Snapshot: Rotten to the Core
The ugly targeting of Anthony Fauci, the corrupt self-dealing of Trump and the arrival of Elon Musk's midterm millions are reminders of the work ahead
Three stories from the last two days illustrate the rotten reality of this Trump era. Each is a vivid reminder of the work ahead to defeat a party and a regime that rewrite history to distract from the real villains, brazenly flaunt their corruption and exploit their immoral resources to keep holding onto power.
Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul has been determined for years to “get” the nation’s top infectious disease specialist, Dr. Anthony Fauci, convinced that Fauci covered up what he knew about a lab leak in Wuhan, China that would explain the origins of the COVID-19 virus.
The now-retired 85-year-old public servant described Paul’s focus as an “unhinged obsession” with him, while Fauci’s lawyers said Paul was waging a “years-long crusade.” Their recent letter went further: “You are single-mindedly fixating on seeing Dr. Fauci prosecuted for imaginary crimes, and you are so invested in that outcome that you have created a personal brand around it,” they wrote, according to NPR.
This came into plain view Wednesday when Fauci appeared before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, which Paul chairs. Despite having received a preemptive and prescient pardon by President Joe Biden, Fauci invoked the Fifth Amendment dozens of times, concerned that Paul, Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley and other Republicans would try their damnedest to put him in fresh jeopardy.
In his opening statement, Fauci said, “Although it pains me to do so, because of the respect I have for the legislative branch of government, and my decades-long record of cooperating with Congress, under the advice of my attorneys, I will invoke my right under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution to refrain from answering your questions.”
It was a sad spectacle, one in which the target of these Republican senators’ wrath was a genuine public hero and epidemiologist who worked tirelessly to confront the dreaded pandemic. As for Trump, meanwhile, his reckless, malignantly narcissistic response to the deadly virus was to lie about its severity, concoct crazy solutions like using bleach or horse dewormer and negligently contributing to the deaths of more than a million Americans.
Of course, the Republicans had nothing to say about Trump.
But after Wednesday’s hearing, Paul was talking about holding Fauci in contempt of Congress for invoking the Fifth, which is not only sad for Fauci, who led the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for 38 years. It’s also tragic because we need public health professionals who feel free to be open and honest.
Here’s how Georges Benjamin, head of the American Public Health Association, explained what this portends: “If you’re going to be threatened by members of Congress, you’re going to be a lot less willing to be frank and speak truth to power and give people the information that they desperately need to make decisions.”
The refusal of two Republican senators to advance Todd Blanche’s nomination for attorney general out of the judiciary committee for a full senate vote could be seen as good news. Sens. John Cornyn and Thom Tillis—both leaving the Senate after the midterms and willing to buck Trump—demanded that Blanche make two changes in the Justice Department’s deal with Trump.
One involves codifying in writing that Trump will not move ahead with his $1.8 billion slush fund for Jan. 6 insurrectionists and any others he deems victims of wrongful prosecutions. The other concerns limiting the corrupt deal that would immunize Trump, his family and businesses from past tax claims. “This is about making sure that we maintain the integrity of our justice system and fairness for everybody involved,” Cornyn said.
Yet rather than risk his corrupt self-dealing, Trump has threatened to pull Blanche’s nomination and leave him in as acting AG until after the midterms when there would be new senators (who in fact may well be Democrats, not Trump puppets). In other words, it’s more important for Trump that he maintains his IRS immunity—and leave open his options to hand over millions to his felonious loyalists despite repeated protestations by Blanche that that fund is dead.
And then there’s the sociopathic Elon Musk, the world’s richest person who was briefly tagged a trillionaire before the valuation of his SpaceX holdings declined. The New York Times reported yesterday that—despite his claim last year that “in terms of political spending, I’m going to do a lot less in the future”—he’s now changed his mind.
Musk has reportedly authorized his super PAC to spend $100 million to $120 million in the midterms to help elect Republicans in at least eight states. This increases the Republicans’ overall funding advantage, and it underscores once again the failure of our system that allows the billionaire class to try and buy elections and determine the future of our democracy.
I remain optimistic that the fury in the country will not dissipate between now and the midterms, nor will these infusions of cash determine who’s motivated to vote and who wins. But Musk tossing out some pittance of his obscene fortune—largely achieved with the support of U.S. government contracts and other public subsidies—is a reminder of the need to change our broken political system’s reliance on the richest among us. It’s only 94 days until Nov. 3.
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Great post. Of all the horrors of trump 2, I am most shocked by the hypocrisy of the Republican Party. All the bellowing about Hillary’s emails, Hunter’s laptop, voter fraud, etc. was purely performative. Barely a peep about trump’s open criminality and his serial violations of the Constitution. The only unifying characteristics of the party are the enrichment of the wealthy at the expense of the rest of us, and clinging to power at any cost.
November is going to be a conflagration. A culmination of pent up anger and fear, against the chaos, the injustice, the inhumanity that is the essence of the regime. Watch them carefully. They are rigging the elections. They are casting Democrats and by extension anyone who is or votes against them, as Communists. We are called left-wing terrorists. They are establishing the predicate for a military coup...if we let them. We have to put our differences aside and unite around one true thing: the regime/Republicans are a clear and present danger to our liberties, our fortunes, our lives. We must organize, not just complain. Make it a point to engage at least 10 people, get them to commit to voting, take them to the polls if necessary. Ask them to find 10 more, and so on. We can do this, but we can't do this alone. Bring sanity back to America. Vote!