The idea that Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn is accusing anyone of being "in cahoots" with anyone or "trying to create" a narrative by "cherry-picking information" is jaw-droppingly, knee-slapping funny.
Blackburn increasingly seems to be fashioning herself after her idol, the former president who practically invented cahoots and especially excelled at narrative creation with cherry-picked information. He honed it to an art. Clearly Marsha took copious notes.
There she was Thursday at a news conference calling for Dr. Anthony Fauci to step aside from his role as the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease and "make himself available to Congress to find out exactly how he was in cahoots with [Facebook founder] Mark Zuckerberg and 'Big Tech.'"
Congress should investigate, she said.
This followed her Twitter post two days before of a 50-second video titled "Here are the facts on Fauci that big tech doesn't want you to know."
"First of all, yes, Dr. Fauci was emailing with Mark Zuckerberg from Facebook, trying to create that narrative, cherry-picking information so that you would only know what they wanted you to know. And there would be a narrative that would fit with this cherry-picked information.
"The second thing we are aware of, it was Dr. Fauci and his agency that wrote that check, sent that money to the Wuhan Institute of Virology to do this coronavirus research. " she said in the video.
Where to begin -
Let's start with giving Fauci an opportunity to rebut. The 80-year-old career scientist, speaking to MSNBC host Chuck Todd, called Blackburn's points "painfully ridiculous."
"I don't have a clue what she just said. I have no idea what she's talking about. I'm sorry, I don't want to be pejorative against a United States senator, but I have no idea what she's talking about ... He should be fired because he in the beginning changed his mind about masks?'"
Of course he did and understandably so. When doctors began seeing asymptomatic transmission they knew it was time to change the guidance from not masking to masking. As Fauci and other scientists learned more about the virus, lots of things changed. Even treatments. Even the vaccines in development got tweaked as more information was gleaned.
And, yeah, never mind that many of these same conservatives rallying with Blackburn repeatedly railed against masks and refused to wear them - even after we and they did know they were necessary.
Never mind, as well, that their former president called the virus a flu, said it would just disappear, mocked masks, suggested ingesting bleach to protect against the virus, hyped a malaria drug that shows no help against it and bragged to a reporter that he knew the novel coronavirus was "deadly stuff" but he liked "playing it down."
Funny - the GOP didn't call for his investigation.
Of late, Republicans - eager for a red-meat target other than their idol's COVID incompetence - have stepped up their criticism of Fauci after the recent release of thousands of his emails by The Washington Post and Buzzfeed News. That's where the Zuckerberg/Fauci cahoots comes in.
The emails, obtained by the news outlets through Freedom of Information Act requests, largely show a meticulously careful scientist and public servant. The fact that all Republicans could find to seize on was an exchange in which the founder of Facebook was looking for a way to help get some real facts out about the virus and Fauci hoped to help is telling in itself about creative narratives.
Blackburn pointed to a creative link in The Federalist, a conservative website, which charges in a headline: "Fauci Colluded With Mark Zuckerberg On Facebook COVID-19 'Information Hub,' Emails Show."
The Federalist reported Zuckerberg suggested interviewing Fauci on one of his Facebook Q&A livestreams. The writer quoted a response email from Fauci: "Your idea and proposal sound terrific. I would be happy to do a video for your hub. We need to reach as many people as possible and convince them to take mitigation strategies seriously or things will get much, much worse. Also, your idea about [REDACTED] is very exciting."
Gosh. What a concept. Facebook putting real news out about COVID-19 through a video livestream with a scientist Americans trusted more than the president.
Of course, the "[REDACTED]" gave the GOP a self-awarded license to "create a narrative."
As for the check Blackburn says Fauci wrote?
The Hill reports she may have been citing a grant that went through the non-governmental New York based EcoHealth Alliance to Wuhan Institute, considered a premier lab for studying coronaviruses, to learn how a pathogen adapts to environmental pressures. Such research helps scientists better plan vaccines and therapies. Within that $3.4 million grant awarded by the National Institutes of Health, between $600,000 and $800,000 was subcontracted to the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
Some U.S. intelligence has indicated this lab may have leaked the virus. Other U.S. intelligence says the virus moved naturally from animals to humans. At the end of May, President Biden directed U.S. intelligence agencies to "redouble their efforts" to determine the cause of the pandemic, did it jump from animals to humans, or could it have escaped from the Wuhan lab?
A year ago, Blackburn announced that 10 counties in West Tennessee and Middle Tennessee would receive an $11.2 million grant through the Department of Transportation's Infrastructure for Rebuilding America program.
The grant, the direct result of a request made by Sen. Blackburn earlier in 2020, she said, would fund about 143 miles of fiber optic communications on I-40 between Memphis and Nashville.
If the fiber optic system falls prey to cyber terror or something, should Blackburn be investigated? Is that on Twitter yet?