Monday on Fox News Channel’s “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” host Tucker Carlson highlighted the devotion of some left-of-center media figures and their devotion to National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Dr. Anthony Fauci.
According to Carlson, that devotion rises to the level of worship, and he explained how Fauci seemed to be aware of it.
Transcript as follows:
CARLSON: Life is amazing, is it not? If you’d asked Anthony Fauci 60 years ago when he was a student at Holy Cross in Massachusetts whether he would grow up to single-handedly control how Christians celebrate their most beloved holiday, Fauci probably would have assumed you were high, smoking that tea with the beatniks in Greenwich Village, reefer madness. He would have been confused.
At the time, Fauci was studying to become a doctor, not the Pope, and there was a difference then. Little could he have known, back in 1958, that public health would become America’s reigning religion, and he, its High Priest.
But life is like that, you never know where you’re going to end up.
Fast forward to the beginning of last December. Anthony Fauci was 79 years old. His 80th birthday it turns out was Christmas Eve and Fauci was determined to celebrate it with an exhibition of authority flexing that had no precedent in the entire history of the Federal bureaucracy. No one had ever done it before, but Fauci did.
He decided to unilaterally end Christmas, and so one day on NBC News, he did just that. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANDREA MITCHELL, NBC NEWS HOST: A warning and a plea from Dr. Anthony Fauci — should people now cancel their travel plans for Christmas?
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: To the extent possible, don’t travel, don’t congregate together.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: There was “Do not travel for Christmas” Anthony Fauci said, do not congregate together to celebrate it. That means no Christmas Eve in church. That means no Christmas morning under the tree with your family, tearing through stockings. It means no Christmas at all.
Sacred Christian observance canceled until further notice from Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, MD. What a thrill it must have been for him to say something like that. Here is a guy who fully expected to spend his life giving prostate exams and there he was declaring the ancient Christian calendar null and void.
Pretty amazing, but even more amazing was the reaction that Fauci received when he said it. The people in charge loved it. They never cared much for Christmas anyway. All that religious talk and unsupervised family time, it faintly seemed like a threat.
Anthony Fauci by contrast was no threat at all to the people in charge. He worked for them. His job was to do their bidding to confirm their biases and to never ever challenge their sense of their own moral superiority. Their job in return was to love him for it and they did.
Drive through affluent neighborhoods in Washington, D.C. to this day and you will see the signs in people’s front yards. “Honk for Dr. Fauci” and “In Dr. Fauci we trust.” And above all, “Thank you, Tony Fauci.” And they really do want to thank him, not for funding the gain-of-function research in Wuhan that created COVID, no, it’s bigger than that.
They are thanking Dr. Fauci for the gift of life which he alone bestows.
What you’re seeing here is Washington’s new religion, it’s Fauciism, so it shouldn’t surprise you that this year once again, our moral leaders are asking Dr. Fauci the very same question, Christmas is coming, can we celebrate it?
Before we go through the hassle of booking plane tickets, renting cars, buying presents for our loved ones, preparing to celebrate the central holiday of the country’s biggest religion, please, let us know, Dr. Fauci. Is it on or off? Have we been naughty or nice? Tell us.
This year, the job of asking that question fell to an anchor at CBS News and this, Sunday, she asked Dr. Fauci. Here is what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARGARET BRENNAN, CBS NEWS ANCHOR: But we can gather for Christmas or it’s just too soon to tell?
FAUCI: You know, Margaret, it’s just too soon to tell. We’ve just got to concentrate on continuing to get those numbers down and not try to jump ahead by weeks or months and say what we’re going to do at a particular time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: It really depends on how you behave, whether you’re naughty or nice. At this point, it’s just too soon to tell whether you can have Christmas this year.
And in hearing that, the news lady just nods. Of course, it’s all perfectly normal. We’ll check back with you, Dr. Fauci. Keep doing science as only you can.
And of course, that’s exactly what Tony Fauci plans to do. It’s what he’s done with his life.
Last week, Fauci had to unravel this scientific puzzle: Are the hundreds of thousands of sneezing unvaccinated illegal immigrants coming into this country every month driving a spike in COVID cases? Could that be happening?
Figuring that out was Anthony Fauci’s job, as a scientist. Fauci’s scientific conclusion, well, here it is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Are immigrants a major reason why COVID-19 is spreading in the U.S.?
FAUCI: No, absolutely not, Dana. I mean, if you just look at the data and look at the people who’ve gotten infected, look at the people who are in the hospital, look at the people who’ve died, this is not driven by immigrants.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: What — fashionable people getting COVID? No, absolutely not, Dana. The sneezing unvaccinated migrants streaming across our Southern border from around the world are absolutely fine. In fact from a public health perspective, they are great people like BLM rioters, but very much unlike Donald Trump voters.
In fact, these people may be the solution to this pandemic. If we’re going to beat this COVID thing, we’re going to need a few hundred thousand more people from Haiti, ASAP. They know a thing or two about public health.
Thanks, Dr. Fauci.
Meanwhile, other non-religious data tell a somewhat different story. The latest figures from immigration officials show that fully 18% of illegal migrants leaving Border Patrol custody have tested positive for COVID. That doesn’t even include the unknown, but very large numbers who never wound up in Border Patrol custody.
More than 25% of migrants who were quote “recently scheduled” for some expedited deportation flights have tested positive for COVID. What%age of these people are vaccinated? None.
But let’s face reality here, Fauci said. None of that’s a problem. The real problem is you and your silly demands to see your family for Christmas or to be with your aging parents as they die in the hospital. That’s the problem — and how you vote.
Our public health establishment strongly agrees with this.
As Tony Fauci spoke, the CDC rolled out new guidance to match. They cautioned that people should hold quote “virtual holiday celebrations or have socially distant celebrations outdoors” at the end of December.
We’re doing all this, keep in mind, for a virus with a median age of death that is higher than life expectancy in the United States and also in the United Kingdom, let that sink in.
In the State of Ohio for example, where the life expectancy is 73, the median age of death from COVID is 79. That’s just public health. But here’s the funny thing, not everyone wanted to hear that we need to cancel Christmas it. Turns out outside of network newsrooms, Christmas remains stubbornly popular in this country and if there’s one thing Tony Fauci responds to, it’s public opinion.
Now, Fauci is on television nearly constantly, not simply because he is brilliant and an amazing talker, and not at all because he is totally self- absorbed and love to hear himself speak, but because it’s his job as a public health official and so he responded this way.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FAUCI: That was misinterpreted as my saying we can’t spend Christmas with our families, which is absolutely not the case. I will be spending Christmas with my family. I encourage people particularly the vaccinated people who are protected to have a good normal Christmas with your family.
But just the way all of the other disinformation goes around, you say something, talking about a landmark of a time and it gets misinterpreted that I’m saying you can’t spend family Christmas time, which is nonsense.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: So when I said it’s too soon to tell whether or not you can celebrate Christmas, what I really meant was, of course, you can celebrate Christmas. What are you, stupid?
So Tony Fauci didn’t misspeak. You’re an idiot for misunderstanding what he said. You’re being very naughty.
Now, this is a strategy Tony Fauci has employed before. Just a year ago, Fauci told us that quote, “Herd immunity would eventually end the pandemic once 60 to 70% of Americans are either vaccinated or develop natural immunity.” Fauci told us, we’d be done, we’d be safe.
And then out of nowhere, the slogans on the side of the barn got repainted, but no one acknowledged it. Fauci started quoting a higher number in television interviews. He started saying 70 to 75% of people with immunity, at that point will be good.
And then the number rose again. Fauci changed it to quote “80-85%.”
Now in December, a reporter at The New York Times, their job is to report the news, noticed this and asked Fauci about the changing numbers. According to the paper quote, “In a telephone interview, Fauci acknowledged that he had slowly but deliberately been moving the goal post.”
“He is doing so, he said, partly based on new science, but partly on his gut feeling that the country is finally ready to hear what he really thinks.”
Oh, now he is telling us what he really thinks. We weren’t ready for it before. We just weren’t prepared for the truth.
But as we grow in our faith, Fauci can lay more profundities on us.
So yes, he was lying, but it’s only because you can’t handle the truth and the media agree with that completely. They’ve been repeating that message for months now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: So Dr. Anthony Fauci, the target of an escalating right-wing smear campaign.
JIM ACOSTA, CNN CHIEF DOMESTIC CORRESPONDENT: Scientists should not be under siege like.
ABBY PHILLIP, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Marco Rubio, Rand Paul, Josh Hawley have all taken up Dr. Fauci as a boogeyman.
JOHN AVLON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: The increasing demonization of Dr. Fauci by Donald Trump and his minions in the Republican Party is growing. It is obsessive —
CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: And watch what they are doing to Tony Fauci right now, because he is the new Hillary Clinton for them. They are making him the pinata of all of their disaffection and their upset.
BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: In one America, Dr. Anthony Fauci is trusted and even immortalized. In the other America though, he is tarnished and distrusted.
How did Dr. Fauci of all people, become a right-wing boogeyman?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: Here is what they’re doing on FOX News to make Tony Fauci into a right-wing boogeyman. Here is how he is the subject of a right-wing smear campaign.
What they’re doing is they’re quoting him. OK, and they’re comparing his quotes from yesterday to his quotes from three months ago to his quotes from a year ago and they know that that they don’t all add up. That’s a smear campaign.
But as CNN’s media analyst pointed out in half of America, Tony Fauci is immortalized and that is true. It’s not just the yard signs, it’s the Tony Fauci flags, the Tony Fauci ornaments, the Tony Fauci clothing, the Tony Fauci welcome mats. You can find it all online.
Now people are getting Tony Fauci tattoos, tattoos showing the date they got vaccinated per Fauci’s orders. Some Fauci disciples are literally tattooing vaccine cards on their arms, but that’s not weird, it’s just faith.
On MSNBC, this is what Tony Fauci worship looks like.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NICOLLE WALLACE, MSNBC HOST: I could watch Tony Fauci spit truth at the disinformation elves on Capitol Hill all day long.
Tony Fauci who under normal Presidents is this trusted and usually beloved adviser who has an encyclopedic memory and knowledge.
Last night going after Tony Fauci, while it was predictable, was still an abhorrent and pretty brazenly political effort.
It’s the muzzling of Dr. Tony Fauci who is respected, revered, I dare say in the medical community on Capitol Hill and trusted by the public.
But this man is a jewel. He is an international treasure, not just a national treasure.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: He is Jesus with better shoes. The muzzling. He was only on MSNBC six times this week. You can’t stop this man. He is god.
And you know who agrees with that? Tony Fauci does.
As Tony Fauci reminded us in June, Tony Fauci is not simply an international treasure. He is the physical embodiment of science.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FAUCI: So if you are trying to, you know, get at me as a public health official and a scientist, you’re really attacking not only Dr. Anthony Fauci, you’re attacking science.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: Oh, there it was, the third person self-reference. Fidel Castro in English, but that wasn’t a slip of the tongue, Fauci meant every word of it. Tony Fauci is himself a devout member of the Church of Tony Fauci.
Now take a look at this still photo from Tony Fauci’s home office. Look in the back on the bookshelf. Do you see? What is that right there? Those are tony Fauci prayer candles prominently displayed inside Tony Fauci’s home.
Oh well at least he’s real. Fauci isn’t just the High Priest of Fauciism, he is also a true believer himself.
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor