a full year after that where it had started to crack. And then by a full year after that, a lot of people had woken up to the bullshit. This was only a few years ago between when he was. Well, let's just play. Before we even get into this right here, Natalie, let's play the famous clip which we've played before on the show and a bunch of people have seen. Let's play the doctor Fou.
- [14:38]
Rand Paul
The.
- [14:38]
Dave Smith
The second to last clip that I sent you there, Natalie, that Dr. Fauci on the science. This was him during his reign. This was actually him when it was starting to crack a little bit. Hold on. No, no, no, not this one. I wanted to play the. The. It's like the second to last clip, I think, that I had sent you in the clip. Yes. This one right here.
- [14:58]
Rand Paul
There we go.
- [14:59]
Dr. Anthony Fauci
Anybody who's looking at this carefully realizes that there's A distinction anti science flavor to this. So if they get up and criticize science, nobody's going to know what they're talking about. But if they get up and really aim their bullets at Tony Fauci, well, people could recognize there's a person there. So it's easy to criticize, but they're really criticizing science because I represent science. Anybody who's looking at.
- [15:27]
Dave Smith
All right, so there you have it. This is what Fauci would say. And again, this is just a little taste. You know, there's a million of these. There's a great. You know, of course, Tom. Oh, God, I'm blanking on. I'm sorry, this is terrible. But what's his name? My favorite Twitter follow. Sorry, I'll look it up right here. Tom Elliott. I'm sorry, I'm. My apologies. Tom Elliott. The Twitter account is great on this. And then Maze, there's an account like M A Z E, I think is the account. They're great on these. They put out these compilation videos of Fauci and you can just see all the stuff. But you know, just to remember, to remind everybody, you know, and this is part of the reason, a really substantial part of the reason why there's. There's so much love and camaraderie amongst all of us who were, you know, opponents of the, of the COVID tyranny, who were against the lockdowns and the mandates and the stupid vaccine and all of the just massive, absolute delusional hysteria. Like, I mean, it's like hard. It was a moment of society losing their minds, led from the top, like with all of the people at the top trying their best to make the people crazy, to, to like, like pushing this mass psychosis on the people to the point that, I mean, I remember being in it and you know, I had like, like a two year old at the time and being at like a playground in, in. And you know, there's parents there masking up their three year old. This is like in 2022, you know what I mean? Like, we had all. We had been living with COVID for two years. We had all kind of figured out what it was. We had all had it and gotten over it. We had all like. And they're still.
- [17:15]
Rand Paul
You're like.
- [17:15]
Dave Smith
And. And they'd be giving me looks like, you really. You got your two year old here without a mask. And you're like, I'm gonna put a mask on my two year old. Like, are you insane? They're just crazy thing. It's sweat and it was lead from the top. And okay, so this is. Anyway, my point is the reason why all of us who fought against that have so much love for each other and the reason why all of us get so angry about this and say things like this guy needs to be in prison and just how there has to be a huge reckoning for what happened is that it's not just that the government overnight essentially instituted totalitarianism and they went, hey, we're unlock that. They actually just. Look, I'm like a hardcore radical libertarian. I've probably read like 40 books on libertarianism in my life, which is a weird thing to do. Granted, admitted not a brag, but I'm really into it. But all of these like, like far too many conversations and debates and read books about like what exactly it means to be a free society and what the role of government ought to be and all of these things that people in that who are interested in that type of thing think about a lot. But even for people who don't think about that stuff at all, most people in the United States of America just took for granted that like we're a free country. That means something like the government can't just say it's illegal to go to work tomorrow. They can't just like arbitrarily divide us into essential and non essential Americans and then say the essential ones are first class citizens with rights to work and the non essential are second class citizens who don't have the right to work. They can't just like institute an apartheid system where like vaccinated people can go to Knicks games, but unvaccinated people are not allowed to go. Okay, but they did all of that. You know, we had this idea that they weren't allowed to do it, but they did do all of that. And they did it at least starting with the lockdowns overnight. And so they're instituting this totalitarianism. It's based off bullshit. The science is absolutely ridiculous. Not a leg to stand on. Which is why even Fauci in his emails and journals is totally contradicting what he was saying publicly. Okay, but then, as if that wasn't bad enough, this is what really gets us angry. I mean, the first part's pretty bad. The whole totalitarianism based on bullshit part is bad. Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to downplay that part. That had an effect for sure. But then on top of that, to add insult to injury, when any of us would like, just ask the most common sense questions, make the most common Sense point, take apart the obvious bullshit in the narrative, which was not that challenging to do. When we would do that. This motherfucker's role was to get on TV and bash us. Like, it's not like he was getting on there to explain the science. He was getting on there to. Even in this little clip, and you could see it in those, those montages that I referenced before, just over and over and over again, he'd get on there to tell you immediately that all the people criticizing him hate science and they're really just anti scientific, you know, morons who don't know what they're talking about, blah, blah. Meanwhile, we were calling the whole thing right the entire time. Meanwhile, if you right now were to go and put my track record versus Fauci's track record, I, I got probably a score of like 98 of it, right? And he got maybe 2%. I mean, it was like, like with every little thing. And now of course, it's been revealed that he knew that he, he wasn't just getting it wrong, he was lying. And so, and by the way, it doesn't have to be my record put Rogan's record up against him. By the way, as I know I've brought up over the years, but I'm sorry, if this happened to you, you'd probably bring it up a few times too, but. So when I was on Rogan one of, at the time, this was like the biggest thing that had ever happened to me or the biggest thing I was ever part of, but one of the episodes I was on Rogan, I'm trying to see if I can remember this exactly correctly, but it was. So this is during Biden. This was during the vaccine mandates. And at one point, me and him, I, I had said, I forget the exact thing. And it wasn't about me, it was about what he. Because they were flipping out obviously over the biggest media guy being totally against their narrative and heroically, you know, kind of bringing that information to the masses, if you ask me. And I said I would never give the vaccine to my kids. I guess maybe I don't even know if my son had been born at that time. But I said I would never give it to my kid or kids. And I was like, it was still an experimental vaccine at the time. And it was very clear. I mean, this was years into Covid. It was super clear that kids just weren't at risk of the thing. Kids didn't have negative outcomes from COVID There's, oh, it is almost impossible, like statistically Impossible to find kids that didn't have, like, severe underlying health conditions who had any negative outcomes with COVID And so I was like, why would I give them an experimental vaccine for something that's not a problem? And then Joe, being the ballsy he is, he took it a step further. And people may not respect this, but at the time, it was ballsy. He went. He goes, I'd recommend to young people, I wouldn't recommend you get the vaccine. I'd recommend just be really healthy, eat really good, get outside, you know, like, be really healthy. Now, this is what Foushee responded to. This is what Biden responded to. They called us out for spreading misinformation. And now, at the time, Foushee said, he went on a whole thing where he called us out for spreading misinformation. And then he said, what. What Joe Rogan doesn't understand is young people don't get vaccinated for them. They get vaccinated for the old people, because if they get the vaccine, they can't pass the virus on. So for the record, in hindsight, Joe Rogan's advice was for young people to get really healthy. And Foushee countered with, if you get the vaccine, you can't get the virus and pass it on. Joe Rogan's take aged like wine. It is undeniably great medical advice. In fact, in the United States of America in 2026, the best medical advice you could get is to be healthy and have a healthy lifestyle. And Fauci's claim was demonstrably proved wrong. Oh, by the way, and his diaries proved that he knew they were wrong when he was making them. Yeah, the diary entry when he said is from before that. So, like, what can I say?
- [23:26]
Rand Paul
Just.
- [23:27]
Dave Smith
Just devastating. Like, there actually is no question at this point. Anyway, I want to go. Let's. Let's play here. So Fauci spoke for five minutes and then didn't answer a single question. Pled the fifth to every single question that was asked the whole rest of the thing. So, yeah, you know, Rob had speculated the other day if Fauci was going to come in looking like Mueller, like a slow old man. I. I thought there was a chance of that. I did not think he was just going to plead the fifth the whole time. But he didn't look like a slow old man. He looked like he hasn't lost a step, which makes you hate him even more hard. Hard to hate senile people. But here, let's play his five minutes that he said, this is the only thing he said, besides pleading the fifth, but we'll play some of the other moments. They are, I, I gotta say I, I, I can't even put into words how appalled I was by this opening. It's everything that is wrong with the country and the government and the ruling elite. But here he is, here is this little weasel all these years later, having not only been proven wrong about everything that he said with certainty, not only proved wrong about everything he said with certainty, while demonizing huge percentage of the American people who stood up and pointed out that he was wrong about everything. Not only being after proven wrong about everything, but now being proven to be a liar about the false public statements he was making in defense of government totalitarian policies. Here is his Fauci's statement. Well, actually I guess we're going to hear Rand Paul's opening. Fauci's five minutes and, and then into a little bit more Rand Paul. But we'll go through all of it and we'll, we'll pause where necessary. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
- [25:13]
Senate Committee Member
The accusation that the committee has denied access to the minority to records is categorically false. This is the most transparent investigation in the history of Congress. We actually created a website and we put all of the information on the website it continues to operate. The reason it hasn't been accessed is no Democrat ever signed up for it. Not one Democrat. We told them the access, they never asked for the access code. They haven't been on the website because they have not cared about the investigation. It's practice of this committee to swear in the witness. Dr. Fauci, please stand and raise your right hand.
- [25:47]
Rand Paul
Can
- [25:50]
Senate Committee Member
do you swear that the testimony will give before this committee will be the truth, the whole truth here?
- [25:55]
Dave Smith
You can skip ahead a little bit. Natalie, I apologize. Yeah, just at the beginning of him talking. That's fine.
- [26:05]
Dr. Anthony Fauci
Member Peters, members of the committee. I served at the NIH for over 54 years, 38 of those as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Over that period, I proved that I believe in and respect the value of legitimate congressional oversight. In fact, I testified before and or briefed Senate and House Congressional Senate and House committees well over 200 times over those 38 years, during and after the COVID pandemic, I have appeared multiple times for hearings in the Senate and the House, usually under oath, and sat for several days long, transcribed, sworn interviews, answering questions about the very issues that are now the subject of this hearing. However, given Senator Paul's obvious obsession with calling for my prosecution, his repeated slanderous comments about me and recently his publicly releasing my unredacted personal diary aimed at embarrassing and intimidating me. The only conclusion I can reach is that the sole reason he is calling me before this committee is to get me to say something, anything, that could vindicate his repeated public pledges that I end up, in his words, quote, behind bars.
- [27:56]
Dave Smith
All right, so let's pause it. Let's pause it right here. Let's pause it right here.
- [28:00]
Dr. Anthony Fauci
And.
- [28:00]
Dave Smith
And really just take this apart for a second. First of all, the claim comes in, and I love this at the beginning, where it goes like, okay, first of all, I've been in public service for so many years, okay? This is one of the worst things about the government is they create these.
- [28:19]
Talkspace Advertiser
This.
- [28:20]
Dave Smith
I've been in public service. And so in some ways, you're, like, beyond reproach, you know, You've been in public service, like, as if we're. We're somehow to believe that they're all servants to us somehow. They've been serving you loyally for years. You know, my. Let's take, for example, like, my dentist, okay? My dentist happens to be a really good guy. Good dentist, too. Really good guy. Like, the guy. He's a fan of the show, too, so you might hear this. So my dentist, though, like, he's real good, guys. Real good dentist. I like him a lot. He's probably. He's, I don't know, maybe 15 years older than me. He's probably been in dentistry for a good 20, 25 years. But if, like, you would just never hear him going off on how he's dedicated his whole life to the service of teeth and the service of other people and that because of that, you have to recognize what a great person he is. You know, like, if someone were to talk to you like that, like, right away, you'd be like, I don't know, dude.
- [29:19]
Talkspace User
He's.
- [29:19]
Dave Smith
He's been a dentist for 25 years, probably got a net worth of $4 million, and he's got a beautiful summer home and a beautiful house and has made a beautif. Beautiful career for himself. I'm like, by the way, that's not doubting that he's done service, a lot more service than someone working at the NIH has. Like, he's actually repaired people's teeth when they needed it. Like, he's done a service to the community, but at the same time, we go, yeah, dude, but you get paid for that service. You don't just do that out of the goodness of your heart. You're A self interested creature. And you're making your money. Okay, Fauci has a net worth of like $15 million. Sit here and tell me about this service that he has. He's such a servant. Well, you're just a. What? I don't know, the. A ruler. But you know, you make 40 grand a year and he's worth 15 million. So I don't know. First of all, that's a bunch of. And then he's going to sit here and say, well, I've testified, I respect, you know, congressional oversight because I've testified a whole bunch of times before. Yeah, and that's what's in question when you lied before Congress, which has now been demonstrated once again by these diary entries. And so. Oh, I respect the oversight of Congress. You know, it's like if I, if I, I went in, you know, to a court and, and I went to all my court appearances and then they found the murder weapon. And then I came in and said, well, you know, I've obviously demonstrated that I respect the court of law, but I'm just not doing this one. I'm sorry. Like, okay, well then that, that kind of defeats all the previous ones. And so, you know, and then what can you say, man? What can you say about this is his claim? Listen, man, there are there, there are at least like five or six bombshells in the diary entries, including one entry where he writes that they did gain of function. Well, he doesn't write gain of function. He actually writes gof. But he goes, we funded GOF research at the Wuhan Lab and he testified under oath before Congress that they didn't fund gain of function research. So unless he can come up with GOF standing for something other than gain of function research, which I guess is possible, but it sure seems like that's a. Okay, that's a big one. Him admitting that the vaccine didn't. That the vaccine waned not only against preventing infection, but against serious injury from infection. He knew that way before when he was saying the exact opposite and berating us for being anti scientific. Like, there's all types of lies that were clearly demonstrate. So then he goes, his response is, oh, Ran Paul's like totally obsessed with me.
- [31:54]
Rand Paul
What?
- [31:55]
Dave Smith
Ran Paul is like totally obsessed with me. Well, okay, but that's all like, what? You're not just like a chick in high school, you're the face of the pandemic response. That's a reasonable thing to be obsessed with. If Rand Paul is obsessed with this, like, like saying you're obsessed with the Kennedy assassination or obsessed with 911 or you're obsessed with the war in Iraq or something. It's like, well, yeah, we should have Jo justice for all those things. I don't know. And it's just, and, and then for him to say it's just to embarrass me. Well, think, okay, listen, and I say all that because this is the most important part of all of that. But just think about this, guys. Think about this. When you plead the Fifth Amendment, you are saying, I am exercising my right to not criminally implicate myself. You're not saying I'm exercising the right to not embarrass myself. So for him to go out here and say ran Paul is just trying to embarrass me. So I'm going to plead the Fifth makes absolutely no sense. That that's an absurd thing to say. And for him to sit here and say, well, Rand's trying to make good on his promise that I'll end up in prison, and that's why I have to plead the Fifth, well, I'm sorry, but that does not follow. There's a real admission in there. That's what. Okay, so if you answer these questions, what, he'll make good on his promise that you will end up in prison. So, you know, I'm, I'm sorry, but we have now, I mean, this is, this is as open, shut, objective, like obvious analysis as you can get to the point that literally anyone disagreeing with this statement can be dismissed as just being bad faith. That we objectively have it on record that you were saying you were writing different things in your diary, things that contradict your public statement. At the time when you were on the, you were on the Corona task Force response team and you were nationally the face of the, of the thing after this long career at the nih. Yeah, that's reason. That's reasonable questions to ask. That's not. Oh, you're just trying to humiliate me. That's not something I'm going to plead the Fifth Amendment over. So just total, I mean, just the, the level of entitlement. And also I would just, I would just point out before we play the rest of his opening, I would just point out here what, what a disgusting person Fauci is. You know, if nothing else, right, Fauci got a whole lot wrong. And he's admitted this. You know, he's admitted he based his whole thing on the six foot rule, and he's admitted that that was not based on science, that that came out of nowhere. It was just kind of something that appeared, and we just started going with that. He straight up said, if you get the vaccine, you can't get the virus and you can't spread the virus. You know, like, even if you're being the most charitable, let's say you're the biggest Fauci fan in the universe. He was just trying to help. He's a loyal public servant, okay? Even you have to admit that was wrong. That was bad information, and real things happened as a result of that. Like, in other words, when you tell someone, forget even my, you know, attitude about the government tyranny. Let's just say the actual germ itself, the virus. Fauci told a whole bunch of people, if you get the vaccine, you can't get it, you can't spread it. Do you know how many people maybe wouldn't have gone and seen their grandma, you know, like, would have made a choice, but they were like, no, I got the vaccine. I'm protected. And then went like, people died from the virus because of Fauci. Obviously. People died from the lockdowns. People died from. People died from the riots that happened as a result of the lockdowns. People died from the economic. You know, like. But it. No matter what, even if you're being really generous to Fauci, he messed up a lot. He got a lot wrong, and there is not even a sense of contrition about that. And the fact that he was like, think about the Joe Rogan example. The fact that he was mocking people and. And smearing them as they got it right while he got it wrong. And he doesn't go up here with an ounce of, you know, apologetic tone or much less actually give an apology for some of the things he got wrong, does it? No. Rand Paul's totally obsessed with me for releasing these diaries that. That embarrass me. That's truly the real victim of COVID tyranny is. Is Tony Fauci. Now, let's keep playing.
- [36:38]
Dr. Anthony Fauci
Person who has followed his unhinged obsession with me would readily come to the same conclusion. Therefore, although it pains me to do so because of the respect I have for the legislative branch of government and my decades long record of cooperating with Congress, under the advice of my attorneys, I will invoke my right under the fifth amendment of the Constitution to refrain from answering your questions. Thank you.
- [37:18]
Senate Committee Member
We will now begin a round of questioning. Dr. Fausti, your testimony today is compelled by a lawful subpoena. As you know, it's a crime under 18 USC section 1001, to knowingly make a material false statement to Congress with a penalty up to five years of imprisonment. Understanding that you are under oath, the American people would like to understand your reasoning, your rationale for why you chose to fund the research in Wuhan. There have been intelligence agencies, the CIA, the FBI, the doe, have all come to the conclusion that more likely than not, the virus came from the lab in Wuhan. And so we'd like to know what was the rationale, what was the discussion? What went behind the decision to fund the research in Wuhan? How did you come to the conclusion that a totalitarian country would be capable of doing this in a BSL2 lab, a lab that lacked the security? What was the reasoning? And are you sorry, basically, for making the decision? Would you give it another chance, Say, well, gosh, circumstances now as I know it, maybe it wasn't a wise thing. Can you explain to the committee why you chose to fund this dangerous research in China?
- [38:42]
Dr. Anthony Fauci
On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based on.
- [38:47]
Dave Smith
So there you go. Okay, so here we can stop the clip here. And it continues on like that forever. Every question that he's asked, this is his response. And, you know, I mean, look, what can I say? I mean, you be the judge, but think about, like, how reasonable. The question that Dr. Paul just asked Fouchi was like, why did you fund this lab where the virus almost certainly came from? You know, how reasonable a question it is for the American people to demand an answer to that question. And, and, and here, I mean, I'm sorry, you know, you. Somebody tell me if I'm wrong. I'd love to argue this with someone, but you're going to tell me, you know, it's, it's. Again, this is why I mentioned the personal stuff, because it's hard not to, because it is just kind of surreal. You know, I remember when. And again, don't get me wrong, a lot of people throughout history have risked their lives to stand up and tell the truth. So I'm not brave, and neither is anybody else in the podcast or class. But there were, you know, it was a crazy time. It was very unpopular to stand up against this guy. You were really. He was treated as if he was like an entity above politics. You know, this wasn't a politician. This was, as he just told you in that clip we played, this was the science. All right, I'm sorry, man. Like, you could have your arguments with Nancy PELOSI or Mitch McConnell, but if you have an argument with, with Tony Fauci, you just have a problem with science. This is how religious, you know, the, the claim was. And okay, so in, in this time, the people who did stand up and criticize that guy, they really risked censorship and deplatforming. A lot of people, a lot of people's careers were really damaged off of it. There was pressure on all of us who, who oppose the thing. And I must say, it's kind of vindicating to see years later, the man, none short of the man, Anthony Fouche himself, sitting there while ran Paul asks him, why did you fund the lab where this virus was made? And Dr. Fouchi looks into the camera and says, I can't answer that because you can't force me to criminally incriminate myself. Ain't that something?
- [41:08]
Bernie Moreno
Yeah.
- [41:09]
Dave Smith
Let's jump. Let's jump. There were some, some good other clips of, of, of Congressman grilling him, and obviously he's not going to answer any questions. Spoiler alert. We already know that. But here, let's jump to the, to the next clip. Natalie,
- [41:24]
Rand Paul
you know what I can't quite figure out? Is that why you were so obsessed with it because you're already rich. I mean, and your scheme worked here. I mean, your net worth now is north of $12 million. You got over a million dollars in cash awards during COVID during a 12 month, 24 month span. During COVID a million bucks you knocked down in cash money using federal resources. Now you're worth more than $12 million. You've got a pension that in its first year paid out north of $400,000 a year. A million people dead. You're getting rich. A million people dead. You're using federal employees to get cash awards for you. A million people dead. And you're here taking the fifth because you don't want to admit that what really happened in all that time was a multi month, multi year course of self dealing. Isn't that true, Dr. Fauci?
- [42:20]
Dr. Anthony Fauci
On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the fifth amendment to the Constitution.
- [42:27]
Rand Paul
Yeah, well, silence is admission. And here's the real thing. At the end of the day, it wasn't just about the money really, was it? It was really about a power trip. I mean, through all of this, you, you want to be the most famous scientist in the world. You were so focused on getting every award and every drop of cash that you could, all because you wanted to be on tv. You wanted to be the sun God of science. You wanted to be the guy who was in charge of it all. You wanted to blam bass, trump. You wanted to make sure that nobody else stole your spotlight. You wanted to be the guy. You had time to sit for InStyle magazine. Here's what you were doing with your time. You could sit for InStyle magazine, but you can't answer questions for the American people. You could sit for InStyle magazine, but you're here taking the fifth. You could sit for InStyle magazine and get a million bucks in cash awards. But now the cat's got your tongue wrong. I bet he does. I tell you what, here's my conclusion from all of this. This was really all about you the whole time. Somewhere along the way, you lost your way. You may have been a good public servant.
- [43:32]
Dave Smith
We can, we can bail on this.
- [43:34]
Rand Paul
I can tell you from.
- [43:35]
Dave Smith
Listen, I, I don't get me wrong, I understand this is all political theater, but that right there, that was some good political theater. And I really like it. Being used against him. Don't get me wrong, by the way, guys, I do notice, I notice all the congressmen who weren't good on this issue at the time, who were there, who now try to look really good. I don't get wrong. I see Ben Shapiro. We all know, we all know Ben Shapiro was saying get the vaccine dopes and lecturing his own audience and stuff. But now when it's real easy, he'll be knocking Faucio. He was always against the lockdowns or whatever. I know there's a lot of people who come over and jump on board late in the game. This is, by the way, say, happens on every single issue. That's every, every controversial political issue. If you take an unpopular stance, that, which I've, you know, done on, on several pretty big ones. The same dynamic happens where like there you say something. It's like it's, it's radioactive to say it. You know, people freak out at first, and then a few years later, it's just like what I mean, I, it's, it's hard to overstate the, how non radioactive and just obviously true it is to say that like people got vaccine injured from the vaccine. But man, you couldn't say this on YouTube a few years ago. We literally had to dance around this. They'd kick, they, they'd boot you off like you could not say anything. And they were actually explicit about that. You can't talk about, you know, whatever vaccine conspiracies or something. Now we find out Fauci himself most likely was vaccine injured. Certainly appears that way. And Obviously, we know lots of other people were. There were lots of things like that that you just like, okay, so, you know, whatever. These things that were very hard. Anyway, my point is just that this always happens, you know, you. I remember, my God, when I went on Rogan the first time, I argue. So I guess this was. You know, it was. It was during those years, during the COVID years, it was like I would. When I would go on Rogan show, it would. We would all talk a lot of stuff about COVID and lockdowns and the vaccine. And then the Ukraine war started. And I went on there, and it was my first time talking about the war in Ukraine on the show. And the thing went. It went super viral. And, oh, my God, the reaction from, like, back then, this was before Elon Musk bought Twitter and turned it into X. And back then, the, like, blue check journalists, oh, my God, the reaction was insane. Now you can make these points about the origins of war in Ukraine. It's just not, like, radioactive anymore. These things, people, you know, the propaganda campaigns wear off, and then the truth becomes a little bit more obvious, and then it's not so radioactive. And then all of a sudden, everybody's saying it, and then even half the people who were on the other side back then are now on your side behind you, going, yeah. And you're like, hey. But for a moment like this, I don't care. For a moment like this, I don't even care if it's political theater or if they're, you know, whatever. He should. This should happen to that guy. There is. Look, we're not. And I'll probably say something about this at the end of the show. We're probably not going to get any more justice than this, you know, and that's. There's a lot to be said on that. But there is something really valuable to this, to that moment that you just watched, because that is mortifying for Anthony Fauci, and you can see it all over his face. This absolutely humiliating for him to have to sit there and take that and then plead the Fifth like a. Like a. That. That's mortifying. And it's important that tyrants like him get put in situations like that so that other would be tyrants see that and know that that could happen to you. So I'm for using all the political theater, and that's a great way to do it right there. Yeah, you got time to sit for photo shoots, but you can't answer questions before a Senate subcommittee to the American people about the origins of the virus that led biggest pandemic. And, and, and the crazy response that you ushered in and recommended on record. Recommended. You can't answer questions about that, but you could take glam shots. Okay, and then what do you do? You sit here and plead the fifth. And, and look, there's just.
- [47:47]
Rand Paul
No.
- [47:48]
Dave Smith
Again. Look, man, you're. You're a private citizen. You're a private person, you're running a private business. You're. Whatever life you're doing, if you're in the private sector and the government is trying to deprive you of your God given liberty, then hell yeah, they have no right.
- [48:06]
Rand Paul
You.
- [48:06]
Dr. Anthony Fauci
They.
- [48:07]
Dave Smith
You have the right to your privacy. You have the right to not incriminate yourself. Don't answer any questions to the feds. But I'm sorry, you're a man in the arena. You take real political power. You make recommendations to shut down civilization, you make recommendations to shut down economies, to shut down schools, and you brag about how your recommendations are being followed. You know, you answer your fucking questions like a man type of coward shit is this. Don't get me wrong, I understand, as does every single person watching this show right now, I absolutely understand why Anthony Fauci's lawyers recommended that he plead the fifth to every question. They wouldn't be doing their job if they didn't. And that's what lawyers do. They advocate on behalf of their client to keep them out of jail. And so of course they'd tell you not to answer the questions. But Fauci could be a man. He could be a man and answer that question. He had that option every time. You don't have to follow counsel's advice. That's advice. They work for you. Right there in that moment. He could have stood up and said something. But, you know, that is true. And it should also be, you know, mentioned. And that, you know, when I say he's worth $15 million, I guess whatever. I'd seen $15 million reported, but the, the senator says 12 either way, my point stands. And when he says, oh, you made a million dollars during COVID Just to be clear, we. That is just what we know about. And the way the law is constructed, he does not have to disclose money that he's gotten from pharmaceutical companies. And he's mentioned that under oath. He has said as much. And then he goes, he goes, yeah, I've got him. That's the way the law is. I don't have to disclose them. He goes, I know some of the checks were for like 15 cents, but he didn't tell us what the other ones were for. So just to be clear, we don't know. I mean that's outrageous enough, but he may have made a lot more than that. All right, guys, let's take a moment and thank our sponsor for today's show, which is Sheath Underwear, the underwear of legends. I've been telling you about these guys for years. They've been a long time sponsor of the show and I love them because the product is just unbelievable.
- [50:20]
Rand Paul
Ball.
- [50:20]
Dave Smith
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- [50:45]
Talkspace User
Problem.
- [50:45]
Dave Smith
All right, let's get back into the show here. Let's. Let me see which one I want to do because we got a few more. I don't know, we have time for all of them. All right, let's, you know what, let's do the. Let's go to the Bernie Moreno, who I did not know he kind of made a name for himself off of this. Again, political theater. I don't trust politicians, but I did like what this guy say. This is the who the do you think you were one, Natalie, let's play that clip.
- [51:22]
Bernie Moreno
It was about six years ago today that I decided I'm going to give up my businesses, sell them all, run for office, run for the United States Senate. Here I am sitting in front of you six years later saying who the do you think you were for doing that? It is a total disgrace what you did to this country. And if my Democrat colleagues are standing there defending you, I hope the voters the United States of America watch the clips of every one of you doting on a guy who was more interested in being a celebrity than saving American people. I will make it my mission to make certain that every single one of those republic Democrats who did that will see that clip over and over and over again. Because defending there is no defense of what you did. You may have had a 50 plus year legacy of public service, but it ends in total and complete disgrace.
- [52:32]
Dave Smith
Man, I gotta say I love that. And I don't know anything else about that guy, but man, that one really won me over. It's not too often a senator really wins me over like that. All right, I guess maybe. Maybe we'll do one more. You know, there's one more clip of. I think. No, hold on. No, no, no. I'm sorry. I thought I had another clip of that guy, but I don't. Well, look, I mean, I guess we'll. We'll. I'll rant for the rest. We don'. Need any more clips. All right, let's say. Let's start with this. So what do we do now? You know, it's easy to be hyperbolic in moments like this, so I'm trying not to be. But when you really just start to look at it, you go, I'm not. Yeah, I remember in the. The debate I did with Chris Cuomo, which was, you know, a big thing, like, as I've said, people still come up to me about this debate. Everywhere I go, man, people still. I still get, thank you for kicking Cuomo's ass everywhere I go.
- [53:38]
Dr. Anthony Fauci
And.
- [53:38]
Dave Smith
And, you know, it was. It was nice to do it. It was very easy. It was. You know, man, in hindsight, I can't believe he agreed to do it. I mean, it was after the whole thing, you know, it was after Covid was done. We debated Covid, and. And it's just so. It was so impossible to defend the track record that they had. But he tried to. And one of the first things early in the debate, you know, I said. And I knew what I was doing when I said it, but I referred to the lockdowns, I believe, as the totalitarian lockdowns. And then he said, look, he goes. Calling the lockdowns totalitarian, that's hyperbole, you know, And I. I responded by saying, look, man, you had lockdowns. You had a situation in America where regular people across the country, like. Like in almost any state you could picture, with very, very few exceptions, like, not in South Dakota, but almost everywhere else, right? Like, even in Florida and Texas, and the plates, that's opened up quicker at a point, you got a state where. Where regular Americans were turning on the TV every day. I know if you were a New Yorker, if you lived in New Jersey, if you lived every day, the governor was giving daily addresses, and you would turn on your TV every day to find out from the governor what you were allowed to do today down to, am I allowed to visit my grandma who's dying of stage four bone cancer?
- [55:10]
Rand Paul
Her.
- [55:11]
Dave Smith
Like, am I allowed to visit her and be with her in her last moment? Am I allowed to go to work? Can we have a funeral for my uncle can my kid go back to school? Like, down to the most intimate. Down to. Am I allowed to have Thanksgiving dinner this year? Like, the. The governor was letting the citizenry know what they were allowed to do every day. And including, by the way, every last thing that I just listed at a period of time was, no, you're not allowed to do that. Every last one of those things. I'm sorry, the only word for that is totalitarianism. Like, then what does the word mean? If a government ever were to go totalitarian, then how would you. Like, what's the point of that? Is not hyper. That's. That's not hyperbole. That is that. That's just what the word means. And if you couldn't describe that situation as totalitarian, then.
- [55:55]
Bernie Moreno
No.
- [55:55]
Dr. Anthony Fauci
No.
- [55:56]
Dave Smith
Okay, so that's what we're talking about. We're talking about totalitarianism sweeping this country, being demonstrably shown to have been sold off of lies. Not bad information, but lies. We see that from the diary. This guy knew he was not delivering the science as he claimed. Anyone disagreeing with him was disagreeing with science. And so we have that. And then this guy who wielded this government power gets to come in and plead the Fifth. I mean, this is spitting in the face of the American people. And look, I don't know. I'm not a lawyer. I don't know. I've heard lawyers make arguments about the constitutionality of Biden's auto pen, blanket pardons or whatever, but hey, man, this is a pretty profound crime. This is what you might call an extenuating circumstance. Prosecute him anyway. Test it. Take him before the American people. You know, but here's the thing. We all know none of that's going to happen. We all know none of that's going to happen. And so everybody, including these Republican senators who are so, you know, you know, you know, now that it doesn't matter anymore, they will give us this great moment of political theater. You know, now. Now that Ben Shapiro isn't calling anyone who doesn't take the vaccine a dope anymore. You know, now that, now that the moment's cooled down, they'll, you know, we get some good commentary out of some of these people. But how about holding the Trump administration accountable for protecting the guy? The same Trump who's responsible for him being the face of the pandemic response to begin with. How about that, you know, for all of us? And, and by the way, there were. I made the point that Fauci didn't apologize. Wasn't Apologetic at all throughout the whole thing. Several of the Republican senators made that point as well. Where's Trump's acknowledgment that maybe he was wrong to, to keep this guy on? I mean, he said something the other day like, I wouldn't have kept him if I knew what I knew. Okay, well, we all knew. I didn't take you so long to figure it out. We have figured out Fauci was a fraud way before Joe Biden came in. But, you know, look, man, the don. The Trump administration in his first term. Donald Trump is respite. Covid happened on his watch, and he's the one who kept having those briefings and letting Fauci get up there and talk to the people. And he made him, you know, he put him on the task force. He made him the face of the response to the whole thing. I mean, that's on Trump. So you did this, you enabled this liar, this little demon to come, you know, recommend all these totalitarian measures, and now you're going to allow him to come in here and just plead the Fifth and get away with it? I, I mean, we've got him dead to rights on lying to Congress. Open and shut case, you know, so I'd say this will be one more test for the Trump administration. Again, they're not going to do anything about this. I guess my thing would just be to pressure all of the people as this almost, you know, in some ways, like I was saying the other day, when, when the topic of COVID comes up, it almost feels like we're getting the band back together and there's a bunch of people who were good on Covid, who have all gone in their different political ways over the last few years. But for all you guys, like, who were great on Covid, who were my brothers and sisters in arms as we shouted at the top of our lungs against, you know, this, this insanity. Come on, guys, like, where's the consistency here? Like, why would we not, you know, look, Donald Trump hasn't delivered on anything else, but why not put some pressure on him to deliver on this one? And, and in many ways, you know, for all of the, for all of the political figures who should be, you know, held criminal, criminally responsible for, for their actions. And, man, there's a, There's a long list in the 21st century already, but this guy's got to be the absolute top because, because, you know, all the reasons I mentioned at the beginning, like, this was legit totalitarianism, and he was the guy who stood up there and said, no, no, no, there's a scientific basis to all of this. When he knew there wasn't. He knew exactly what he was doing and as was pointed out, he enriched himself quite a bit the whole way. So man, I will say it's, there's something strangely vindicating about going over all this, but it doesn't exactly leave you with a good feeling about it now, does it? But anyway, there was something positive here. There was something positive that this was the, the, the, the spectacle that everyone got to say. Anyway, we'll see, we'll see what comes from that. I will, I will see you guys tomorrow in Fort Lauderdale. Really, really looking forward to it. Hope to see a bunch of you out there and then out on the road. Comic Dave Smith.com don't forget porch tour.com for for all of Rob's solo gigs because he goes around headlining when he's not opening up for me. And the members only episode we will it will not be normal time tomorrow, but we will get a members only episode out this weekend. Sorry, flying at that time or perhaps, you know, the airlines will cancel my flight and then it'll be at normal time like what happened yesterday. We'll see. Hopefully not. Thank you guys for listening. Fauci Long live Liberty. Viva Ron Paul.
- [61:23]
Rand Paul
Peace.
- [61:37]
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