Dr. Anthony Fauci is taking his time leaving the stage, obviously continuing to enjoy the attention, even after his formal retirement.  Appearing on Face the Nation and Meet the Press yesterday, he remained a stalwart defender of China, minimizing its misbehavior almost as if he were committed to the Chinese cause.

Via the Daily Wire:

"Do you agree with that word cover-up?" Brennan asked. "And intentional distortion?"

"I don't know what that means," Fauci responded. "I'm not sure what they're talking about. I mean, if cover-up is not allowing people to come in and look at all the data, that's not a cover, that's not being transparent."

Anthony Fauci is asked if he agrees with using the words "cover-up" and "intentional distortion" to describe China's role in COVID.

FAUCI: "I don't know what that means, no." pic.twitter.com/NbJnIG1AuC

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) November 27, 2022

"Not being transparent" is a big difference from "cover-up" in Fauci's bureaucratic worldview, I gather.  Or maybe it is just a word game.  His subsequent comments to Brennan suggest the latter:

Fauci then defended China for not turning over its primary data from the pandemic by blaming the Trump administration.

"They can say, oh, you know, it's in frozen food, or it's in this or it's in that. But there's no primary data," Fauci said. "The [World Health Organization] went in and saw some of the data, which some of which was actually quite helpful. But we- you know what we need, Margaret, we need a transparency and a collaboration to open things up so that we can discuss it in a non-accusatory way."

"What happens is that if you look at the anti-China approach, that clearly the Trump administration had right from the very beginning, and the accusatory nature, the Chinese are going to flinch back and say, 'Oh, I'm sorry, we're not going to talk to you about it,' which is not correct," Fauci continued. "They should be."

When Brennan mentioned that China is still not cooperating with U.S. officials, Fauci defended the Biden administration by saying that the "horse is out of the barn."

So, as with everything else, it's Trump's fault. Can we please start to admit that Fauci was far from a disinterested public servant, but rather was a political player and he tried to harm the presidency of his boss, Donald Trump?

Moving over to Meet the Press, Fauci continued his excuse-making for China.

"Why is the Chinese government acting so peculiar and weird?"

ANTHONY FAUCI: "I don't mean this in a broad, pejorative way, but...even when there's nothing to hide, they act in a suspicious, non-transparent way." pic.twitter.com/1zRRNUCWPf

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) November 27, 2022

You see, it's just a little cultural quirk that they avoid blame, not that there is anything being covered up.

Given the energy Fauci put into denying even the possibility of a lab origin for COVID, his excuse-making for "non-transparency" (never "cover-up") looks like personal butt-covering.  I look forward to Fauci testifying under oath to one or more House committees next year.

Photo credit: Twitter video screen grab.