Anthony Fauci spent five years calling Ron DeSantis a "complete disgrace."
Now Fauci just sat in front of Rand Paul's Senate committee and refused to answer a single question.
Ron DeSantis saw this coming – and the man who lectured America about science just proved him right.
Fauci's Diary Blew Up His Own Story
Rand Paul released more than 1,100 pages of Fauci's personal diary entries this weekend – and what they revealed was damning.
While Americans were dying and kids were locked out of schools, Fauci was writing about something else entirely.
His diary showed him tracking his own media coverage like a Hollywood publicist, noting: "Press still hot and heavy about me. Multiple stories per day, directly or indirectly involving me."
Not the virus. Him.
https://twitter.com/CryptidPolitics/status/2082265144197845197?s=20
The entries also caught him in a lie he has told for years.
Fauci has publicly insisted he had "nothing to do" with school closures – even taunted critics with "Show me a school that I shut down."
His own diary tells a different story.
He wrote in March 2020 that he had persuaded New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio "based on what I was saying publicly and my conversation tonight to close the NYC schools."
Those are his words. His diary. His contradiction.
DeSantis Said This When Nobody Was Listening
In August 2021, when Fauci was on television calling the Florida governor a disgrace, Florida was open.
Kids were in school.
Businesses were running.
Law enforcement wasn't being ordered to ticket families at parks.
“Fauci opposed Florida when the state mandated that schools had to be in open for in-person schooling in 2020,” DeSantis wrote on X. “Fauci sided with school unions and left-wing activists.”
DeSantis went to the Florida Sheriffs Association this week and said what he has been saying since 2020 – that Florida's refusal to descend into what he called a "Faucian dystopia" was the reason the state came out stronger.
He said “Fauci was drunk on his own (media-conferred) power.”
He's right.
https://twitter.com/CryptidPolitics/status/2082449044287193331?s=20
The COVID restrictions Fauci championed – the six-foot distancing rule, the school closures, the mask mandates – were not built on science.
They were built on Fauci's instincts, his media relationships, and his desire to be the face of a national crisis.
The scientists who dared to disagree were mocked, silenced, and smeared.
Florida won.
“Fauci was lionized by the legacy media, which made him the de facto covid oracle,” DeSantis wrote. “The more Fauci advocated for restrictions/lockdowns and the more he criticized states like FL and GA that spurned his edicts, the more the media would treat him as a saint.”
“Fauci’s increasingly hysterical approach to Covid fueled this adulatory coverage — which in turn fueled his vanity,” DeSantis continued. “Vicious cycle.”
The Fifth Amendment Is the Tell
A man who did nothing wrong does not plead the Fifth.
Fauci arrived at today's hearing with lawyers and a prepared statement accusing Paul of an "unhinged obsession" with him.
And then, when Paul asked the first question, Fauci invoked his constitutional right to stay silent.
The diary proves what Paul always said.
https://twitter.com/RonDeSantis/status/2082425060048949321?s=20
The Fifth Amendment confirms Fauci knows it too.
DeSantis spent five years absorbing attacks from the media, from Democrats, from Fauci himself.
He wore it like a badge.
“Badge of honor!” DeSantis wrote. “Proud to have blocked local governments from enforcing Faucian edicts on their citizens.”
This week, Fauci's own handwriting – and his silence under oath – made clear who was right all along.
Sources:
- A.G. Gancarski, "Gov. DeSantis talks about resisting 'Faucian dystopia' in sheriffs' speech," Florida Politics, July 28, 2026.
- "Fauci Invokes Fifth Amendment Rights In Senate Hearing, Accuses Rand Paul Of 'Unhinged Obsession With Me,'" Forbes, July 29, 2026.
- "Fauci invokes Fifth Amendment, declines to testify in COVID-19 Senate hearing," Associated Press, July 29, 2026.
- "Fauci diary entries set social media ablaze as critics mock, condemn behavior," Fox News, July 28, 2026.
- "Fauci claimed he had 'nothing to do with' school closures – diary shows he was proud to get CA, NY to send kids home," The Post Millennial, July 27, 2026.
- "Ron DeSantis: Fauci's Criticism Is a 'Badge of Honor,'" Townhall, July 28, 2026.
- Jarrett Stepman, "Fauci Diaries Reveal Gloating About Lockdowns, Fame Seeking," The Daily Signal, July 27, 2026.
