Morning Note

Newly released diary entries by Anthony Fauci offer an unfiltered look at what America’s top COVID vaccine enthusiast really thought of the politicians, television personalities, and celebrities who filled his orbit during the pandemic.

Made public by Rand Paul ahead of Fauci’s scheduled Wednesday Senate testimony, the entries detail the former NIAID director’s perspectives on his up-and-down relationships with Donald Trump, Mark Meadows, the media, and even his thoughts on Hunter Biden. He went so far as to call one assistant HHS secretary a “con man who is completely full of shit.” They also show how fixated he became on his own fame as his profile grew during the 2020 crisis.

Ron Johnson said on Sunday that he does not expect to get much out of Fauci’s upcoming testimony, telling Fox News that he is “going to try and lay out all the things that [Fauci] did that were such a miserably failed response to COVID,” but that he anticipates “completely unrepentant” and “arrogant to the extreme” responses. 

Read more.