Amy Jacobson and Jim Iuorio, filling in for Dan Proft, continued the show’s ongoing coverage of Dr. Anthony Fauci’s recent Senate testimony, during which Fauci invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination more than one hundred times. The hosts played archival audio of Fauci defending the six-foot social distancing guideline and describing COVID-19’s mortality rate as roughly ten times deadlier than the seasonal flu, while noting that Fauci’s own diary entries reportedly show he privately understood the fatality rate to be substantially lower than what he stated publicly at the time.
The hosts welcomed Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson, a longtime and vocal critic of Fauci’s pandemic-era leadership, to discuss the implications of last week’s hearing. Johnson credited the Oxford Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine’s early pandemic estimates, which placed the case fatality rate closer to 0.2 percent, arguing that Fauci’s own diary entries confirm he was aware of similar findings even as he publicly cited significantly higher figures used to justify sweeping economic and social restrictions. Johnson recounted a personal exchange with Fauci during the pandemic in which he compared COVID-related shutdown policies to highway fatality statistics, and criticized Fauci for declining to directly address questions about the economic toll of his recommendations during a Senate call.
Johnson also addressed his own public disputes with Fauci over the antiparasitic drug ivermectin, referencing a 2021 CNN appearance in which Fauci stated there was no evidence supporting the drug’s effectiveness against COVID-19 despite what Johnson said were multiple randomized controlled studies showing substantial efficacy circulating publicly at the time. Johnson argued Fauci suppressed consideration of early treatment options in part to preserve emergency authorization status for vaccines, which legally required the absence of an existing effective treatment.
Johnson discussed his ongoing oversight investigation into vaccine safety monitoring, citing a large document release from the Department of Health and Human Services under Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that Johnson said revealed FDA officials were shown repeated safety signal data involving conditions including sudden cardiac death, pulmonary embolism, and stroke without public disclosure. Johnson also alleged that a senior CDC vaccine safety official deleted relevant emails from department servers, a matter he described as a likely violation of federal records law currently under investigation.
Asked whether Fauci might ultimately face criminal prosecution, Johnson said he has met with Florida’s attorney general regarding potential legal avenues and noted that investigators have recently obtained access to Fauci’s cell phone, though he cautioned that reviewing its contents will take time. Johnson also praised comments from Alabama gubernatorial candidate Tommy Tuberville expressing a desire to see Fauci face sustained legal accountability.
Asked to characterize Fauci’s underlying motivations, Johnson described him as reflecting both financial self-interest, citing Fauci’s history of facilitating substantial cash awards for himself during the pandemic, and what Johnson called profound narcissism rooted in a desire for public recognition and media attention.
Closing the interview, Johnson addressed Wisconsin’s upcoming Democratic gubernatorial primary, in which State Representative Francesca Hong is considered the frontrunner. Johnson expressed concern over what he described as the increasingly open embrace of socialist ideology among Democratic candidates, arguing the trend reflects broader failures in civic and economic education, while expressing hope that Republican nominee Congressman Tom Tiffany could defeat Hong in the general election this November.