Prosecute Fauci

Summary

PART OF THE PROBLEM: “Prosecute Fauci”
July 28, 2026
Host: Dave Smith | Co-host: Robbie “the Fire” Bernstein

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Episode Overview

In this episode of Part of the Problem, Dave Smith and co-host Robbie Bernstein dive deep into two major topics:

1. The ongoing U.S. foreign policy and the recent strains in the war effort under President Trump, with a focus on the Middle East and the "paper tiger" nature of American military power.
2. The explosive release of the “Fauci Diaries”—private writings and emails from Dr. Anthony Fauci during the COVID-19 pandemic—which expose behind-the-scenes admissions and institutional rot. The hosts call for real accountability, even prosecution, for COVID-era misdeeds.

Throughout, the tone is classic Smith: part biting satire, part passionate defense of civil liberties, and consistently adversarial towards mainstream narratives.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

I. Updates on War, Foreign Policy, and America's "Paper Tiger" Military (02:21–24:15)

War Fatigue and Shifting Narratives

• Dave opens by mocking the latest media attempts—specifically Mark Levin's claims—that Trump and Netanyahu will be celebrated for centuries as world-saving leaders.
• The hosts dissect the gap between optimistic talking points and harsh on-the-ground military realities:
  • Reports the U.S. is running out of missiles.
  • Escalation in the Red Sea, limitations in resupply, and Iran’s restrained, calculated stance.
  • U.S. foreign policy as a "Ponzi scheme," sustained by spiraling military budgets and a grift involving contractors and politicians.

"You're telling me we've spent this many trillions of dollars? ...and we run out of missiles in a war with a Third rate power after a few months. I mean, I'm sorry, what the fuck are we talking about here, Rob?"
—Dave Smith [18:19]

• The hosts lampoon BoomerCon TV hosts who remain locked in another reality, insisting that history will vindicate military aggression.

Declining Military and Economic Power

• Discussion of America’s past strength (industrial base, productive capacity), compared to present failures—fighting yesterday’s wars with overpriced, under-delivering weapons, all while deindustrialized.
• The real threat faced today is more about economic overreach, an exhausted war machine, and a public increasingly unwilling to support endless misadventures.

II. The Fauci Diaries & COVID Accountability (24:15–66:01)

Personal Reflections: COVID as a Historical Trauma

• Dave and Robbie reflect on how COVID years changed their lives, gave their show new prominence, and built a camaraderie among “the people who were critics of the insanity.”
• They note the enduring damage done to careers, families, children’s education, and public mental health.

Biggest Revelations from the Fauci Diaries (28:11–41:22)

Deadly Inflated Death Rate:

• Private Fauci: COVID is “basically a bad flu at like 0.002%.”
• Public Fauci: Touting a 3%+ death rate, fueling lockdown panic.

"...he acknowledges in his private diaries that this is basically a bad flu at like 0.002%. ...the death rate that scared the shit out of all of us was completely overstated. And he knew it at the time."
—Robbie Bernstein [28:26]

Rise to Power by Optics, Not Science:

• Fauci’s TV appeal was why he became “the lord of science”—not merit or research.

Institutional Corruption:

• Grants flowing from the NIH to friendly organizations in exchange for padded reputations and awards.
• All major institutions were in lockstep due to federal funding; no one wanted to risk their “cut” by dissenting.
• Early recognition among insiders that the lab-leak hypothesis was likely accurate, but a manufactured public narrative was enforced.

"...That's the rot... You get these people at the top of these institutions that are not going, 'Hey, go perform science and give me an answer.' They're going, 'This is the conclusion I'm looking for.'"
—Robbie Bernstein [31:17]

Fauci’s Ego and Lust for Fame:

• The diaries reveal Fauci being giddy at his newfound celebrity status, taking pride in influencing major governors’ decisions to close schools and businesses:

"He knows that he funded the lab... and this guy is concerned with the fact that, like, pretty neat that everyone on TV is talking about me."
—Dave Smith [40:21]

Diary Excerpts & Influence:

• Dave reads Fauci’s own words where he brags of persuading both NY and California to close schools and bars based purely on his TV appearances:

“I spoke with Bill de Blasio... convinced him ...to close the New York City schools. He has already decided, based on what I was saying on TV or he had already decided... had a similar call with Ann O’Leary... bars and restaurants in California as well as the bars and restaurants. ...When I left the White House... cars honked their horns and shouted thank you out the window.”
—Fauci diary, read by Dave Smith [42:37–45:15]

Media Propaganda: The Fauci Cult (52:43–57:26)

• The hosts play and mock a montage of mainstream news gushing over Fauci, showing total deference and a lack of journalistic skepticism.

"…if you call yourself a journalist and someone comes on to argue to you, 'Hey, you know what, I think we should do right now? …is shut down the world.' You wouldn't take it upon yourself to shut your brain off and nod along with this guy."
—Dave Smith [56:34]

• This coordinated fawning is labeled as "WWF," a staged spectacle, not journalism.

The Need for Accountability: Prosecute Fauci (47:20–66:01)

• Dave and Robbie argue real justice demands Fauci face prosecution, or at the very least, overwhelming public shaming and exposure.
• Every institution and political figure that enabled the COVID regime should be scrutinized; anyone who profited from the system of secretive intellectual-property grants must be investigated.
• The hosts call for systemic reform—especially in grant-fueled medicine and research—and warn of the dangers if public memory fades.

"…it is really important for us to get as many moments like this as we can. And don't get me wrong, this guy should go to jail for the rest of his life. I mean, I almost think it's necessary for our society to heal..."
—Dave Smith [47:20]

• The bipartisan desire to conveniently “move on” (citing media pleas for a “COVID amnesty”) is harshly critiqued. Dave insists there must be some accountability.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• "Mark Levin is so low energy there. I feel like we're watching this guy on his deathbed, his last remarks before passing... he's just doing what he does, going with the biggest possible lie." —Robbie Bernstein [09:10]
• "He knew it. And they were smearing us, dude… and this motherfucker knew the whole time." —Dave Smith, on Fauci and the true COVID fatality rate [29:06]
• "Who writes a diary? ...Apparently high ranking government officials do this. ...it's a very corporate thing, like if you get off a call with someone, you might keep a call log, so you got a bit of a record that you can point to." —Robbie Bernstein [41:32]
• "[The media] are not there to interview Dr. Fauci and get the latest information... This is WWF. They're there to get him over." —Dave Smith [60:09]

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Important Timestamps

• Trump/Netanyahu media clips, war legacy debate: 03:47–06:00
• Running out of missiles/US military shortfall: 12:10–18:39
• COVID policy, impact, and Fauci's rise: 24:15–28:11
• Fauci private admissions vs. public panic: 28:11–29:47
• Institutional rot and grant system: 29:47–31:30
• Fauci diaries: ego, decision influence: 42:37–45:15
• Prosecution & need for justice: 47:20–49:49
• Media Fauci-worship montage: 52:43–57:26

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Tone and Final Thoughts

Dave Smith and Robbie Bernstein blend libertarian skepticism, righteous anger, and sharp sarcasm, maintaining an energetic, conversational tone. Their message to listeners is clear: never forget the coordinated deception of the COVID years, hold the powerful accountable, and reject official narratives—especially when they result in real social and personal harm.

“There needs to be accountability for this. And who better to be accountable than the guy who was made the face of the whole thing, who literally said that disagreeing with him was disagreeing with truth and science? Let’s start with that guy.”
—Dave Smith [62:21]

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Summary For New Listeners

If you missed this episode, you missed a thorough thrashing of state power—on both foreign policy and COVID misrule. It’s a must-listen for anyone looking for a passionate, reasoned takedown of the pandemic’s most lauded public figure and a call to rediscover skepticism toward those who claim to have history “on their side.”

Transcript

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[Dave Smith]

What's up? What's up everybody? Welcome to a brand new episode of Part of the Problem. I am Dave Smith. He is Robbie the Fire Bernstein. How are you feeling today, Rob?

[Robbie the Fire Bernstein]

I'm doing well, man. It was an epic run of porches and once you get in a groove, you don't want to come home because you just like it starts off and it's tough and then you just get used to the being on the move and playing people's lawns. So I was having fun.

[Dave Smith]

Well, that's good. You were on. On quite a run. I got to. By the way, I should mention I got a tomorrow. Tomorrow night I will be in Cincinnati one night only for the Young Americans for Liberty event. I'll be, I'll be giving a speech there tomorrow night and I'm also recording with Matt Kibby while I'm out there. So I'll. There'll be some content for you guys.

[Robbie the Fire Bernstein]

We've got dace this weekend. We're in Florida this weekend.

[Dave Smith]

I think it's.

[Robbie the Fire Bernstein]

Go for it.

[Dave Smith]

Dania Beach Improv, I believe. But yeah, it will be out there in the Fort Lauderdale area. Comicdabesmith.com for those tickets.

[Robbie the Fire Bernstein]

And I'm sticking around on Florida. I got St. Augustine, Florida on Saturday and I'm sorry, Cocoa, Florida on Saturday and Then Sunday in St. Augustine, Florida and then the next weekend is Walpole, Massachusetts, somewhere else like I think Boston and Newton. Newton, Rhode Island. So come hang out. Hell yeah.

[Dave Smith]

And then of course in August, me and Rob will both be at the Skyline Comedy Club in Appleton, Wisconsin. Comedy Mothership in Austin, Texas. Then Louisville, Kentucky, Fort Worth, Texas, Dallas, Texas, Salt Lake City. A bunch of stuff coming up. Comicdamesmith.com Porch tour.com For all of that. All right, Rob. Well, there's a lot going on there's some updates with the war, some actually pretty interesting updates. And then we got these Fauci diaries that I really want to talk to you about. So let's, here, let's, let's start with this because this is something I've been thinking about this morning and I guess for, for a bit now, but Mark Levin took, took to the airwaves over the weekend to give his take on the, the legacy, which many people have been thinking about as we come in on 10 years since he was first inaugurated. The legacy of Donald Trump has the

[Robbie the Fire Bernstein]

golden coin, his face on the $100 bill, on this many policies and buildings across our nation. No other president has ever had his name.

[Dave Smith]

So finally, despite Rob, the worst thing, the worst casualty in this war has been high energy. Mark Levin, he's been taken down to a Mark Levin that none of us are comfortable with. But yes, here, let's, let's, let's hear from Mark Levin himself on the legacy of Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu.

[Mark Levin (clip)]

The reason this president will go down in history for a thousand years, the reason the prime minister of Israel will go down in history for a thousand years is because they saw the danger and they stood up to the danger and they're fighting the danger. And Donald Trump will go down in our history as one of the greatest presidents ever, ever, because of what he is doing today, as well as other things that he's done, but certainly because what he's doing today in dealing with this grave threat in Iran.

[Dave Smith]

All right, now, Rob, part of the reason why I thought this was interesting is just because, well, on one level, like, probably on the most surface level, you just look at that and you go, wow, what world are you fucking living in? You know, and, and, and perhaps that is just a comment on the fact that we're living in very different worlds. I mean, that is true if you're, if you are a boomer con TV host, you live in a very different world than, than we do. But I suppose, Rob, well, look, on one level, right, you just look at it, you go, imagine going on like a college campus today and going, I think Benjamin Netanyahu's legacy is going to be great. He's going to be viewed in history as a great man for a thousand years. You know, it seems a little removed from reality. Then again, Rob, I mean, monstrous presidents have been viewed as, you know, if you ask historians who the greatest president is, they typically give you our most monstrous presidents. Like they'll say Truman and FDR and Abraham Lincoln were the Greatest presidents, and they're like, you know, whatever grand chessboard, geopolitical argument you want to make. You're like, well, you do have to get past a lot, you know, like, pick those guys, like, just right on the surface. You'd be like, wait, the guy who's like. Who, like, started world wars and dropped nuclear bombs and started civil wars, killed, like, hundreds of thousands of millions of people? Those are your best guys.

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[Dave Smith]

But anyway, I guess one of the things I thought was so interesting about this is just that, like,

[Robbie the Fire Bernstein]

look, I.

[Dave Smith]

I never really have the confidence, Rob, that left wingers have a lot where they go, you're on the wrong side of history. Like, in my view, it's kind of like, I guess if we win, yeah, if I. If I win, it's going to look real bad if you were a neocon, but if the neocons win, it'll probably look really bad being me. I don't know. But I really do think he's wrong about this. And I think some of the examples of this that are pretty obvious is that I. I remember Rob at the end of George W. Bush's term, people saying he's very unpopular right now, but historians are going to remember him for winning this huge battle in Afghanistan, you know, being the one who brought democracy to Afghanistan or something. I don't know, Rob. Doesn't seem to me like George W. Bush is being remembered as a hero. Doesn't seem to me like Anthony Fauci is being remembered as a hero, which we're going to get into. And the idea that, like, I don't know, and I'm curious to get your thoughts on this, Rob, but to me, it seems like this idea. You're banking on a lot of things here. Number one, you have to kind of have the people tricked at the time. Like, you got to get those people to believe it at the time, because then 40 years later, they'll swear by that lie of what the myth was, like the, like, the greatest generation, they'll go to their deaths, be like, yeah, it was great what we did. In other. Like, you. You also need a control mechanism of propaganda, you know, to, like, maintain that that's the only way it's ever worked. You don't even have the people fooled at the time that this is a good war, let alone the propaganda machine to keep it going. Am I crazy, Rob? You're. You're a delusional old man to think that, oh, yes, Donald Trump, there's any indication that him and Netanyahu will be Remembered why you know fondly from history. All right, guys, let's take a moment and thank our sponsor for today's show, which is Ultra pouches. You guys know about ultra pouches? I've told you about them. They're truly the guilt free pouch. They've got nothing bad in them. There's no nicotine or caffeine or anything like that. It's all just nootropics and good stuff for you. Well, now they have the ultra sleep pouches. That's right. If you are one of the millions of people who struggle with getting sleep, I know a lot of people are always trying different things and some of them leave you feeling foggy the next morning. But if you're looking for good sleep and you're looking to not feel foggy, you're looking to feel refreshed the next morning, check out the ultra sleep pouches. You see, everyone is using pouches for increased focus and energy. But ultra, they took that idea and they flipped it. These sleep pouches, they help you wind down, fall asleep and stay asleep. It's 1 milligram of melatonin dosed at the clinically optimal range. They have magnesium for relaxing your muscles, chamomile, passion flower and lemon balm extract to support sleep maintenance. Basically, it's all just really good stuff for you that's going to help you get a good night's sleep. Nothing that's going to leave you feeling less than optimal the next day. So Ultra sleep pouches deliver better deeper sleep with properly dosed and natural ingredients. And new customers can use the promo code problem to get 15% off@take ultra.com. that's take ultra.com. and for 15% off, use the promo code problem. All right, let's get back into the show.

[Robbie the Fire Bernstein]

I mean, firstly, Mark Levin is so low energy there. I feel like we're watching this guy on his deathbed, his like last remarks before passing. And I'm, I'm just going to assume that he's not the same since his truck stop lover Lindsey Graham passed. So, you know, he, he's got a hole in his bottom side right now. He's looking to fill dick size hole. Yeah. With all that said, I mean it's just, it's, it's exactly what he does is WWF Pro Wrestling. He's trying to sell his fans on that. This war is the greatest idea of all time. And listen, don't listen to any of the naysayers. There's still a pathway to victory and a thousand years from now people are going to be celebrating how great what Donald Trump did and the adv. The adversarial climate he had to overcome of people who didn't see the risk of Iran and the need to stop them now. So, you know, he's just doing what he, what he's doing. He's going with the biggest possible lie to sucker people into his world vision. And that includes that there will be a victory and a victory that is so celebrated that a thousand years from now, people are going to look back at Trump as the savior of our universe.

[Mark Levin (clip)]

Yeah.

[Dave Smith]

Yeah. You know, I, I will say, though, Rob, and I don't. I, I hesitate to, like, jump to, to conclusions, but I don't think there's nothing to that. Even though we're kind of, like, joking around when we say this, there's something to the fact that he's, like, more low energy than ever. There's something there. I. Dude, there's some. I, I've noticed this across the board with the War Hawks and the cheerleaders of this war just, like, watch their energy.

[Mark Levin (clip)]

They're.

[Dave Smith]

They're all zapped of it. It's. It's horrible. You almost look at them and feel bad in a way. Like, it does feel like, like you just drew the toughest hand in a game of charades or something like that. Like, you're like, oh, you got to go out and still defend this shit. Okay. Yeah, dude. Donald Trump's going to be remembered so well in history. And was it Donald Trump, where is he? 15 points underwater from where he was a year and a half ago or. Or before he launched the 12 Day War? I don't see it. Netanyahu, the guy who's under icc, you know, indictment, There's a criminal warrant out for his arrest. He's going to age well. And then, of course, Rob, in the backdrop of this, we have what, that over this weekend, evidently, at least according to the newspaper of record and whatever the official regime stenographers are, they. Donald Trump wanted to escalate and has been warned that we're running out of missiles. This is a major problem, that our stockpiles have been depleted. Now, this is something that has been. Does almost feel. There's been a few reports about this, but it almost feels like this is like a new topic being introduced to the corporate media. This has been a real concern for quite a long time. And there. Look, Rob, this was. I know they had a.

[Mark Levin (clip)]

What.

[Dave Smith]

What's his name? I'm sorry, I'm blanking on his name. Who's the Former, the former national security adviser who's over at the, where is he at the UN Now Waltz. Well, they had him on, on the Sunday shows saying that oh, don't worry about this, there's no problem. If there is a problem, it's Joe Biden's fault over Ukraine. And you're like, hey, that's really contradictory. Which one of those two like, like is it we're running out of missiles but it's Joe Biden's fault or we're not running out of missiles? Because even if you're going to blame the last guy for that, that's information we really need to have cleared up right now. Which one of those two it is. But the, you know, they're out saying this is not true. The New York Times, they're out there saying people should be indicted whoever leaked this. Which by the way, Rob, that is quite a leak. This isn't just like your run of the mill leak because if true, I mean, hey, that is giving up very important information to the enemy and, and the whole world. That being said, that wouldn't be American citizens biggest concern. Our biggest concern would be the fact that we're actually if, whether if this is true. But anyway, the thing that's, that gives it a lot of legs, Rob, is that three nights in a row now there have been no attacks. And so it does seem to back up that there was a reason why Donald Trump stopped here. By the way, double cross your fingers and toes. But this could be really good news if this is the reality on the ground that gets Donald Trump to just walk away. We'll see.

[Robbie the Fire Bernstein]

Well, firstly, I'd been saying for, or I've said this in the past that if there was a Donald Trump on their side, that every time Donald Trump was saying they have no navy left, we've taken out 90% of their missile capability, someone over there would be going, they used up other Patriot missiles, we took out other bases. They have a storyline too. And I think Donald Trump, you read all of his threats and they seem to live in a bubble that Iran can't escalate back. He seems to constantly be in some illusion of oh, we're going to go hit all their power plants and Iran goes go ahead, we're going to start taking out power plants in the neighboring countries. But he seems to constantly be in like a bubble reality where he feels like we can escalate. We do have escalation dominance and they won't be able to match us. And I think Donald Trump just throws these threats out there with none of the actual reality in mind. And in this case, someone had to actually sit down and go, hey, this is going to be a big mistake. We don't actually have the interceptors if we're going on the offensive. And I think on the Iranian side, they're not looking to escalate because they don't want to give an excuse for Israel or America to basically nuke them. They don't want to do anything so tragic that the world would be on the side of, hey, this regime has to go. And I think they're just kind of comfortable sitting in this mess, feeling like they won and that at some point, Donald Trump is going to have to actually give them a real version of the MoU, admit defeat and walk away. And so they're happy to kind of just sit in the current status quo. And Donald Trump is really just working with his bomb and hope strategy of let's keep the current conditions and let's hope that some sort of a pathway opens up. But now that the Red Sea is shut down, Saudi Arabia's got to be pissed off as all hell as some critical infrastructure is now being targeted and hit by the Houthis. It seems like there's just more of a shot clock running out on America of how much we're going to be able to. How much our voting public is going to be willing to tolerate without turning on Trump. So it just kind of feels to me like the Iranians just have this chess game pretty figured out and Donald Trump is still fumbling along.

[Dave Smith]

Yeah, I think. I mean, I think that's exactly right. That's, like, spot on. And even down to your point, with the look, the nuclear threat and Donald Trump being the guy sitting there does give it a little bit of a credibility from the Iranian perspective that, like, look, I mean, he is the craziest motherfucker in the world, and he does have his finger on the button. So, like, you know, like. But you're essentially, if you're, like, if you're trying to, which is a useful thing to do in war, even though it literally gets every low IQ moron to, you know, like, lose their minds if you ever do it. But, like, put yourself in the perspective of the other guys. Imagine right now you're an Iranian. Imagine your survival and your family's survival depends on Iran coming out on top of this and you're operating from their point of view. I think exactly what you said is how you have to approach it. You'd go, look, we're winning, but there's this big, you know, like ace in the hole. So we don't want to do anything crazy. You just want to win, play conservatively at this point. But also, if you were being smart from their perspective. But you don't give up the straight. You don't give up anything. You don't. Because you're winning. And why would you. So, yeah, I think, I think that's essentially right. And look, man, if this is the case, I mean it. In some ways, it's another level that we're going to get a reality check on. Exactly how much of a paper tiger this whole US Empire is. Exactly how much of a big Ponzi scheme is this whole thing. You know, where you've got. I mean, Rob, when you, if, if you look into it, and there's some people who have done good, detailed analysis on this, but there's been some reports even in the New York Times and in, in the Wall Street Journal where they'd. Even when you just go through it, it's like, dude, we dropped like more Thaad missiles than have ever been dropped in human. Something like some crazy number, like a huge percentage of the world's stock of Thaad missiles we dropped in the first month of this war. And then you'd like, look at the numbers and be like, it was like $5 billion worth of THAAD missiles alone. The numbers are getting really crazy. You got this war department that's now coming out, and they're asking. First they said they needed 200 billion for this war. Now Pete Hags had this coming out, Robin, saying the biggest threat to national security is that we don't give you guys $1.5 trillion. And it's like, yo, dude, like the money you're talking about here, where we've spent, we've probably, you know, America has, since the collapse of the Soviet union, maybe put $20 trillion into militarism. You're now talking about you need another 1.5 trillion just to get you through the next year. And this is the biggest national security. Like, at what point does the taxpayer get to kick the tires on this thing, Rob and go, and what do we have for all that? You're telling me we. We've spent this many trillions of dollars? Do you understand the level of wealth that we've robbed from the American people, extracted from the economy and given to cronies at weapons companies to the tune of trillions and tens of trillions of dollars? And you're telling me we run out of missiles in a war with a Third rate power after a few months. I mean, I'm sorry, what the fuck are we talking about here, Rob?

[Robbie the Fire Bernstein]

Yeah, well, this came up during the, when we were funding Ukraine against Russia. I know. I think I heard Ron Johnson say this on the Senate floor, that they're able to produce just the basic stockpiles of ammunition at like a 7, it's like a 7 to 1 cost ratio. And I mean, and this is also just, this is Trump's fault of piss poor planning gets piss poor results. At the outset of the war, people were talking about the cost of our Interceptors versus the cost of their cheap drones. And I was talking with Kyle Anzlowen on my podcast, Run youn Mouth at the start of the war, and he was basically saying, what you're saying is that the problem is that our entire military industrial complex is basically just a money laundering scheme. And so they are not actually prepared for these fights because they got these super targeted, very expensive pieces of equipment that are kind of outdated and they are spectacular and they are precise. But if you're up against heavy volume, super cheap, it's not a winning strategy.

[Dave Smith]

Yeah, yeah, no, that's right. You know, I think about this quite a lot. But it is. There is also something interesting about how like, you know, they say the Pentagon's always fighting the last war. And there's no question there's truth to that. I mean, if you look at where so much of, like the, so much of the military buildup has gone, it was almost like we're planning for another World War II or we're planning for another conventional war. But even as you look around, you're like, dude, I mean, all the super powers got H bombs at this point. Like, we're not doing another conventional World War II war, so why are we planning for that? Like, our boys aren't going to be in foxholes shooting at other, you know, boys in foxholes. Is it right we're not going to fight World War I if we do have another world war, it'll be something, but it won't be that. And you know, when you think about the fact is, and this, this really is the fact that if there's a reason, if you had to. Obviously these are layered questions, but if you were to say, why is America the superpower in the world right now? And you had to give the shortest possible answer to that, it's like, well, because we won the two World wars in the 20th century or something. Like, we won the two World wars and then the, the Soviets collapsed or Something like that. So where the superpower left and the reason we won the two world wars, because we had this giant industrial base, we were the most productive nation in the history of the world. We made so much stuff that it made us the richest country in the world. And then when our government decided to take us to the war, they converted that productive capacity toward war making. And so we just out produced everyone. So we won the big wars, and then through a bunch of government policy, we de industrialized the whole country, and now we don't have a productive capacity. And there is just something interesting about that, like, Rob, where it's like, look, obviously we're not fighting the last war anyway, but even if we were to fight the last war, like, we don't have that anymore, you know, like, we don't have the thing that made us the superpower, both economically and then militarily, we gave up on that, and now we're an economic superpower because we trade more pieces of paper electronically than anybody else does or whatever, you know, and then you're like, oh, all right. Also, we spend more of that paper money on our military. And that's not nothing because you can buy some cool missiles and stuff, but all of this stuff is getting put to the test right now. And I mean, we're failing it in real time. You're watching. We're just failing it at every turn. And I don't know what to say, Rob. Donald Trump lost the war. Then he pivoted to an economic blockade and lost that war. Now he's pivoted back to this, and he's losing this one. So what's the next pivot here? I. I have a feeling. Let's just walk away. I'm hoping. All right, guys, let's take a moment and thank our sponsor for today's show, which is Hexclad. I've been telling you about this company for a while now. If you want to level your kitchen game, you got to check out Hexclad. And summer's here. I don't know about you, but I'm a big barbecuer. I've been out on the grill every day, and I'm using Hexclad's barbecue collection. Hexclad is bringing its hybrid technology outdoors with products specifically designed to make grilling easier, especially when you're cooking foods that normally don't cooperate. On a traditional grill. The Hexclad barbecue grill pan combines the searing power of stainless steel, the durability of cast iron, and the convenience of non stick. All in one versatile grill pan. They've also launched their new barbecue grill topper, which gives you even more control when cooking delicate foods, veggies, seafood, and multiple portions at once. And if you're looking for the complete setup, hexclads offers the barbecue bundle, featuring the barbecue grill pan, hybrid cutting board, and the carving set. So you have everything you need to grill, prep, carve, and serve without constantly running back and forth to the kitchen. So enjoy your summer. There's nothing quite like barbecuing with the summer. And if you want to do it like a pro, make sure you get your tools from Hexclad. Stop fighting. Cleanup and upgrade your backyard cooking setup with hexclad's barbecue collection. For a limited time only, our listeners get 10% off your order with our exclusive link, which is hexclad.com problem. That's h e x c l a d.com problem. All right, let's get back into the show.

[Robbie the Fire Bernstein]

Well, walking away probably made more strategic defense sense than the mou, but we're circling back to where we were this entire time, which is essentially, you gotta. You gotta break up with Israel, and Iran's gonna keep the Straits. All the neighbors are gonna have to get along with Iran. We're gonna have to kind of admit that Iran's not a mortal enemy, and the big loser in that equation is Israel.

[Dave Smith]

Yeah, well, yeah, one would think. One would think. All right, you want to just get into. Let's get into some of the. The Fauci stuff, because this is something. Prosecute Fauci. There you go. It was something, man. Reading through, I. I will say there's something about COVID and that time period, and, you know, it's. I remember when I read Tom. Tom Woods. Fantastic book, Diary of a Psychosis. Really great book. But I remember it was, like. It was like a cathartic experience, but it was emotional. Like, I got, like. It was just such a Perry, you know, I mean, I think Covet is one of these things that, like, it affected everybody. Everybody's life for me and. And you. It also, like, affected our career a lot, and. And in many ways, our show kind of blew up in those years. And, you know, I kind of made a name for myself off being one of the guys who was opposed to the COVID stuff. I mean, I've been around a little bit before then, but that was. Those were big years, for sure. I still. Everywhere I go, everywhere I go, people come up to me and talk about the Cuomo debate. I'll never. Not. I'LL never not get just regular working class dudes coming up to me going, thanks for kicking Cuomo's ass. And. And there's. Well, look, it was a crazy. It was a crazy time. And even for me, I still, when I, like, as I'm reading some of these Fauci emails, you're like, was it all a dream? Did this really happen? And I'll tell you, there was something where I've seen on social media, a bunch of people, like, posting stuff about, and it's like, it's almost like getting the boys back together. It's all the people who were against the COVID tyranny. Like, I like, oh, yeah, I remember all these guys. And there's something. There is a bond, I think, that all of the people who were really, really outspoken critics of the insanity of the insane response to Covid. You know, there's like a camaraderie that we all have with each other because the world really went crazy. And it was. It was a time where it took. It was really.

[Toyota Advertiser]

It.

[Dave Smith]

It felt like it really cost you something to stand up and be against it and tell the truth and not just like, culture. Something like, I'm not trying to exaggerate. Like, it wasn't like, oh, you're going to go to jail for this. But I never felt like that. But it did feel like you might be silenced permanently in the public conversation for this. And it did feel like, I think for a lot of people, like, you might really lose friends over this. Like, people.

[Toyota Advertiser]

What.

[Dave Smith]

You know, and it's just a crazy time. And look, I don't know how else to say this, but we were so goddamn right, Rob. We were so right and they were all so wrong. It is. I don't know. And I know that this is one of the things that I appreciate where people come up to me about the Cuomo debate all the time. It's not just about the Cuomo debate. It was much bigger than that debate. It was much bigger than May. It's that during these Covid years, there was, Rob. The attempt to gaslight you. To gaslight you, but from all the halls of power. And, and while you sit there and go like, no, no, no, no, this clearly makes no sense. This is wrong. And they tried to. And then, then to like, find other like minded people and have their whole narrative fall apart. There's something just very cathartic about that where you're like, thank you, I'm not crazy. You people. Not only are you people, were you guys always out of your Mind these absolute, you know, just sociopathic liars. And we'll go through some of this in a little bit. But, like, look at the actual guy who you were defending. He's a little weasel, a little Weasley liar who was, like, overwhelmed and thrilled with the moment that he was in. It's just. It's unbelievable. The more you learn about these people, the more information as time comes out and then you try to put yourself back in the space of what they were telling you at the time, that he was this hero, he was truth, science and above, you know, reproach. I don't know what do you. You can take this anywhere you want to rob. But.

[Robbie the Fire Bernstein]

All right, I want to give you the highlights of what I've seen so far that are in the diaries. I'm gonna have to actually go and read all of these because I will for sure turn it into some comedic bits.

[Dave Smith]

It's really made for a Rob Bernstein piece on all of this.

[Robbie the Fire Bernstein]

Yes, this is. I will be delving into this, but the sing damning piece that's in there and we'll get into all of them. But the single most damning was that he acknowledged. And I don't know why he put this in writing, but when he was out there three weeks after he wrote this in the diary, that the death rate was upwards of 3%. He acknowledges in his private diaries that this is basically a bad flu at like 0.002%. And so if you want. If you just want one little piece of evidence of this entire thing being a fabricated mess by the works of Fauci, it's right there in his diaries that the death rate that scared the shit out of all of us was completely overstated. And he knew it at the time.

[Dave Smith]

So huge. Which is so huge, man. And I'm sorry, don't lose your place on that. But this was the whole debate at the time. Because at the time, this was the whole numbers. It's like, okay, well, if it's 0.03, then who really cares? It's a bad flu and we go on with life as normal. But if it's 3.0, then we're looking at the Black Plague and, like, hundreds of thousands of Americans are going to be dead on the street. And so we have to. And so, dude, conflating that is such a huge. You know what I mean? Like, it's, it's. You kind of can't overstate, like, what a big deal that is. He knew it. And they were smearing us, dude. I remember Sharing studies at the time that were like, hey, indicating maybe it's lower than that and people would be furious at you over it. And this motherfucker knew the whole time.

[Robbie the Fire Bernstein]

And then next is you get just the insight in the. Into the institutional problems. So for one, apparently he ended up in his position because Donald Trump liked the way he looked on television and everyone kind of thought he was a good TV character. And so that's how he became the lord of science was not because he was actually doing the research, but because he was good on television. Next you have, and this gives away the entire thing and people don't understand just how dirty this is. He's getting awards from people that have gotten big grants from the nih and isn't that nice that you can get a huge sum of money from the NIH and then turn around and go, we're going to give an award to the guy who gave us a ton of money. But it's not just the awards. That's why all of the institutions were in lockstep with what was coming down. It's socialism that there's so much federal money going into the system. None of the big institutions or doctors or anything wanted to criticize the system because that's where the actual money's flowing from. And then the last piece of just institutional rot that's very apparent is when they first get together with the scientists and Fauci knows that this leaked from a lab and he's got the committee and he's like, all right, well, we're gonna have to make this look like it's like it was out of the wet market. And then they, you know, I think two people left that committee cuz they were kind of the dissenters. The same thing happened with the cdc. They got rid of the guy who I think it was over the same lab leak thing that they basically got rid of him. Also, every time they were proving the vaccines when there were dissenters, those guys magically decided to resign from their posts. But that's the rot is that you get these people at the top of these institutions that are not going, hey, go perform science and give me an answer. They're going, this is the conclusion I'm looking for. I need it on government paperwork so I can go, people, hey, this is the scientific process of government paperwork. You got to trust the government paperwork.

[Dave Smith]

No, you're exactly right. You're exactly.

[Robbie the Fire Bernstein]

That's it.

[Dave Smith]

And so, well, look, dude, I mean, this is the, that Rothbard taught me about, how you got to analyze this it's like in, in the same way that like, you know, when it comes to economics, I always say there's, there's Austrian economics and then there's junk economics. It's like, because there's a correct way to view things here and an incorrect way to view things. And so like, like for example, just off topic on the economic stuff, right? Like this was the basic Mrs. Idea of what praxeology is, right? That praxeology is the study of human action. And when humans are acting, you think about that in a different way, right? So like for example, if you, if you saw, I think Bob Murphy might have used this example, if you threw a rock up in the air and it came down and you caught it in your, your hand, right? Or then you saw, let's say you saw a plane take off and then you saw a plane land, like you were just at the airport, you saw it take off and land. Now if we were scientifically analyzing what just happened with that plane and I said to you, I came to you with a hypothesis which is that the pilot didn't like the looks of it, it he changed his mind and he decided to land. That's like a reasonable hypothesis in that case, right? Like that, that maybe he didn't like the looks of the weather and came, but we just saw a plane take off and come back down. Now but if I was analyzing the rock and I said to you, looks like the rock didn't like the way things were going up and he decided to come back down, okay, like that would be really goofy in the rock example, but it would be totally scientific in the plane example. And in the same way that like, vice versa, if I were to try to describe the plane as if it was a rock, as if gravity just blowed it back, that you'd be like, no, no, no, you don't understand. That's human action. There's a human being acting here. And so we analyze that in a different way than we would. So, so in other words, you know, any type of economics that's giving you like a formula, like that's trying to be physics, you're not doing it right, dude, this has nothing to do with science anymore. This is anti scientific. It's as anti scientific as if I said the rock decided it didn't want to go up anymore and decided it wanted to come down. We don't think of rocks as making decisions and we don't think of humans as not making decisions. Neither one works in the same way. Sorry, that was just a Little off to the side, but for those who it connects with, I think it makes sense in the same way Murray Rothbard used to put it like this. I believe what he called it, what you're talking about right now was economic incentive history or, or like that, that he was saying that that should be a whole different branch of history. And Murray Rothbard basically argued that we, like, we have good military history where they'll be like, this battle happened, then this battle happened, then this battle happened. But if you look at real, like historians and the work they do on policy, it's almost always like the gaps are filled with just narrative nonsense like, dude, and I can't tell you how many times this, this happens. This was the. One of the great insights as a historian that Murray Rothbard had. But so I get this all the time when I talk to liberals and, or left wingers. And in fact, I think even like, I think Nick Mullen once came at libertarians with this, like, dismissal, which is a pretty popular one you hear on the left. They'll say something like, yeah, Rob, we tried it that way and that didn't work. And that's why we have what we have now, you know, and, and to some degree, there's like a superficial level of plausibility with this because, yeah, we used to be a much more free market economy and now we're a much more centrally planned economy. And so, yeah, we used to do it like that and then found out it doesn't work, and now we do it like this. But then Rothbard would point out, hey, is that really how the mechanisms of government work? Is that just right now, when you look at the mechanisms of government, is that how it works? The people, we all found out. And then legislation gets passed. Like the example Rothbard would use. He goes, let's say Congress passes a tariff on steel, okay? Or let's say Trump passes. Well, you know, it doesn't have to be Congress, the government, maybe it does by executive order, whatever, there's a tariff on steel. And you were to go, hey, here's my hypothesis on how this happened. The people woke up and they realized that free trade and steel just didn't work. There were these major problems in the buying and selling of steel. This didn't work. And the people realized that a preferable economic system was that Washington, D.C. tax foreign production or foreign imports of steel production. Or is it more likely that special interest from the steel industry lobbied for said policy? Which one's more likely? Every last one of us knows that. The second is the actual mechanisms of government. And yet real deal historians and regular people will tell you history as if it all happened the other way. They will. They will fill. So. So one of the ways Rothbard does history, it's just really fascinating. So he says, and this is the way Rothbard described it even back then. And I believe he was writing this in the 70s, so if you could try to picture how brilliant and how much this applies to today. But he goes, look, this is why the term conspiracy theory was developed and used to slander anybody who does real history. Now, he made the point. Rothbard goes, there are kooks out there who do bad conspiracy, but real history is almost always about economic incentives and thus a conspiracy of sorts. And so when you read Rothbard, well, Rob, you know, in 1850, they put in that big railroad. What was it, around 1850? So the one that went from. Yes, the one that went. No, I don't think it was the Pacific. I think it was the Chicago. I think it was like a north south railroad before the Pacific work. But maybe you're right. Maybe I'm getting that wrong. But people could go like, well, they did that because the economy didn't work in this way. And then they did this, and therefore we realized that we needed centrally planned railroads. And then you read Rothbard, and Rothbard goes like, whatever. It'll be. It'll be like when Madison was lobbying for the second Central bank of the United States of America, his cousin got to underwrite the bonds that were written by the state government, and his old business partner got to have the job on the railroad. That got to. And then you find the actual connections and you go, oh, well, okay. Well, that's actually pretty okay. If we're doing real history here, it makes a lot more sense to maybe focus on the fact that, like, you know, Madison's cousin stood to become worth $50 million if the second bank got pat. The cousin thing is not a specific detail from history, but there was like that with Madison in the second bank. You got to go read Rothbard. But there's all types of great, like, nuggets in there. But the point is that, like,

[Toyota Advertiser]

my

[Dave Smith]

point is that what you're getting here and what you're talking about is real history, really how things work. And no, it's not the case that just like, the mechanisms and the machinery of government all get behind this guy because we all had some view or something like that. It's like, no, follow the money here, man. Like, who's making money off of this? And to your point, this stuff is all over the place here. And then. And you see it. It's like, dude, between his emails that have come out now, his diary entries, the picture is just so. They never thought it was racist to say that it came from a lab. They never thought it would. You know what I'm saying? Like, no, they knew it probably came from the lab, and they knew they were implicated. They knew that the death rate wasn't this high, but they knew that they would get a lot more power if people believed it was. And also. And we can go through some more if there's others on your list here, but I gotta say, dude, because part of what Rothbard is getting at in his way of how to conceive history here and part of public choice theory or things like that are understanding what a kind of basic thing. It's the same insight that Mises had with economics, but with politics. What we're looking at here is human action, meaning we're viewing human actors, meaning they work like human beings work. And me and you, viewer of this show, Rob and Natalie, we know a thing about how humans work because we are humans, right? So we can kind of, like, understand some of this. And one of the things that's crazy to me, Rob, here, is not. It's not just the lies. It's not even just, like, the money complications. I do put this right up there with the. With. With, like, say, the death rate. Fauci, as a person, Rob is smitten with being famous. And that's the thing that really comes through here, which is wild to think about that at this moment. At this moment, when you're like, okay, he knows that he funded the lab, right? We don't know that yet, but he knows that there's the biggest, like, outbreak of this virus. And this guy is concerned with the fact that, like, pretty neat that everyone on TV is talking about me.

[Robbie the Fire Bernstein]

Yeah. It's incredible how drunk on power he is and that he doesn't seem to be all that concerned with the actual science behind the policies, as much as these policies are leaving me to be more of a celebrity and to be more in power. And, I mean, it's almost remarkable to try and wrap your head around a villain of that nature who will make choices that while pretending it's the only way that you're gonna live, but the choices are actually being influenced by this grants me more power as people are kind of listening to me. And at the same time, when getting in trouble, going, I never said that that wasn't My decision that for me, I, that was, that was from all these agencies. And then he's in his diary going, oh, look, these governors saw me on television. And so they're closing the televisions. I mean, they're closing the schools and they're going to be closing the bars. And it's, it's, it's just wild to see someone making such bad decisions and then just enjoying the fame that's coming from his horrible decisions.

[Dave Smith]

Yo. I mean, he had, if you remember the famous one that we played a million times on the show is where he goes later. This is two years later, he goes, I never recommended, I never recommended. We locked down everything. This is him in his diary, by the way. Also, who writes a diary? Oh, I don't want to insult some people.

[Robbie the Fire Bernstein]

Apparently I, I was suspicious of this at first because I was under. Who would, who would keep a record of incriminating evidence against themselves? Apparently high ranking government officials do this. My guess is it's because they want to write books later and celebrate how great they are. But I think it's almost like it's a very corporate thing that if you get off a call with someone, you might kind of keep a call log, so you got a bit of a record that you can point to. And so I think these guys are, I think it's the opposite where to dodge culpability. They're kind of keeping like an informal.

[Dave Smith]

Yeah, well, here I'm reading.

[Anthony Fauci (clip)]

Let me.

[Robbie the Fire Bernstein]

I still can't wrap my head around writing a diary that includes incriminating things such as the unbelievable. But apparently from what I've seen thus far, I was on a, I was on a flight last night after a gig. I got to actually read all these files and sink my teeth in. But apparently this is like pretty, pretty common practice. I also don't know how Rand got his hands on.

[Dave Smith]

Well, I will say, I will say I think there might be some human dynamic to like, because I know I've been in this situation before. I've been in like. Well, let's say, let's say this like when I have, when I have private communications with people who are like, you know, I, I mean, I talk to people at pretty high level, like media and, and even in government at times and politics and stuff like that. I've had the thought before, like, you think maybe some people are listening and I've had talks with people before where I know that that person's been spied on by the feds and I'm talking to them and you know what Rob, after about three minutes into a phone call, you completely forget that and you just get lost in a phone call and like, I'm just making the point that like, you do get sloppy. You know, I've been miked for on TV gigs where they mic you like a half hour before you're on and you completely forget that you have a mic on and start talking to people in a very unguarded way because you're just, I don't know, you've had a lot of time being used to being a human and you're not like, I don't know, you're just not. You, you're not expecting to be guarded. Oh, yeah, there's a thing right here. And I'm saying, and then I've been there before. I'm getting all wild conversations and, and I'm like, oh, there's some guy in sound just hearing all of this. Anyway, this is what fauci. So I'm saying, I guess maybe when you start journaling, you just start ratting on yourself. All right, guys, let's take a moment and thank our sponsor for today's show, which is Prolong. If you want to be your most radiant this summer, check out Prolon's five day fasting mimicking diet. It makes it easy to target fat loss, support lean muscle and reset your metabolism so you look and feel your best all summer long in just five days. Prolon works at the cellular level to rejuvenate you from the inside out and help you hit your summer goals. Prolon, as I've been telling you about for a while now, guys, it's a plant based nutrition program. They have soups, snacks, beverages and they're all designed to nourish your body while keeping it in a fasting state. So you trick your cells into thinking that you're fasting and it triggers cellular rejuvenation and renewal. It was developed over decades at USC's Longevity Institute. This is backed by top US medical centers. Prolon has been shown to support biolo age reduction, metabolic health, skin appearance, fat loss with muscle protection, energy and a healthier relationship with food. So if you're ready for your own reset for a limited time, Prolon is offering our listeners 15 off site wide plus a 40 bonus gift. When you subscribe to their five day program, just visit prolonlife.com PotP that's P-R-O-L-O-N L I F E.com P O T P to claim your 15 discount and your $40 bonus gift. Prolong life.com PotP all right, let's get back into the show. Here's from from Dr. Fauci. I spoke with Bill de Blasio and convinced him based on what I was saying publicly and my conversations tonight, to close the New York City schools. He has already decided, based on what I was saying on TV or he had already decided. I went on to tell him he should close the bars and restaurants in New York City. He said he would base this on my recommendation. I had a similar call with Ann o', Leary, the cos of Governor Gavin Newsom of California, chief of staff, and said that based on my TV appearances today and yesterday, the governor has decided to close the schools in California as well as the bars and restaurants. When I left the White House and crossed Pennsylvania and 17th, several cars honked their horns and shouted thank you out the window. Well, people are honking and shouting today, Tony, but they're shouting something different like, sorry, go ahead.

[Robbie the Fire Bernstein]

Well, bless Rand Paul on this one. I know we've been criticizing him recently, but we were hoping that there might be some Covid justice and for the first time in a couple years we see some headway here. And this is a great setup for him coming in to give testimony on Wednesday. And I will state a bold prediction that I hope turns out not to be true. But I'm going to guess that an old fragile man who can't remember a single thing is going to be who shows up. But yeah, I'm excited to see how much, how much Pepe still has in his step and to what extent he wants to combat this new narrative, especially as nobody's profiting off him or off vaccines and he's less protected. So it will be interesting if, if he actually has to get grilled for, for hours on end and has some bad moments.

[Dave Smith]

Yeah, you know, I, I, I personally am a believer that it is really important for us to get as many moments like this as we can. And don't get me wrong, this guy should go to jail for the rest of his life. I, I mean, I almost think it's necessary for our society to heal for him and some others to go to jail over this stuff.

[Robbie the Fire Bernstein]

Because the nor you need to see, oh, you were blatantly lied. You were this wrong by government. Yes.

[Dave Smith]

And everybody in government needs to be scared that that could happen to them too if they go this far. There's got to be some line that you can't go over. I mean, you know, dude, when you think about the cost of this shit and it's Like Will, dude, first of all, there are costs involved in, in the COVID tyranny that you cannot put a price on. There were how many old people died alone, how many, you know, how many, you know, women gave birth alone with a mask on, you know, like how many, how many, how many people spent their last few days isolated from their families? Things you cannot put a price on. Also Rob, I mean you could go look into some of the numbers of the absolute collapse in like cancer screenings during, during the time of the pandemic. And there's, there's some doctors out there who have tried to put together, you know, assessments of, there's. How many people are gonna die. The educational gap, dude, I mean it was, you know, kids do bounce back in an amazing way, but it, I mean it threw a major wrench into the childhood of tens of millions of kids in this country alone, let alone the rest of the world. I know a several, I'm sure almost everyone does, kids who fell behind during that time period. Dude, the amount of economic devastation. I mean, you know, again, people do their best to try to measure these things, but there's at the bare minimum, there's tens of millions, is tens of millions of small and mid sized businesses that have closed their doors permanently. It'll never be open again. Suicides and broken families and the enormous cost of all this. And by the way, we're still living through so much of this. I mean so much of the inflation that we're dealing with is due to the money printing during COVID So much of the supply chain issues that we dealt with over the last few years was had to do with COVID And you know, when you look at the young generation of people and they seem kind of crazy to you also know a huge portion of that is that they, they grew up during COVID I,

[Robbie the Fire Bernstein]

I'm going to mention another more silent one which is also less quantifiable. But I think if a lot of people listening to this show are honest with themselves, they'll know what I'm about. But I remember like three years after Covid, sitting at home watching a movie, drinking, and I was like, Covid is over. Like, there is no excuse for this. And I can only speak for myself that like you create some forward momentum in your life and you get things going, you develop good habits and then the government sends you back, back home with nothing to do and no ability to do the things that you're trying to get done. Or like, you know, you could just kind of been a lazy person. You finally landed a job. You're in an office or in a groove, and they take that from you. Or you're a guy who never went to the gym. You're going to the gym every day. You're not allowed to go to the gym. I'm sure. I mean, you could probably even look at the numbers of. Of, like, health rates in those years or alcoholism and whatnot. But I know that there's people out there that by now you should have gotten back on your feet. But, you know, I bet some people. I'm not the only one who picked up some bad habits over Covid that took some. Took some time to shake off, and you lost some momentum in your career.

[Dave Smith]

Yep. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. Tons of people like that. No, I know. I. I know few people who had, like, real, like, mental episodes during COVID You know, it was really bad for. For a lot of people. And, you know, the thing is that, again, it's. It's like, there's something about these years where, like I said, I have a tremendous amount of, like, respect for the people who were good on this issue, who were there alongside us, who were kind of, like, fighting against all the tyranny in those days, and a special amount of contempt for the people who were pushing the. The lockdowns the most aggressively. And. But there's almost something about it where you're like, yo, guys, we can't just. I know there's a lot of crazy going on, and I know I'm as guilty of anyone is falling for the next shiny object, especially when the next shiny object is, like, a. A disastrous war or an economic collapse or something. It's easy. But we can't just forget that this happened, you know? Like, it's like, I think there's something valuable in all of us remembering. And then also, you know, I mean, look, there's a little bit of a gray area there, Rob, between, like, who was good and who was bad, because as the thing went on, some people started getting good who had been bad a lot. And I'm not even getting back to, like. I don't know how we parse through exactly where it was acceptable before you started getting good, because there's a lot of people who would try to pretend that they were against this whole thing at the time. But I'm sorry, man. Like, this should be a litmus test for, like, how you judge your favorite political commentator or what group you're in or who you listen to. Like, dude, this thing was fucking obvious, man. You're telling me that we got to lock down all of society over a virus that we know next to nothing about. You're telling me that, like, for. For. Against all, like, traditional, like, norms and practices, we have to quarantine the healthy and.

[Anthony Fauci (clip)]

And.

[Dave Smith]

But, Rob, I mean, to find out that the guy at the time. This is how corrupt this guy was, Rob, that he funded the thing and knew it and lied through his teeth about it and then knew he was lying about the death rate, about mask efficiency, about all of it. And try here, Natalie, let's play this clip because, I mean, it really is something here. There's actually, I guess, two that I had sent over. Well, let's play the first one that I had sent you with the media's coverage of Fauci to try to go back at the time. Let me see. Was it. One of them was a Tom Elliott one, but the other one. Wait, hold on. I'm sorry. Is this the. Yeah. Okay, let's play this one. The single most respected voice in the pandemic, it's Dr. Anthony Fauci, the man

[Robbie the Fire Bernstein]

who's become known as America's doctor.

[Dave Smith]

The nation's top infectious disease expert, Anthony

[Anthony Fauci (clip)]

Fauci, you are seen to many as a superhero.

[Robbie the Fire Bernstein]

Dr. Anthony Fauci, American hero and New York Yankee fan.

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You've done so much for this country

[Anthony Fauci (clip)]

in terms of this crisis. So I really appreciate your insight.

[Dave Smith]

Who better to give us answers that we can trust than Dr. Anthony Fauci?

[Anthony Fauci (clip)]

Perfect person to answer our questions today. Joining us now, Dr. Anthony Fauci.

[Robbie the Fire Bernstein]

Dr. Anthony Fauci, appreciate your candor.

[Dave Smith]

Dr. Fauci, appreciate the candor.

[Anthony Fauci (clip)]

We appreciate your service to this country. We appreciate your service. Thank you for your service.

[Dave Smith]

Thank you for your service.

[Robbie the Fire Bernstein]

Greatly appreciate your service to America. Thank you for your 37 years of service, I believe, to seven presidents. And thank you for your work over the past year.

[Dave Smith]

The great news is you're sticking around in the Biden administration. We are so grateful to you, Dr. Fauci, for everything you do.

[Anthony Fauci (clip)]

Thank you so much for everything you do. Thank you very much for everything that you do.

[Dave Smith]

Thanks so much for the work that you do.

[Anthony Fauci (clip)]

Thank you very much for the reassurance and as always, for all of your public service. Thank you, Dr. Fauci. Thank you for all your guidance this. This past year and. And it's greatly appreciated.

[Dave Smith]

Dr. Fauci, on behalf of all of our viewers here in the US and around the world, thanks very much for doing what you're doing. Thanks very much for joining us. Please thank your entire team as well. We are all grateful.

[Anthony Fauci (clip)]

Get your rest because we need you.

[Dave Smith]

You are one of the busiest scientists in the country right now. It is an honor to have some of your time to help us understand

[Robbie the Fire Bernstein]

what is going on.

[Dave Smith]

I know a lot of people have a lot of questions, so we appreciate your time, sir. We need people to continue to have faith in science.

[Toyota Advertiser]

Science.

[Anthony Fauci (clip)]

So thank you for your time, sir.

[Robbie the Fire Bernstein]

Thank you for being straight with us. Thank you for being able to come on. You will always have this show as a platform, sir.

[Anthony Fauci (clip)]

Whenever you can be here, it's. We'll have you. It's always an honor to have time with you. Thanks for being here. Good enough for you, sir.

[Dave Smith]

It's good enough for me and my family. So thank you, doctor.

[Robbie the Fire Bernstein]

Dr. Fauci. Thank you keeping it straight. Thank you for fighting the good fight.

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I am sincerely appreciative.

[Anthony Fauci (clip)]

You are not walking.

[Dave Smith]

All right, all right, all right. We can cut it off. I think we got the point. I forgot about that. I forgot about Chuck Todd.

[Toyota Advertiser]

The.

[Dave Smith]

The moderator of Meet the Press actually went, if it's good enough for you, then it's good enough for me. I will turn my brain off and defer to you now, sir. I mean, dude, look. What? Don't ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever allow one of these people ever again to look down their nose at you or the podcaster or the conspiracy theorist or the. I think Candace Owens has gone too far. All you, Sam Harris. We need institutions with trust. All of you. Shut the up. Shut the up. This is what they did. This is what they did. When it really mattered, by the way, again, Rob, you know, objective journalism. What a fucking joke, Rob. What a joke that these guys call themselves journalists and they would view. Rob. Again, no matter what the situation is. Rob, maybe. Maybe I'll concede this right here. Okay? It's vague, so it's not much of a concession, but maybe there is a time where the correct course of action, Rob, is to shut down the world, okay? But if ever there is a time where that's the right course of action to shut down the world. And you call yourself a journalist and someone comes on to argue to you, hey, you know what I think we should do right now?

[Mark Levin (clip)]

We.

[Dave Smith]

Is shut down the world. You would think that you wouldn't take it upon yourself to go, well, my role as a journalist right here is to shut my brain off and not along with this guy. And if we got time at the end, probably try to kiss his ass and tell him how great I think he is. You'd probably go. We're going to be skeptical of this claim, sir. We're going to, we're going to have to be a little bit adversarial because that is, by objectively speaking, a radical step for us to take right now. You know, I'd look for a little bit more healthy skepticism than this. This is what they did, Rob. Just, just ball watch them.

[Robbie the Fire Bernstein]

Well, when he said to shut down the world, it was. I was only making a health decision. And no, I wasn't taken into account if your business was shut down, what that would do for your health. And also when the decision was made, that wasn't me. It was all the other guys. And I don't know who's telling you that there was a mandate.

[Dave Smith]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, what. Like, it's. Look, dude, there, there's one of the things. And I, I think one of the best things about COVID I, I will say this, and I think we're still living in. In many ways, we're living in kind of the postco reality is that it, you know, this is what blew up the system, you know, in, in a lot of ways, like whatever it is. And, and, and there's benefits and, and cost to this. Like everything else, I think the benefits far outweigh the costs.

[Shopify Advertiser]

And.

[Dave Smith]

But I remember saying this around 24 during the election where the media would be running certain games that they would try to play. And I remember just being like, yo, dude, this is not going to work anymore. After Covid, you know, I got in arguments. I got in public arguments with Robbie Suave and Michael Tracy. At the time when I had said that Donald Trump winning again was going to destroy the corporate media. And both of them had argued, and I understand why they made the argument that because Russ gate, they go, no, look, dude, Donald Trump had, they had their biggest ratings when Donald Trump was in, you know, and I was like, yeah, dude, but they got that off Russia Gate. Let them try a Russia Gate now after Covid, no one's buying it anymore, dude. And it's not, it's really not anything. Nothing, nothing delivered a blow to the legacy media and, and just institutions across America like Covid. Not the wars, not the recess, not the Great Recession, not, you know, Russiagate. Nothing else did quite what Covid did. It realigned everything because there was nothing to kind of like. And this is the best part of it. There was nothing to wake people up to.

[Mark Levin (clip)]

Like,

[Dave Smith]

it's not, it's not whether you agree with this policy or disagree with this policy. It's whether you look at that montage we just played, Rob, and whether you have any illusion still that you were just watching the news, that's really kind of the most important red pill, is that you go, oh, what we just watched, like what? Like. Like the blue pill. Perception is that that's the news. You know, they may get it right, they may get it wrong, but that's the news. Those are adults in suits and ties, and they're telling you what a senator said about the Pentagon.

[Toyota Advertiser]

And.

[Dave Smith]

But, like, this is the news. And then when you look at it now, just with a few years. Right, Rob, we're not looking back at the 1940s from the 1980s or something like that, that we're just looking back at the year 2020 from 2026. And what you look at the montage, you go, oh, this is so obvious. Now. That is a coordinated propaganda effort. And all of them are on the same team. All of them know exactly what we're doing. They're not there to interview Dr. Fauci and get the latest information about the virus, Rob. This is wwf. They're there to get him over. In the same way that if I'm a wrestler and if you're Andre the Giant and you're fighting Hulk Hogan, your job isn't simply to, like. Like, your job is to help get Hulk Hogan over and take all the energy you used to have as the biggest, baddest wrestler and now give it to him. Like, that's clearly what they're doing for him here. This is an op. This is propaganda. And that is. That is kind of the essence of why everyone is now getting their. All the young people are now getting their information from podcasters and not all these guys. You know, it's because of what happened here with COVID Yep.

[Robbie the Fire Bernstein]

And I'm. I'm looking forward to this. I think it's a Wednesday showdown to see what comes of it.

[Dave Smith]

I can't wait. I can't wait. It's always. There's nothing. Rand Paul at his best is when he's grilling Fauci in these hearings. And I am. I am with you, Rob. I think we might be seeing an old. We might be seeing a Robert Mueller come Wednesday. So very interested to see how this ends up going down. And of course, there is, you know, like I said, there's something nice about getting the band back together, seeing all the anti, you know, Covid restriction people speak up about this. And I hope. I hope they continue to, because, like, we. We should never let this Go. And. And, you know. You know, if you remember, Rob, there was that piece in. What was it? In Time magazine? Maybe it was the Atlantic. I can't remember, but there was that. I think it was the Atlantic, actually. But there was the piece about, like, a Covid. What's the word I'm looking for? You know, like a. Like a get out of jail free card. Like a Covid blank, you know, pardon or something. Like a blank slate. It's like, hey, let's all just move on. And we were like, no, no, no, no. I don't think we're quite ready to move on. Look, it's not about, like, always, like, torturing your uncle or your aunt, more likely your aunt who got it wrong on Covid, but it's like, on some national level, like, no, there needs to be accountability for this. And who better to be accountable than the guy who has made the face of the whole thing, who literally said that disagreeing with him was disagreeing with truth and science. Right, Let's. I let. Let's start with that guy. And. And, yeah, find your legal. Find the legal way to get around the Biden pardon.

[Robbie the Fire Bernstein]

Yeah. Rand Paul's put up an argument that it was too broad. I mean, the administration dropped the auto pen stuff. And I got to be honest. Honest. Whether or not Fauci sits in jail, I don't really care. Let's find him guilty. Let's expose the story. Let's. Let's let everyone know what exactly happened. Let's let him sit through the public shaming and let the whole world. And there's plenty of individuals who are in line with him. I bet Deborah Burks is one of them. That other head of the NIH whose name I can never remember, has the mustache also. No, not mustache, lady.

[Dave Smith]

I'm blanking on who.

[Robbie the Fire Bernstein]

You're on my tongue. Whatever. There's other characters who did not receive pardon, so go ahead and prosecute those guys. And if you really want to cleanse the system, do a massive overhaul about how much government money is being spent on this grant system. That every institution that had all the science and knowledge that could have debunked this in real time was just in lockstep with the government narrative, because that's where the money was. And let's also investigate, because Rand Paul. I mean, Rand Paul asked Fauci about this and never got a straight answer. But people at the NIH can have patents on medicines that they are then. That they are then approving and getting payouts for, or even patents on bad medicine that they would like to push government policy to implement because they are still making money in the private sector off of that. Foushee claimed he had made like pennies or something, acknowledged that it was true, but wouldn't really give any answer.

[Dave Smith]

So, no, no, no, he acknowledged that it was true and then said, for example, one check was for 14 cents. You're like, okay, but what about the other ones? Like, yeah, like, all right, but I

[Robbie the Fire Bernstein]

think the starting point is if the masses were made aware of the fact that all of COVID was a lie from Fauci, then I think you could have enough, enough interest or. And I don't even think it's this party, but you could have people running the next time. I think there's going to be a big lane for running for public privacy.

[Dave Smith]

Well, how about this, dude? You know, like, listen, don't get me wrong, this is purely a thought experiment because obviously Donald Trump isn't a great leader who cares about anything other than himself. But like, how about if Donald Trump had just gave an address to the nation of everything we have here and he goes, listen guys, this isn't about left or right. It we need to understand how this guy didn't just get things wrong. He was lying. And imagine this would make it ten times more powerful. You go, and I got it wrong too. And he fooled me. And I should not have kept this guy. I should not have kept this guy on the job the whole time. But he really did lie to us about all of this. I'm just saying, obviously that had never happened because we're dealing with Donald Trump.

[Robbie the Fire Bernstein]

Well, I imagine just forget it.

[Dave Smith]

Forget even the levels of government, Forget the law, forget the justice system. Imagine what good that could do for the country to just understand what just happened to us here.

[Robbie the Fire Bernstein]

The reason Donald Trump won't do that is because then it will raise massive questions about on the Iran war if he also has faulty and he's bad at management and realizing that he's got bad people in his court giving him bad advice.

[Dave Smith]

Yes, but that is the truth there, Rob, now isn't it? But yes, you're right. He probably won't admit that. All right, look, we gotta run. Thank you guys very much for listening. Come check us out on the road. Comictapesmith.com Porch Tour.com Catch you next time.

[Anthony Fauci (clip)]

Peace.

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