(Jacob Bruns, Headline USA) In a recent interview with Wired, former COVID czar Anthony Fauci implied that the reelection of former President Donald Trump—or other any iconoclastic figure on the Right who questioned the divine wisdom of institutional authority and collectivist groupthink—would be a greater threat to civilization than the next global pandemic.
Wired contributor Steven Levy conducted the interview, questioning Fauci about his recently published book, On Call: A Doctor’s Journey in Public Service.
Levy began by asking Fauci about his relation with Trump during the early days of the spread of COVID.
According to Fauci, working under Trump made it difficult to keep one’s “integrity intact” since Trump “did not listen” to people like him or Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator.
Fauci divulged that he had “a complicated relationship” with Trump, who, for whatever reason, did not ever fire Fauci, despite his allegedly dictatorial ways.
But, delving deeper into his own political views, Fauci suggested that some Americans had what he perceived to be illegitimate—and possibly fascistic—political opinions because they did not submit entirely to his COVID mandates.
This took place, according to Fauci, because Trump became president by “saying things that were egregiously untrue, but accepted by tens of millions of his followers.”
This “ominous sign,” this “normalization of untruths,” for Fauci, caused people to doubt the science, and ultimately ignore his suggested protocols, from vaccinations to masking to social distancing.
Responding to Levy’s question as to what causes him to “lose sleep,” the virologist initially stayed within his wheelhouse, arguing it would be another pandemic (even though the last one—which some believe he may have helped cause—made him a very wealthy and important man by most accounts).
“[W]hen Covid came, that was my worst nightmare,” he claimed.
“My worst nightmare now is similar, that we could have another respiratory-borne highly transmissible virus that spreads rapidly throughout the world,” he added. “And as a degree of morbidity and mortality, that still is my major concern.”
However, Levy pointed out that in his book Fauci said he was “more disturbed by the crisis of truth in the country” than the public health concern.
After citing Trump as the source of those alleged untruths, Fauci said he agreed that democracy was “on a precipice”—despite having earlier complained about the lack of compliance with his authoritarian mandates.
“You have to nurture democracy,” he philosophized.
“If you let this craziness go about, it will erode the foundations of democracy,” he continued. “So I don’t think democracy is a given automatic, you need to protect it. You need to nurture it. If you don’t do that, you might lose it.”
Ultimately, Fauci suggested, the rise of Trump, enabled by his supporters, bore similarities to the rise of Adolf Hitler.
“Once there is a doubt about what is really true and not true, the social order erodes,” he said.
“… Something similar happened in Europe in the 1930s, when absolute lies were said about people and about populations. The next thing you know, you had Nazis doing absolutely unbelievable things.”
Despite his unhinged rant against his former boss, Fauci insistend on maintaining his nonpartisan stance when pressed by Levy to reveal whom he would be voting for in the upcoming election.
“I don’t talk politics,” Fauci claimed, “but you can figure out if you’re listening.”
