Jake Tapper’s Fauci Texts Mock Laura Ingraham’s Intelligence

Newly released diary notes attributed to Dr. Anthony Fauci offer a glimpse into his private exchanges with CNN anchor Jake Tapper during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, including a jab at a competing cable-news host. The entries, made public over the weekend by Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Rand Paul, describe Fauci’s April 16, 2020 appearance on Fox News’ The Ingraham Angle, where he pushed back on Laura Ingraham’s comparison of COVID-19 to viruses such as HIV that do not have vaccines, as she questioned whether lockdown restrictions could be eased before a vaccine was available. Fauci called that line of comparison “misleading” on air. Afterward, according to the diary, Tapper sent Fauci a sarcastic text: “Hard to believe Paura [sic] Ingraham went to Dartmouth, isn’t it. All of us alumni are very proud.” Fauci referred to the segment in his notes as “my Laura Ingraham hit.” The diary also says Tapper called Fauci two days earlier, on April 14, to check whether their April 12 CNN interview had created any trouble for him. By May, Fauci was writing approvingly that Tapper and then-CNN personality Chris Cuomo had come to his “defense on their shows.”

In another May entry, Fauci reflected on a Tapper-hosted segment about what he described as “the inadequate response of the Trump administration to the pandemic,” writing that he “came out relatively well.” The relationship appeared to become more personal as the year went on. On July 1, 2020, Fauci noted that he had dinner at the Washington, D.C., home of Jake and Jen Tapper, calling them a “terrific couple” and adding, “Friendship building.” Later that month, Fauci wrote that Tapper phoned him and was “furius [sic] at POTUS for tweeting” about a Tapper interview that discussed delays in the rollout of COVID-19 testing kits.

“Jake was really pissed at the craziness of it all,” Fauci wrote, one day after then-President Donald Trump shared a Twitter post accusing Fauci and other public health officials of “lying” in their grim assessments of the administration’s pandemic situation. The entries suggest the rapport continued into the fall, with Fauci recording another dinner with Tapper’s family on October 20, 2020. “Relaxed, good time. Jake clearly believes that Trump is totally nuts,” the note said. Other diary passages portray Fauci as closely tracking his rising media profile as the pandemic turned him into one of the most recognizable public health figures in America. “Press is going wild with me,” he wrote.

In March 2020, only days into the national crisis, Fauci noted that he had landed on the front page of the Washington Post, was the subject of a Maureen Dowd opinion column in The New York Times about his relationship with the president, and had been profiled by Peter Nicholas in The Atlantic. Within weeks, the attention appeared to intensify. “Big front page article about me appeared in the Washington Post. Very flattering,” Fauci wrote in May 2020.

He went on to write, “It is not hyoperbole [sic] to say that today I am the most famous and talked about person in the country and one of the most recognizable person [sic] in the world.” Two days later, Fauci said the White House was “very upset” that he was being profiled, adding that it appeared he was “putting down the POTUS” and becoming “a star that outshines him.” He continued, “The press is playing into this as is the tweet storm. Very stressful!!” The diary material is being released in advance of a Wednesday hearing before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, where Fauci is expected to testify.

The entries reportedly continue through December 2022, the same month Fauci retired from federal service. In one of the later notes, he wrote, “It is clear (I have not been reporting it every day) that the far, extreme right and Qanon literally hate me.” Fauci, 85, has not been convicted of any crime, nor has wrongdoing been proven against him. The origins of COVID-19, first detected in late 2019, remain debated, with the two leading theories centering on either a laboratory-related incident or natural transmission from animals to humans. Paul has previously accused Fauci of avoiding a prior commitment to testify and has criticized funding tied to laboratories in China where researchers study and alter viruses, including work that critics describe as making pathogens more dangerous or transmissible.