RUSH: We’re starting in Miami. George, great to have you as you’re up first today on the EIB Network. Hi.

CALLER: Hey, God bless you, Rush, real quick. What is your opinion, why do you think that Donald Trump seems to be going along just in boot-step with this Fauci guy, which is a 40-year-old swamp creature? This guy is part of the swamp, and yet it just seems like Trump is just going along with everything this guy says. Little things here and there he’ll disagree with, but overall he’s just agreeing.

RUSH: Why do you think? Now, you, obviously because you’re calling me and asking about this, you’ve obviously thought about it. So what —

CALLER: Oh, yeah. I’ve been thinking about it for four weeks now. I keep asking my dad. He loves this guy, and I just don’t understand. I said, “You guys have been chanting for years that it’s all fake news, and now, all of a sudden, you believe everything the news is telling you. I just don’t get it.” So I ask my dad —

RUSH: Wait. Wait, wait, wait. Did you just say you think Trump is believing everything that Fauci’s telling him or that the media’s telling him? Is that what I heard you say?

CALLER: No, no, no, no. I’m saying that people like my father, for example, that he was for Trump from the very beginning — and I am a Trump supporter, by the way.

RUSH: Right.

CALLER: But all this stuff about fake news, but now they’re so easily being misled into believing all this stuff, and I just don’t understand with Trump having a history of always fighting back against the evil empire that is the media, I don’t understand why he seems to just be going along with this —

RUSH: Did you see the briefing yesterday? He’s going along with nothing. He took it straight to — are you asking about the media or Fauci? Which do you want me to address?

CALLER: About Fauci.

RUSH: All right. My take on Fauci is that it is a no-win to take on Fauci no matter what Trump wants to do. Fauci has had credibility with the American people for 40 years since the eighties, since the AIDS, HIV outbreak. And you have to pick your battles. We don’t know what Trump is doing privately. We don’t know how Trump is dealing with this privately. I’m telling you publicly he is not going to pick a fight with either Fauci or Team Scarf, not publicly.

Now, you may want that, you may want that as a sign that Trump has not wavered because you’re beginning to have your doubts. But look, Trump knows that the vast majority of people think and acknowledge that Fauci is a source authority on illness. The danger here is not that Fauci is an expert on that stuff. That can’t be denied. The danger is that we can’t be putting him in charge of when to open schools and when to open the NFL and when to do this or that. I don’t think you have much to worry about here, is the short answer, which I have to give you because I’m out of time.

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RUSH: Expanding on the last caller, last caller, “Why doesn’t Trump tell Fauci to go jump off a whatever?” He can’t, folks. You got a guy up there, Fauci, with 40 years’ experience, approval, credibility, authority. It just isn’t gonna happen publicly. It just isn’t going to. In fact, I’ll tell you, if anybody is moving in any direction, it’s Dr. Fauci.

Dr. Fauci has been asked twice in the last two briefings, essentially, “Please tell us that this guy’s an idiot. Please tell us that this guy’s an idiot and you’re saving him. Please tell us that he’s making you say things. Please tell us, Dr. Fauci, that Trump is making you say things and agree with him,” and Fauci said, “Nope. Not happening.”

Even if it is happening, these people are smart enough to know not to air this laundry in public.

It isn’t going to happen.

Look, with both Team Scarf and Dr. Fauci, Trump has made them integral parts of his task force. He names Pence to run the task force. Pence puts these two people on it. They’re just… Live with it. It’s going to … As I say, Dr. Fauci’s perfectly fine in terms of his medical qualifications to tell people about the virus and how it expands and how it can be dealt with and all that.

But when Dr. Fauci is put in charge of when things reopen then that, to me, is going a little too far. And, of course, that’s something that media would love to happen. And they would love to be able to report that Fauci has taken over because he realizes Trump is an incompetent boob. That’s not going to happen, either. I’m gonna tell you something.

While many of you are sitting out there frustrated that Trump won’t do something about Fauci, let me tell you something: The real frustration is over at CNN and MSNBC that Fauci will not dump on Trump. That’s where the real frustration is. You have to understand this. These people are totally invested in their belief that Donald Trump is a scumbag, that he’s an idiot, that he has the IQ of a pencil eraser.

That he is a dangerous, stupid, egomaniac — that he’s an ogre, that he’s unsophisticated. And they’re living and breathing — they’re hoping, praying — for the day when Fauci strides to that microphone and resigns, saying, “I don’t work with this idiot. This idiot is gonna get us all killed.” That’s what they’re hoping for, and that isn’t going to happen. I have my own theories about this relationship, and I’m not prepared to divulge them yet.

(interruption) Ah, Mr. Snerdley is getting all frustrated. (chuckles) “Then why did you tell us you have theories?” Okay, I’ll tell you one thing that I think is going on. And I have no evidence for it. It’s just me using intelligence guided by experience combined with instincts and abundance of common sense. I think at the end of some of these briefings, that the Scarf Queen and Fauci go to President Trump and say, “We had no idea how bad this really was until we’ve seen it.”

“We had no idea, sir. We had no idea how they disrespect you. We had no idea — and you, sir, are masterful at dealing with them.” I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s happening. Now, why it’s happening is an entirely different matter. But I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s happening.

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RUSH: From The Daily Caller: Dr. Fauci appeared to throw cold water on Trump’s proposed date of May 1st, calling it overly optimistic. And he also said that the daily press briefings are really, really draining.

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RUSH: I just got an email, Mr. Snerdley. “Come on, Rush. You know what’s gonna happen. Fauci’s gonna wait for the book deal to unload. He’s not gonna give it away for free. He’ll wait for the book deal when this is over.” I should have thought of that.

Speaking of Dr. Fauci, “Dr. Fauci appeared to throw cold water on President Trump’s proposed reopening of parts of the United States on May 1st.” He says it’s “overly optimistic.” He was talking to AP news, the “Ass-sociated” Press. He said, “We have to have something in place that’s efficient and that we can rely on, and we’re not there yet.”

Okay. You know, I like parsing things as much as the next guy. “We have to have something in place that’s efficient and that we can rely on. We’re not…” What is that referring to, “something in place that’s efficient and that we can rely on, and we’re not there yet”?

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RUSH: So Dr. Fauci says May 1st is overly optimistic. We have to have something in place that’s efficient and that we can rely on. He also said that taking part in Trump’s daily press briefings is really draining. He said if I had been able to just make a few comments and then go to work, that would have been really much better. But it isn’t the idea of being there and answering questions, which I really think is important. It’s the amount of time.

What Dr. Fauci’s talking about is these briefings, let’s say they start at 5:30, and they go for two hours, and sometimes by 7:30 Dr. Fauci hasn’t even been called to the microphone yet. He’s standing there along with the Scarf Queen and the supply chain guy, and they haven’t even been called to the microphone yet. I’ve wondered about this. I’ve wondered how long they gonna put up with this?

Speaking of Dr. Fauci, I have some interesting audio sound bites. This is last night at the White House during the coronavirus task force press conference. Fauci admitted that the Trump administration is following his recommendations. The Drive-Bys, the Democrats in the press room have been trying to drive a wedge between Fauci and Trump. They’ve been trying to get Fauci to admit that he thinks Trump’s an idiot, in not so many words. They’ve been trying to get Fauci to admit that he’s having to talk Trump into doing the right thing ’cause Trump’s an idiot. They’re trying to get Fauci to admit that Trump is making him say things that support Trump. And here’s Dr. Fauci in one sound bite reacting to that.

FAUCI: The first and only time that Dr. Birx and I went in and formally made a recommendation to the president to actually have a, quote, shutdown in the sense of not really shutdown, but to really have strong mitigation, we discussed it. Obviously there would be concern by some that in fact that might have some negative consequences. Nonetheless, the president listened to the recommendation and went to the mitigation.

RUSH: Aw. And you could hear the air come out in sighs of regret. Media people, “Oh, darn it. You mean the president agreed with your recommendation?” “Yes, he did. He agreed with our mitigation. He agreed with shutting down.” And then Dr. Fauci continued.

FAUCI: The next, second time that I went with Dr. Birx in to the president and said, “15 days are not enough, we need to go 30 days,” obviously there were people who had a problem with that because of the potential secondary effects. Nonetheless at that time the president went with the health recommendations and we extended it another 30 days. So I can only tell you what I know and what my recommendations were. But clearly as happens all the time is there were interpretations of that response to a hypothetical question.

RUSH: Man, it’s a long and roundabout way of saying that Trump follows the recommendations. I think that it pains Dr. Fauci a little bit, but he has to say it, because Trump is following their recommendations. So then last night, here comes this Paula Reid babe, the infobabe from CBS who caused all the hassle at the briefing yesterday, with a question to Dr. Fauci.

REID: Are you doing this voluntarily or did the president —

FAUCI: No. Everything I do is voluntarily. Please. Don’t even imply that.

RUSH: Are you doing it voluntarily or is Trump forcing you to do it? Does Trump have you in chains back there where we can’t see it? Is Trump denying you food and water? Is Trump making you do this? Don’t even go there. Don’t even go there. Everything I do is voluntarily.

But you can see where the mind-set is. The mind-set, Fauci can’t possibly be agreeing with this guy. Fauci can’t possibly be doing this on his own. Fauci has to be being forced. Somebody is blackmailing Fauci. Somebody’s threatening Fauci. And then here’s Fauci shooting it all down and letting them all down in the process.