RUSH: Okay. So, in the brief break, the brief segment we have, let me review here. “Coronavirus is not a major threat for the people in the United States and this is not something the citizens should be worried about,” Dr. Fauci, January 21st. He later said, “The American people…” Five days later, January 26: “The American people should not be worried or frightened by coronavirus. This is a very, very low risk to the United States.

“It isn’t something the American public needs to be worried about or be frightened about.” Five days later, after Fauci says no big deal, Trump issued a travel ban on China. Five days later. Today, Saturday, and all weekend: “Trump unprepared! People died! Trump lied. Trump lazy. Trump incompetent. Trump not engaged. Trump’s lousy instincts.”

Dr. Fauci yesterday on CNN: “If Trump had listened to our recommendations, we could have saved lives sooner.” Wait, what? “Coronavirus is not a major threat and it’s not something the citizens should be worried about,” Dr. Fauci. “The American people should not be worried or frightened by it. It’s very, very low risk.” What?

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Once again, ladies and gentlemen, I’ve no quarrel with Dr. Fauci’s medical credentials. I’m not gonna even address them. I have no problem with Dr. Fauci and his qualifications as a doctor, his qualifications as an infectious disease specialist at the National Institutes of Health. But there is clearly a political effort underway that has been underway since prior to the election in November 2016 to destroy President Trump.

It is an effort that continued after the election of 2016, and it continues. It had its own component during the transition. They tried to actually do things that would prevent Trump being inaugurated, that would cause people to reexamine Trump’s legitimacy — and then, after Trump was inaugurated, the efforts to get rid of him continued. And they all knew what they were using as evidence was bogus. They all knew. Every one of them knew.

And what’s happening today with the politicization of the economic shutdown in relationship to coronavirus is a continuation of that. Much as many of you wish it weren’t true and don’t want to believe it, it is. So we have no quarrel with Dr. Fauci and his medical credentials. We have no quarrel with Dr. Fauci and his concern for his patients. But there are some things that he needs to explain.

If the president of the United States is gonna be the victim of a hitjob in New York Times on Saturday with a bogus charge that he was not prepared, when he actually was the only one who was by shutting down travel from China on January 26th. It’s just a public service to review some of the things that the person the media is going to as the singular authority on every aspect of this way beyond his medical credentials.

Do you realize Dr. Fauci’s being turned to as an expert on reopening? He’s being turned to as an expert on when it’s coming back. He’s being turned to as the expert on reopening schools. He’s the expert on how to operate restaurants when they reopen. Dr. Fauci is being turned to as the totally accountable and you-can’t-question-what-he-says expert on all of these things that have nothing to do with his medical qualifications.

This is not right. It’s grossly unfair to President Trump. It’s grossly unfair to all of us. So to review… Repetition is a primary ingredient to persuasion. “Coronavirus is not a major threat for the people in the United States, and this is not something the citizens should be worried about,” Dr. Anthony Fauci January 21st. Five days later on a podcast with the New York grocery store magnate, John Catsimatidis…

He is a grocery store guy, right, Snerdley? Catsimatidis? (interruption) Yeah, he is. January 26: “The American people should not be worried or frightened by this. Very, very low risk for the United States.” Dr. Fauci five days later, after saying coronavirus was “not a major threat for the people, not something citizens should be worried about,” he said, “It isn’t something the American people need to worry about or frightened by this.”

Dr. Fauci… What is the date? I have to search for the date. Well, the story is March 9th, and it’s Forbes. Dr. Fauci: “If you are a healthy young person, there’s no reason. If you want to go on a cruise ship, go on a cruise ship.” Remember the Song of Princess or the Virus Princess, whatever, docked or offshore in Japan where everybody on it had the virus? When was that? This Dr. Fauci in a story March 9th, Forbes:

“If you are a healthy young person, there is no reason. If you want to go on a cruise ship, go on a cruise ship.” Dr. Fauci yesterday on CNN: “If Trump had listened to our recommendations, we could have saved lives.” Dr. Fauci’s recommendations — I’m sorry — were to ignore the coronavirus. Dr. Fauci’s recommendations on January 21st and 25th (summarized): “It’s not something the citizens should be worried about. It’s not something citizens should be frightened by. It’s very, very low risk.”

Here’s audio sound bite number 6 today, CNN State of the Union, Jake Tapper talking to Dr. Fauci, said, “The New York Times reported [in their bogus hit job yesterday] that you and other top Trump officials wanted to recommend social and physical distancing guidelines to President Trump as far back as the third week of February. The administration didn’t announce such guidelines until March 16th, almost a month later. Why?”

FAUCI: We look at it from a pure health standpoint. We make a recommendation. Often the recommendation is taken. Sometimes it’s not. But it is what it is. We are where we are right now.

TAPPER: Do you think lives could have been saved, uhh, if social distancing, physical distancing, stay-at-home measures had started third week of February instead of mid-March?

FAUCI: Obviously you could logically say that if you had a process that was ongoing and you started mitigation earlier, you could have saved lives. Obviously, no one is gonna deny that. But there was a lot of pushback about shutting things down back then.

RUSH: Well… (laughing) There was a lot of pushback? I wonder who Dr. Fauci’s referring to? It has to be Trump. So Dr. Fauci says, essentially, in that bite, “If Trump had listened to our recommendations, we could have saved lives.” Now, how does he get away with this? Politically. Forget the health aspect of this, because nobody is here challenging whether he’s a qualified doctor.

But he gets to go on CNN and basically not even be asked about his statements in January and February that the American people have nothing to worry about, that it’s not a major threat. Why does he get away with that? Why is he not held accountable? “Well, Rush, not very many people heard Dr. Fauci say these things.”

I don’t care. We can go back and tell everybody what he said and inform them. Dr. Fauci, five days later, “The American people should not be worried or frightened. It’s a very, very low risk, not something the American people need to worry about.” So that’s January 21st, January 25th. On February 9th, he’s saying, “If you want go to cruise ship and you’re young, do it.”

And he goes on CNN yesterday and says, “Well, if we’d been listened to, if our mitigation suggestions had been listened to, then, yeah, additional lives would have been saved. But we got a lot of pushback.” Folks, this is outrageous. Here is audio sound bite number 7. See if something… This, again, is the same show. Jake Tapper, talking to Dr. Fauci, says, “You think it will be safe in November for voters to physically go to vote at the polls?”

FAUCI: I hope so, Jake. I can’t guarantee it. If we have a good, measured way of rolling into this — steps towards normality — that we hope by the time we get to November that we’ll be able to do it in the way which is the standard way. However — and I don’t want to be the pessimistic person — there is always a possibility as that — as we get into next fall and the beginning of early winter, that we could see a rebound.

RUSH: All right. So Dr. Fauci says, “I can’t guarantee the November election can proceed normally.” Is the National Institutes of Health in charge of federal elections? Is the director of the National Institutes of Health in charge of any aspect of the American economy? Is the National Institutes of Health responsible for determining when schools can open? Well, maybe you might if I ask the question that way. But should they be involved, should they be consulted.

But when did the National Institute of Health become the source authority for the reopening of various segments of our country? Dr. Fauci, quote, “I can’t guarantee the November election can proceed normally.” I didn’t know that the NIH guaranteed the integrity and the even occurrence of the execution of presidential elections. I didn’t know this. We have Dr. Fauci on tape saying many of these quotes I’ve attributed. Here’s number 8. January 21st, Dr. Fauci on NewsMax, the show called Greg Kelly Reports. He said to Dr. Fauci, “Bottom line, we don’t have to worry about this coronavirus, right?”

FAUCI: Obviously we need to take it seriously and do the kinds of things that the CDC and the Department of Homeland Security are doing, but this is not a major threat to the people of the United States, and this is not something that the citizens of the United States right now should be worried about.

RUSH: So you see, my friends, I waited for this. I sucked you in. And many of you, I checked the email, “You’re making it up! Fauci didn’t say that, that’s what you do, Limbaugh, you make it up.” I never make it up. There’s Dr. Fauci in his own words. You heard it. “This is not something that the citizens of the U.S. right now should be worried about.” And this guy is being turned to for his the stamp of approval on having the November election or opening your kids’ schools.

February 29th, NBC’s weekend Today show, cohost Peter Alexander talking to the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci. Question: “Dr. Fauci, Saturday morning in America” — this is February 29th, now – “Dr. Fauci, Saturday morning in America people are waking up right now with real concerns about this. They want to go to malls and movies, maybe the gym. Should we be changing our habits? And if so, how?”

FAUCI: No, right now at this moment there is no need to change anything that you’re doing on a day-by-day basis. Right now the risk is still low.

RUSH: Right. Okay. So back on February 29th, Dr. Fauci: “No need to change anything you’re doing on a day-to-day basis. The risk is still low.” Can I have sound bite number 6 again? This is Dr. Fauci yesterday, CNN, “Dr. Fauci, the administration didn’t announce guidelines to the American people ’til March 16th. Why?”

FAUCI: We look at it from a pure health standpoint. We make a recommendation. Often the recommendation is taken. Sometimes it’s not. But it is what it is. We are where we are right now.

TAPPER: Do you think lives could have been saved if social distancing, physical distancing, stay-at-home measures had started third week of February instead of mid-March?

FAUCI: Obviously you could logically say that if you had a process that was ongoing and you started mitigation earlier, you could have saved lives. Obviously no one is gonna deny that. But there was a lot of pushback about shutting things down back then.

RUSH: Right okay. That’s a reference to Trump. Now, note the date here. Jake Tapper, “Do you think lives could have been saved if these measures had started the third week of February instead of mid-March?” “Oh, yes,” says Dr. Fauci. Well, February 29th is the fourth week of February. And Jake Tapper is asking Dr. Fauci about the third week of February. “Do you think lives could have been saved if social distancing had started third week of February?” “Oh, yeah, no question about it, many, many.”

Dr. Fauci yesterday — on February 29th, a week after the third week in February said, “No right now at this moment, no need to change anything you’re doing on a day by day.” Why does Dr. Fauci get to change, get to redo — like the models. The models get to redo whatever they’re putting out when they’re wrong. They’re never wrong. We just need new data. Why does Dr. Fauci get numerous do-overs? Why is Dr. Fauci never held accountable to the things he says and yet we get bogus hit pieces on the unpreparedness of Donald Trump, say New York Times.

I’m mentioning all this. The only answer is because all of this is politicized, folks, and the target is Donald Trump. Not the virus. These people are targeting Donald Trump. He is a bigger target to them than the virus. Do not doubt me. I know it’s hard to believe. Fauci’s not alone, don’t misunderstand. The Democrats, the media, the environmentalist community, there’s a whole cadre, the FBI, everybody involved in getting Trump on Trump-Russia collusion is still involved in trying to get rid of Trump, period.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Look. We have another one here, February 17th this year, USA Today: “Top disease official: Risk of coronavirus in USA is ‘minuscule’; skip mask and wash hands.” So this is Dr. Fauci the second week of February. Third week of February, nothing to worry about. Yesterday asked by Jake Tapper: “If we’d a done things in the fourth week of February, could we have been safer?”

“Yeah, we could have been safer but there was pushback.” Obviously Fauci wasn’t — if Fauci as recently as the third week of February was saying there’s nothing to worry about here, how much pushback could there have been? I mean, seriously. If in the third week and the second week of February and the third and fourth weeks of January, if Dr. Fauci thinks there’s nothing to worry about, then he’s obviously not telling President Trump, “You gotta do something, dude. You gotta get into gear fast,” and Trump couldn’t have been pushing back. In fact, Trump did institute the travel ban from China.

So what pushback would there have been? Because Dr. Fauci was not advocating for strong measures because he didn’t think there was anything to worry about as recently as February 29th. Look, I’m simply reviewing what Dr. Fauci has said, putting it in a timeline, measuring it against the New York Times effort to say it’s Trump that’s unprepared when Trump was the only guy that did anything in February, banning flights from China. And now Dr. Fauci says, “Well, there was an effort, you know, we wanted to shut down sooner, we wanted to mitigate social distancing. We were getting pushback.”

How could he have been getting pushback when as recently as February 29th he wasn’t even advocating for any measures such as mitigation. In fact, he was even saying skip the mask and wash your hands. February 17th. Dr. Anthony Fauci: If testing shows the virus has slipped into the country in places federal officials don’t know about, we got a problem. Short of that, Dr. Fauci says skip the masks unless you’re contagious. Don’t worry about catching anything from Chinese products. Certainly don’t avoid Chinese people or restaurants. Whenever the threat of a transmissible infectious, there are varying degrees from understandable to outlandish extrapolation of fear.

Other advice from Dr. Fauci: Masks, ah, the only people that need masks are those already infected. Just wash your hands.” February 17th.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Nobody’s trying to make Dr. Fauci the fall guy for anything here. I’m just beginning to wonder why Donald Trump is a bigger target of these people than the virus is. And we know the answer to the question. I’m just trying to get you all up to speed, those of you that don’t know it, that the continuation to get Trump effort is front and center over the virus for these people.