What conservatives see in the Fauci emails
![Anthony Fauci.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/SphaiHTJwMwSpojaT7JLQ8-415-80.jpg)
Dr. Anthony Fauci's emails, released through a Freedom of Information Act request, are a Rorschach test. To Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), they revealed the nation's top infectious expert — and his frequent sparring partner — to be a liar. "Told you," Paul said. "Can't wait to see the media try to spin the Fauci FOIA emails."
On cue, CNN tweeted, "Thousands of emails from and to Dr. Fauci reveal the weight that came from his role as a rare source of frank honesty within the Trump administration's COVID-19 task force." That's not how most conservatives view the email exchanges about masks or theories about the virus' origins. Where liberals see a beleaguered official, conservatives see in the emails private counsel that is more equivocal than Fauci's public pronouncements, when not diametrically opposed.
How did Fauci go from being one of the few unifying figures of the past year to just another political punching bag? Some of it wasn't his fault. The polarization predated him. The mandatory masking and forced business closures were always going to be controversial policies. And it was precisely the people who were most skeptical of Donald Trump who were going to look to Fauci, venerating him as a secular saint until he was a devil to the other side.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
![https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516-320-80.jpg)
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
But Fauci did seem to enjoy his fame, however much the pandemic weighed on him, and over time embraced his role as long-suffering straight man to Trump's bleach-drinking routine. Trump couldn't have been easy to work for and was clearly chafing under the restrictions that ruined the economic boom that gave him the best chance of being re-elected. Yet Fauci's media approach was inevitably going to alienate millions of Trump supporters, whose cooperation on things like the vaccine was necessary.
Fauci also dispensed advice like a parent who doesn't tell a child the whole story but rather a simplified version to motivate correct behavior — a strategy that is effective until the holes in the story become apparent. Information changes, but Fauci relied on people seeing science as wisdom passed on from authority figures rather than a discovery process. "The typical mask you buy in the drug store is not really effective in keeping out virus," he privately wrote in February 2020. Months later he would attribute his public insistence early in the pandemic of the same idea to worrisome PPE shortages, not his own changing mind.
To many conservatives, America's doctor quickly became just another bureaucrat who couldn't shoot — or talk — straight.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
W. James Antle III is the politics editor of the Washington Examiner, the former editor of The American Conservative, and author of Devouring Freedom: Can Big Government Ever Be Stopped?.
-
Video game performers to strike over AI concerns
Speed Read SAG-AFTRA members are unhappy with gaming production companies
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US Published
-
Today's political cartoons - July 26, 2024
Cartoons Friday's cartoons - campaign donations, yellow buses, and more
By The Week US Published
-
California orders mass dismantling of unhoused people's camps
Speed Read Gavin Newsom's move follows a Supreme Court ruling last month in favor of an Oregon city that ticketed people for sleeping outside
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US Published
-
ICJ ruling: will 'damning verdict' stop Netanyahu?
Talking Point The UN's top court has ruled Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories breaks international law
By Sorcha Bradley, The Week UK Published
-
How Biden's enablers may have delayed his bowing out
Talking Points Joe Biden's inner circle faces calls for a reckoning for allegedly shielding the president — and the public — from questions of aging and electoral viability
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US Published
-
Biden tests positive for Covid in fresh blow to campaign
Speed Read The president said he would consider dropping out of the race if presented with a "medical condition"
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US Published
-
The Democrats 'resigned to a second Trump presidency'
Talking Points Did the assassination attempt end Biden's election chances?
By Joel Mathis, The Week US Published
-
Venezuela election: first vote in a decade offers hope to poverty-stricken nation
The Explainer Nicolás Maduro agreed to 'free and fair' vote but poor polling and threat of prosecution pushes disputed leader to desperate methods
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
How could J.D. Vance impact the special relationship?
Today's Big Question Trump's hawkish pick for VP said UK is the first 'truly Islamist country' with a nuclear weapon
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
Are down-ticket Democrats doomed?
Talking Points President Joe Biden's refusal to step back from his reelection campaign has some local Democrats wondering if their own races are in trouble — but not everyone is worried
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US Published
-
Biden, Trump urge calm after assassination attempt
Speed Reads A 20-year-old gunman grazed Trump's ear and fatally shot a rally attendee on Saturday
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published