Washington DC - Senator Rand Paul released more than 1,100 pages of Dr. Anthony Fauci's personal diary as part of an investigation into whether he lied to Congress about the Covid-19 lab leak theory.
"Now we know the market was not the source, it was the amplifier," Fauci wrote in his diary on January 26, 2020, while musing about whether Covid-19 originated in a wet market in Wuhan, China. "Having said that, somewhere the virus jumped from animals to humans."
"There have been conspiracy theories that the virus was given [gain of function] by inserted mutations and deliberately or accidentally released in Wuhan," he wrote a few days later.
His private musings were made public when Paul released his typewritten daily notes over the weekend as part of an investigation into whether Fauci lied to Congress about the virus' source.
The releases were dropped only days before the former chief medical advisor to the president is set to testify under subpoena before the Senate Homeland Security Committee, chaired by Paul.
While the diaries themselves reveal very little that's new about the US' response to Covid-19 and Fauci's role in that response, Paul immediately went on a social media offensive, posting and reposting dozens of times over a 24-hour period.
"Fauci giddy over 'convincing' mayors to shut down schools," Paul posted to X on Monday. "Imagine him giggling and kicking his feet while writing this over running millions of children's lives?"
He shared a clip from the diaries in which Fauci wrote about various conversations he had with officials about implementing lockdown measures.
"When I left the [White House] and crossed Pennsylvania and 17th Street, several cars honked their horns and shouted 'thank you' out the window," Fauci then noted. This is likely the sentence Paul is referring to as "giddy."
Fauci beams about celebrity encounters
Throughout the diaries, Fauci wrote on multiple occasions about interactions with Hollywood stars such as Julia Roberts and Barbra Streisand.
"She is so charming, natural, fun and amazingly beautiful," Fauci wrote of Roberts, who had introduced him at an awards ceremony.
"When my image came up on the screen she gasped and said that every time she sees me her throat gets dry and she gets nervous."
Fauci wrote that Streisand called him asking for vaccine advice. He then joked that "I accidentally butt called her later in the evening."
"While America buried loved ones, Anthony Fauci was counting headlines that doted over him," Paul wrote of Fauci in a post to X. "Absolutely vile."