CLAY: Our buddy, Dr. Fauci, emerged from his subterranean bunker where he’s been hidden. By the way, Reuters poll came out today, Buck: 40% approval for Joe Biden, newest low for Joe Biden out there. I know there was some discussion about whether the situation in Ukraine might bring more people to his camp.

Also, whether or not that distraction from what’s going on in the United States might be beneficial to him coming off of the State of the Union Address. The answer is: It is not. The numbers have continued to decline substantially, and Biden is still sitting right around 40%. Why do I bring that up in conjunction with Fauci?

Well, I believe — as I think you do too, Buck — that what they’re gambling on in the Biden White House right now is that covid might not be bad enough — that it’s still becoming a topic of major discussion — by November, and so they can claim some victory over covid, which helps distract from the failures with inflation, the failures with the border, the failures with Afghanistan, the murder rate continuing to skyrocket everywhere — and certainly the ongoing malaise, I would say, that exists across the country.

Well, Dr. Fauci, from the subterranean bunker, is back out now speaking left and right as we get ready for the new variant to arrive. I think it’s the BA.2 Omicron variant, if I’m correct what they’re calling this one, and Fauci was asked one of the biggest of lessons that he had so far gotten from two years of being (let’s be honest) wrong about basically everything. His answer? It’s going to disgust you, but we feel like we need to play it. What has Fauci learned. Listen.

BUCK: Okay. So he’s wrong, even when he’s talking about how there’s been an evolution of knowledge. There is now part of me, I know we’ve been saying where is Fauci for a while, but I almost wish he would go back into the tree house with the rest of the Keebler Elves and keep making cookies.

I’d really rather not have to deal with this guy ruining people’s day-to-day lives anymore, because he’s such a megalomaniac and refuses to admit that he’s wrong. Think about this for a minute. I know I’m not an epidemiologist. I’m also not a biologist.

CLAY: Virologist.

BUCK: Yeah, not a virologist. But let’s think about it for a second. He’s basically telling you, “Yeah, we’re wrong about a whole lot of stuff, but that thing we told you in the very beginning — that was really the first thing that didn’t stop a damn thing — that’s what I’ve learned the lesson is here. Masking is the thing that we need to turn back to.”

When you’re talking about aerosolized virus, that means fine, vapor mist, as in the air moving freely, you can’t even see it. Droplets you could theoretically feel — depends on the size of a droplet, but that’s like actual liquid that drops, hence, the term, because of its weight. Aerosolized means it’s freely floating in the air as a fine mist as in the air you breathe in.

Anyone who believes a loosely draped Kamala-Biden balaclava or kerchief around their mouth is helping themselves, when you’re talking about a fine mist, is living in delusion — the same delusion that you can’t identify what a man or woman is, anymore. This is the emperor has no clothes, we all know it, and yet Fauci is still singing the preferred tune.

I think they have to keep him, Clay, as a little bit of an insurance policy because what if cases go up as they probably will? They have to bring him back out. They’ve got to have him come out and say something. But Leana Wen? Less crazy these days. She’s always been smarter than Fauci. That’s been obvious.

CLAY: Here’s an easy, fun experiment if it’s still cold enough nearby you to do it. Put your mask on when you can see your breath and watch all the breath that escapes when you are breathing wearing a mask. Right? Just watch all of the aerosol. Like, your mask, put it on your face when it’s cold. And, by the way, that’s one of the few times where I don’t mind wearing a mask, when it’s actually cold outside.

That at least is a little bit like warmer. Not because it’s safer, but it’s, hey, the mask on the face makes you a little bit warmer. But put the mask on and watch all of the vapor that you can see because it’s cold outside — and your breath, when it comes out, watch it just totally escape everywhere as you’re breathing wearing your mask.

It is just like a fun little science experiment. How effective do you think this is? Which says nothing about pulling it down and eating or drinking or whatever else. And Buck, the data, I’m glad you bring it up because people do say, “Why should I listen to you? You’re not a virologist or an epidemiologist.” I can read data. Right?

I can look at what the facts show, and I can look at them. A couple of easy examples: I can look in LA at Orange County, which has done virtually nothing of late in terms of restrictions, and I can look at LA County. The overall rate of covid is nearly identical in LA County and Orange County. Where I live, I can look at Davidson County, which is Nashville.

And I live just south of town in Franklin-Brentwood, and there’s no difference in covid rate basically for years now even though there have been more restrictions in Nashville than where I live in Franklin-Brentwood for kids. The data! You don’t need to be an MD to look at data and analyze it rationally.

BUCK: You can get this information online. You can see the efficacy rates. They’ll give you — and I mean percentage, percentage rate of five-year survival if you get a certain kind of cancer treatment, depending on what you have. You’ll see percentage rate for how effective different birth-control methods are, right? That’s data.

CLAY: Yeah.

BUCK: They always say masks work. And then you’d say, “Okay, how well?”

CLAY: Show me the data.

BUCK: The answer is they ahve absolutely no idea because they’re terrified of doing a real study of doing real science because then it would show — if they had to run the experiment themselves, it would show — that they’re wrong. They’ve been wrong this whole time. And people should be angry at them. This is a part of it. This is why I do believe everyone should be…

There are so many places we can go, and I meant to say this when we had the Don Lemon sound bite a moment ago: When something really agitates the left — and Don Lemon is a man of the left. When something really agitates them, that’s something that you should talk about it more. The fact that CRT gets them so upset is a huge indicator that we’re right on target.

They know this is a weakness. They know that parental… Why have they gone so all in about lying about the parental rights bill in Florida? Because they know that parents came out in Virginia and delivered a stunning rebuke with the Younkin win to what had been a blue-trending — you’ve shared the data many times, a very blue-trending — state for the last 10 years.

CLAY: Yeah.

BUCK: So now we’re at a point where you have to say they don’t have the data but they don’t need the data. The same way that they’ll sit there and say, “I’m not a biologist,” as you point out. They’ll say, “I’m not a virologist, I just do what I’m told.” The appeal to authority once again. You have to be willing…

If you’re going to be a Democrat who doesn’t want to get dragged on Twitter, particularly if you’re a public person, you have to be willing to say things that you know are laughably stupid and look at people and say, “Yeah, I believe that.” So Fauci is in that category. “I believe Fauci still,” they say.

CLAY: Ketanji Brown Jackson is in that category: I don’t know what a woman is. You have to say things that you know are 100% lies, and the ultimate unbelievable aspect of this is they claim that they are the Party of Science. And they are the ones who are spreading direct falsehoods based on clearly biological-derived differences between men and women and also the fact that all the data reflects that masks don’t work at all. They’re still sticking to that statement as well.

BUCK: I also think as a basic premise, whenever you can recognize something is straightforward and someone insists on telling you it’s very complicated, they’re trying to pull something on you. Right? Whenever you’re like it’s, “No, no, no, you owe me money,” actually I’ve been watching a bit of the “Inventing Anna” show, for example. I’m just saying. Putting it out there. Have you seen it?

CLAY: I’ve only read the review. I know it’s about the person who claims to be a German heiress, right?

BUCK: Yes. It has its moments. But I’ve been watching it. One thing is whenever she’s cornered, she has a sort of delay tactic. And then it turns into, “A wire didn’t come in! I’m so VIP. I have no time. The banks messed it up.” And it’s all this gibberish, when it’s, “You owe me money. Pay me the money.” The same thing with Fauci and all these Democrats.

It’s your masks did not work, and they go, “Well, but you know the science and this thing and the Arizona,” and they start speaking all this gibberish. No. (laughs) You’re wrong. Stop it! They try to hide in the complexity when they don’t actually have the argument. You can tell we’re both very fired up. I’m in some sense even more fired up than Clay, ’cause they’re bringing masks back in New York. Almost guaranteed.

CLAY: Yeah, you’re going to have to live with it. It’s never coming back to Tennessee.

BUCK: Flee to Florida.