New Rule: Fauci & Fame — Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO)

[0:00] And finally, new rule, stop threatening to put everyone in jail who you just don't like, [0:05] the way Senator Rand Paul is trying to do now with Dr. Anthony Fauci, [0:10] who is back in the news because Senator Paul, [0:14] formerly of the privacy-is-everything wing of the Republican Party, [0:18] got hold of Dr. Fauci's personal diary and published all of it. [0:24] Rand, babe, your entire brand is Senator Right to Privacy. [0:29] You're the libertarian guy, the Fourth Amendment guy. [0:32] It's your family legacy. [0:34] Your entire political career has been about warning us about government overreach. [0:39] You printing someone's diary is like AOC wearing a gown that says, [0:43] tax the poor. [0:44] And so we enter yet another story news, [0:54] news story that illustrates the Rorschach test that is America. [0:57] Dr. Fauci, depending on your politics, [1:00] is either an esteemed, dedicated public servant [1:02] or a vain, flawed bureaucrat. [1:05] Well, it's both. [1:07] Life's complicated that way. [1:09] You know what's really complicated? [1:10] Science. [1:11] And Dr. Fauci definitely got some of that wrong. [1:15] He said if you got the vaccine, [1:17] it was highly unlikely you'd get COVID or transmitted. [1:20] Wrong. [1:21] Okay, but that's not because it was part of some self-dealing plot. [1:24] Things were changing rapidly. [1:25] They just got it wrong. [1:27] That's science. [1:28] Reports of Fauci deliberately lying are based on lazy research, [1:34] including from centrists that got timelines wrong or transposed. [1:39] But Fauci could be unforgiving, too. [1:41] In his diary, he described a dispute with another medical advisor, Scott Atlas, [1:45] who wanted to keep the schools open, [1:48] which Fauci told his dear diary, [1:50] borders on criminal. [1:52] No, he's not a criminal, and you're not a criminal, [1:56] which should be obvious, [1:57] since only two months later when Atlas resigned, [2:00] Fauci wrote, [2:01] the one area he was correct was in saying that schoolchildren [2:04] are not the drivers of the outbreak. [2:07] Okay, so can we not call people criminals [2:10] just for the part they got wrong? [2:12] Look, look, from the beginning, [2:20] there were two schools of thought on how to handle COVID. [2:23] One was the model they followed in Sweden and Florida, [2:27] two places that have nothing in common [2:29] except a love of old people in sweaters. [2:32] But both places thought it was smarter, [2:37] and both did quite well, [2:39] by laser-focusing on protecting the vulnerable [2:42] and letting life go on for everyone else. [2:44] They thought it was a good idea to get out [2:46] and go in the sun for vitamin D and fresh air. [2:49] You know, crazy stuff. [2:53] Not crazy stuff, okay? [2:54] The other side, well, [2:57] let's just say they erred on the side of caution. [2:59] Really, really into erring on that side. [3:03] I showed this picture last week. [3:05] That's a Democratic-Socialist meeting in Colorado. [3:08] Last month! [3:10] Now, that's extreme, [3:13] but it's the direction that that half of the country tends toward. [3:17] David Leonhardt studied this issue [3:19] and wrote of Democrats during the pandemic [3:21] organizing their lives around COVID [3:24] is core to their identity as progressives. [3:27] And that is the place where I have a problem [3:29] with the hero worship of Anthony Fauci. [3:32] Because it seems fame is a drug with a 100% addiction rate. [3:37] Have you read some of the shit in Fauci's diary? [3:41] Last week, I played a game here called [3:42] Who Said It? Fauci or Trump? [3:44] Let's play. [3:46] It is not hyperbole to say [3:49] I am the most famous and talked-about person in the country. [3:52] The nurses went absolutely wild to see me. [3:55] I am such a valued spokesperson and a good communicator. [3:58] One person said that Tyra Banks was sexy, [4:00] but I was even sexier than she was. [4:03] None of that is Trump. [4:07] That's all Fauci. [4:10] Writing to himself at 80. [4:14] Why? [4:15] So we can read it back when he's 100 [4:17] and remember what a hot piece of ass he was at 80? [4:20] Talk about main character syndrome. [4:30] Fauci drops celebrity names [4:32] like 60 Minutes drops correspondence. [4:35] It's like finding out that in the 1950s, [4:44] Jonas Salk kept a diary [4:45] as he was developing the polio vaccine, [4:48] but it was mostly about how he got to meet Howdy Doody. [4:52] Now, am I saying all of Fauci's decisions came about [4:58] because he was lapping up the adulation? [5:00] No, but you have to try awfully hard [5:03] not to notice how much Fauci is energized [5:06] by being embraced by one particular cultural tribe. [5:10] It was Julia Roberts who was telling Fauci [5:13] he was Jesus with a Petri dish, not Randy Quaid. [5:17] And that side likes to think of themselves [5:22] as the purely science people, [5:24] even though keeping kids out of school that long [5:27] and traumatizing two-year-olds with masks [5:30] wasn't good science. [5:31] Fauci supported some strange policies [5:35] for such an esteemed epidemiologist. [5:37] Natural immunity doesn't count now? [5:40] Meaning, even if you've had the disease, [5:42] you still had to get the shot? [5:44] That sounds more like what Pfizer [5:46] and Fauci's celebrity friends wanted to hear. [5:49] He let this shit go to his head. [5:52] Turns out the really dangerous, intimate contact [5:55] wasn't shaking hands, it was kissing ass. [5:58] And yet, he is very, very far away from being a criminal. [6:11] Please, he's not Dr. Mengele [6:13] because your kid had to take algebra on Zoom. [6:15] He put in a lot of service for the country, [6:20] but at the end of the day, he was somewhat seduced. [6:23] I mean, ask yourself, [6:24] what happens every time in high school [6:26] the nerdy kid gets invited to the cool kid's table? [6:30] Okay, that's never happened, [6:31] but if it did, [6:34] look, when someone strokes your ego, [6:36] it affects your opinions. [6:38] And it's all too easy to go from [6:40] everyone says I'm amazing [6:41] to only idiots disagree with me. [6:44] Hollywood co-opted Fauci [6:46] and Fauci told the country [6:48] what Hollywood wanted to hear. [6:50] If you go outside, you'll die. [6:52] So send your assistant. [6:53] Thank you. [6:53] Thank you. [6:54] Thank you.