Details about the COVID-19 “Friendship building” between Dr. Anthony Fauci and a CNN anchor included Thanksgiving hypocrisy, prompting calls for termination.
Wednesday, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) is set to take the public stage once more to answer a subpoena from the Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Committee. Ahead of that, Chairman Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) released documents dubbed “Tony’s Diary,” which included revelations about The Science
dining with CNN’s Jake Tapper even as he advised the public against spending time with their own family for the holidays.
In an entry dated October 23, 2020, the then-NIAID director and member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force wrote, “Had dinner at my home with Jake and Jennifer Tapper. Relaxed, good time. Jake clearly believes that Trump is totally nuts.”
Another dinner, this time in the fall pic.twitter.com/tvESKDC2JE
— Emily Jashinsky (@emilyjashinsky) July 26, 2026
Little more than a week earlier on “CBS Evening News,” Fauci advised against Thanksgiving gatherings, telling anchor Norah O’Donnell of preventive measures, “What we really have to do is double down.”
Of the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday, he said, “That is unfortunately a risk, when you have people coming from out of town, gathering together in an indoor setting. It is unfortunate, because that’s such a sacred part of American tradition — the family gathering around Thanksgiving. But that is a risk.”
In calling for the public to be “careful and prudent,” Fauci went on, “You may have to bite the bullet and sacrifice that social gathering, unless you’re pretty certain that the people that you’re dealing with are not infected,” before he claimed his own Thanksgiving “is going to look very different this year” as his children opted out of visiting.
As was reported, much of the diary presents a story of the highest-paid government official basking in his growing celebrity juxtaposed against his documentation of rising case numbers and death tolls.
It also showed how throughout 2020, his friendship with Tapper grew beyond cordiality to behind-the-scenes jokes and, in at least one instance, found Fauci feeding the anchor questions to use against another task force member who wasn’t toeing the line.
On April 26, 2020, speaking of Dr. Deborah Birx, he wrote, “Deb was on CNN with Jake Tapper and did not answer the question of whether it was a mistake for the POTUS to talk about injecting or swallowing bleach. Jake wrote me a text afterwards and said: ‘Birx has lost her way I fear. She has chosen to focus on defending the president and attacking the press. Odd.’”
Many may recall that Birx herself proved a hypocrite for likewise shirking the Thanksgiving restrictions that she insisted “apply to everybody.”
In the diary, text exchanges also feature Tapper mocking Fox News host Laura Ingraham after Fauci appeared on her program, saying, “Hard to [believe] … Ingraham went to Dartmouth, isn’t it. All of us alumni are very proud.”
Tapper texts Fauci to attack Laura Ingraham and defend the integrity of Dartmouth pic.twitter.com/pLW5c1zuja
— Emily Jashinsky (@emilyjashinsky) July 26, 2026
At the beginning of July, Fauci marked down, “Had dinner over Jake Tapper and Jen Tapper’s home in DC. Terrific couple. Friendship building.”
A few weeks later, on July 26, he indicated how Tapper was “pressing” then-Assistant Secretary for Health Admiral Brett Giroir with questions that he provided. This was followed by recounting, “Jake Tapper woke me up … [furious] at POTUS for tweeting about the fact that Jake [severely] questioned Brett Giroir on SOTU CNN show today. Jake was really pissed at the craziness of it all.”
Among those calling for Tapper to face consequences, OutKick founder Clay Travis reminded how Brian Williams lost his job at “NBC Nightly News,” arguing, “Jake Tapper secretly dining with Fauci while lecturing everyone they couldn’t have Thanksgiving dinner with their families, to me, is much worse.”
Likewise, Megan Basham of The Daily Wire called out amid a pile-on, “CNN and Warner Bros. need to answer now whether the allegation that their star anchor @jaketapper allowed government official Anthony Fauci to feed him questions is true. He also needs to answer whether it is also true he then formed a close personal relationship with Fauci, including having him over to his house for dinner. If the allegations in Fauci’s diary are true, Tapper needs to be fired immediately.”
Brian Williams lost his news hosting job for lying about being under fire on a media trip to Iraq. Jake Tapper secretly dining with Fauci while lecturing everyone they couldn’t have Thanksgiving dinner with their families, to me, is much worse. https://t.co/MHhgMCUBFA
— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) July 28, 2026
CNN and Warner Bros. need to answer now whether the allegation that their star anchor @jaketapper allowed government official Anthony Fauci to feed him questions is true. He also needs to answer whether it is also true he then formed a close personal relationship with Fauci,…
— Megan Basham (@megbasham) July 27, 2026
Has Jake Tapper addressed why he was having Anthony Fauci over for dinner while husbands and wives of seventy five years were saying goodbye to each other over zoom?
— a newsman (@a_newsman) July 27, 2026
We couldn’t have a funeral for my father, but I’m glad Fauci got to wine and dine with Tapper. https://t.co/3EASnLs3W2
— Amy Curtis (@RantyAmyCurtis) July 27, 2026
They locked down the working class people and poor, while elites did whatever they wanted and lectured you about how you needed to take one for the team.
— George Sanders (@GeorgeM10912400) July 28, 2026
