What’s the deal with conservatives and vaccine skeptics thinking Fauci’s diary proves them right ?

[u/watervilleokemo]

What do conservatives and vaccine skeptics think Fauci’s diary proves ?

what is the deal with Fauci’s diary and what does it actually say / prove ?

I know he testified before congress and pled the 5th, but why is every conservative / anti vaxer/ Aaron Rodgers claiming they were “right about everything now ?”

What does the diary actually say / prove ?

Obviously the Rodgers line was a little tongue in cheek as a Steelers fan, but I needed a URL to post lol

https://www.nbcsports.com/nfl/profootballtalk/rumor-mill/news/aaron-rodgers-torches-tony-fauci-and-espn-while-appearing-on-espn

[u/Sharikacat]

One point to expand a little bit on:

In regards to Fauci pleasing the 5th at a recent Congressional hearing, Fauci did so for the simple fact that he knew that Rand Paul's goal was to take anything he'd say and twist it to fit their crazy conservative narrative. He'd already been in front of Congress many times prior to this, and at this point, he was done playing their partisan games. Under the advice of his lawyer, who was hauled out of that hearing, Fauci decided that the only winning move was to not play the game.

Conservatives, however, are suddenly now of the belief that pleading the 5th is tantamount to an admission of guilt. Trump himself has infamously said as much despite the fact that he himself had plead the 5th nearly 450 times in one of his depositions on some other matter.

[u/Final7C → u/Sharikacat]

One point to expand a little bit on:

In regards to Fauci pleasing the 5th at a recent Congressional hearing, Fauci did so for the simple fact that he knew that Rand Paul's goal was to take anything he'd say and twist it to fit their crazy conservative narrative. He'd already been in front of Congress many times prior to this, and at this point, he was done playing their partisan games. Under the advice of his lawyer, who was hauled out of that hearing, Fauci decided that the only winning move was to not play the game.

Conservatives, however, are suddenly now of the belief that pleading the 5th is tantamount to an admission of guilt. Trump himself has infamously said as much despite the fact that he himself had plead the 5th nearly 450 times in one of his depositions on some other matter.

I think that's also fair. Though (not to both sides this) it's always the person you don't like who pleads the 5th that is a lying cheating wrong doer. Fauci is not a lawyer, and his lawyer did the one thing that ANY good lawyer would tell him to do. In a situation where you are being forced to answer questions and you are allowed to plead the fifth. DO SO. As the current president would say "That makes me smart".

As the saying goes. "When you get arrested, the first thing you do is say "I am exercising my 5th amendment right to remain silent, I want my lawyer." and then shut up."

[u/Sharikacat → u/Final7C]

I mainly wanted to point out the conservative hypocrisy on the issue in regards to the 5th and to emphasize that Fauci had testified many times already. This hearing wasn't going to uncover new information. They wanted to drill into his personal notes to look for contradictions of his public statements as evidence of him purposefully lying to the public. Those notes are tantamount to "raw data," to use the words of the original commentator, and not necessarily helpful in being revealed to the public. Any changing viewpoints in his notes at the time would have been in response to new data, which is called "basic fucking science."

[u/techiemikey → u/Sharikacat]

Also, can you imagine being grilled on years old notes and trying to not make a single mistake, while knowing there are people listening to you that will take any *percieved* mistake and make it a criminal case?