RUSH: There’s been something, folks, that has been bothering me since this whole covid-19 thing began, and you know what it is? I’ve finally done figured it out out there! We’re not acting at all like Americans. We’re Americans! We beat back every enemy we have faced, and we have been fearless in confronting every enemy we have faced — in large part because every enemy has come after us. We don’t need to flatten the curve. We need to flatten the fear! And it is… This is new! We’ve never had an entire generation paralyzed in fear with that paralysis rooted in comfort.

CLAY: It is never-ending. (chuckling) That was Rush Limbaugh, obviously, on the one-year anniversary of his death, dissecting much of what Buck and I have continued to go after, which is the covid insanity, the veil of madness that has continued to descend across all of this country. I do see, Buck, some signs of positivity out there. We’ve got kids who are willing to finally stand up. All over California, there are protests, kids walking out of school to protest the fact that they have to wear masks still.

We’ve got big wins that are being stacked in Virginia. Elections have consequences, indeed. Glenn Youngkin has effectively ended the mask mandate in the state of Virginia, and it’s worth noting that since he ended up that mask mandate, cases in Virginia are down 71%. And so it feels — even with people like Fauci as we started off the show talking about the lies that are continuing to be spread. I want to play this because this bill banning school mask mandates was signed by Glenn Youngkin. I think it’s a big reason why he got elected. Listen to cut 3.

YOUNGKIN: It is my distinct privilege and honor to be able to sign Senate Bill 739 into law in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

CROWD: (cheers and applause)

CLAY: And then let’s build on it a bit more. He says parents now will decide — this is on Fox — whether or not their kids wear masks, not school boards.

YOUNGKIN: We’re seeing a big win for parents and for students all over the commonwealth — and, yes, the science and medical opinion from so many folks has changed, but also the politics have changed. So Virginia has been leading. Virginia will continue to lead. I am very excited that a bipartisan group came together to pass this bill, which I will sign into Virginia law.

And we will make it very clear that parents, in fact, have the right to make a decision with regards to whether their child wears a mask or not. The great thing is if your child should — if you choose your child shouldn’t wear a mask, you can make that decision, and if you want your child to wear a mask, you can make that decision as well. And that’s what Virginia is all about.

BUCK: Isn’t it amazing, Clay, when somebody who’s a Republican wins an election and actually does the things they say they’re gonna do right away, I gotta tell you, it’s good. (laughs) I feel like the Youngkin voters of Virginia must be no good their heads saying, “All right. We got a guy here that’s actually following through.” It’s astonishing that Fauci is out there saying that the children still need to be masked, when you have you have more and more blue check doctors out there, Clay, who are finally saying what…

I’m sorry, but for those of you who have been on the front lines of the anti-mask wars, which Clay and I have — and this is a matter of public record. I like to remind people when Clay had a syndicated morning show and I had a syndicated evening show, we used to talk on air about the mask issue in like April of 2020. I was like, “Clay, why is everyone crazy?” and Clay’s like, “I don’t know, Buck. Why is everybody going crazy?” Not everybody, obviously, but the people that were believing the Fauci stuff. Menial there were doctors coming forward saying things that used to get you banned on Twitter. Here’s CNN’s Dr. Jonathan Reiner on the air over there.

REINER: I think the CDC believes that any mask is better than that no mask but what — what I’m here to say is that if you want to wear a mask now, you should wear either N95, a KN95, or a KF94, mostly from Korea. Those three mask types are extraordinarily protective against, uh, uh, acquiring covid. A cloth mask — particularly a loose cloth mask or a bandana worn loosely around the face — is fashion. Every person should be —

BUCK: First of all, I don’t even want to get into the fact that the data proves him wrong on the other point, too, because Germany has had an N95 mandate; it did absolutely nothing. But just put that aside, Clay. It’s fashion. Here’s a doctor on TV.

CLAY: On CNN!

BUCK: The cloth masks that people were screaming at me in my own building where I live, “You put your mask on” while they’re wearing a Hillary-Bernie balaclava over their face or whatever. I’m sitting here like, “Listen, commie, get a grip!”

CLAY: It is going to be hysterical to see in the years ahead how many people claim that they always knew masks were worthless. There’s a great story when a big event happens in sports, after that event, like 10 years later, a million people claim they were there. You know, there’s only 60 or 70,000 people who sit in a stadium. But when a really famous play happens and it continues to grow in the years ahead, way more people claim that they were there than could have ever been statistically possible based on the number of seats. Buck, you and I are gonna have so many people in the media who five and 10 years from now are gonna say, “You know what? I always knew those masks never worked.” But they didn’t say a word and they wore it and they lectured other people who didn’t. I guarantee you that’s where we’re headed.

BUCK: I actually had a writer friend of mine who was on my show at The First TV admit yesterday on air, at one point she was like, “We need to have an open debate on masks,” and out of respect and friendship for her, I was like, “We really don’t.”

CLAY: Yeah. (laughing)

BUCK: I don’t think you want to go there. That was over… That was maybe in June of 2020. That was a long time ago, and last night she’s like, “You were… You were so right! You and Clay are so right on masks.” (laughing) It’s like, “Yes. Yes, we are.”

CLAY: I… Look, there are going to be things that everybody gets wrong. And I’m married; so I hear about the things that I get wrong all the time.

BUCK: You’re always wrong when it comes to Mrs. Travis until proven otherwise, Clay.

CLAY: (laughing) That’s right. Any married man, any decision that he makes is always wrong. But I do have to say, this is one that you and I completely nailed from the get-go, when people were saying, “Oh, if you even uttered the essence of questioning masks, they would try to ban you on Twitter.” A lot of people got banned for it on Twitter. And I just think when Fauci… What, is Fauci like 81 now?

When the books are written about this era of America, he’s going to be an incredible villain, and all of the things that he has gotten wrong… Everybody wants to talk about the right and wrong side of history. Fauci’s been on the wrong side of history for so many issues. And I think it’s instructive, Buck, because there’s this idea that people who are on the wrong side of history, that they intentionally are putting themselves there.

I think what happened with him was, he painted himself into corner after corner, and when confronted with options — you can acknowledge the data has changed, you can acknowledge that maybe some of your earlier advice was wrong — he constantly tried to pretend that he wasn’t reversing himself, and he never was willing to acknowledge on something like masks or school shutdowns that they never made any sense and they panicked and they overreacted.

BUCK: Fauci always told the Democrats, the libs, the commie apparatus of the media what they wanted to hear. He was never willing to say, “Grow up. Stop being babies. This isn’t the way to do this. We’re not putting caution tape around the playgrounds. We’re not arresting paddleboarders in the ocean. We’re not shutting down public parks.

“We’re not masking up outside. We’re not masking up kids because it’s child abuse.” Never once in two years did this individual — the single loudest voice for lockdowns and masking and vaccination, never once — did he have a moment of courage, never once did he have a moment of conscience. It’s absolutely appalling, and I am not letting it go, and we are not done in this fight until every face is free.

CLAY: And also, I just… The idea, Buck, that we tied up swings, that we tied up swings on playgrounds and we took away basketball rims? That’s just gonna be such an evocative picture one day. People are not gonna believe it ever happened.