Commentaries on Dr. Fauci

 Diary of a felon named Fauci - Don Surber   

. . . "Crying covid made him money. Penguin Books (owned by a German company) gave him a book advance of $5 million—or 10 times the actual royalties due him for the 95,000 copies sold. Book advances are the way globalists buy off crooks like Jim Comey. I’m surprised Jack R. Smith did not receive one.

"Because of the pardon—designed to keep Fauci from singing about is collaborators—nothing will be done. No lesson learned. No prevention from reoccurrence sought.

"But there is a satisfaction among those brave souls who refused to conform.

"On August 7, 2021, Fauci wrote in his little diary, “Governor DeSantis is a complete disgrace. He is blocking the local authorities from mandating masks in various locations including schools.”

"Nearly 5 years later, DeSantis tweeted, “Badge of honor! Proud to have blocked local governments from enforcing Faucian edicts on their citizens.”  Indeed. . . .

JUST IN: Fauci Admits To Working Against Trump's 2020 Re-Election Bid In Shocking Diary   . . . "Anthony Fauci’s newly released diary entries, made public by Sen. Rand Paul, reveal that Fauci privately viewed efforts to fast-track COVID-19 treatments and vaccines before the 2020 election as politically motivated — and show he recorded personally intervening to support FDA officials resisting pressure for emergency authorizations.

"The entries were first highlighted by Justin Hart of the Rational Ground Substack.

"The entries, spanning five months in 2020, detail Fauci’s concerns about what he repeatedly described as an effort to deliver President Donald Trump an “October surprise” ahead of Election Day. They also identify the administration officials he believed were applying pressure and document a call in which Fauci wrote that he and other top federal health officials assured the FDA’s top vaccine regulator they would support him if he refused to approve a vaccine prematurely.

"The diary centers on several key figures. Peter Marks led the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, the office responsible for reviewing vaccine applications. Then-FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn oversaw Marks. Fauci also references then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, NIH Director Francis Collins, Fauci deputy Cliff Lane and Larry Horowitz, whom he identifies as someone working closely with then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

"One of the earliest entries, dated June 20, 2020, focuses not on White House political aides but on then-White House coronavirus response coordinator Deborah Birx.

"Fauci wrote that he had become increasingly frustrated with Birx, accusing her of wanting to bypass traditional clinical trials in favor of emergency authorizations.

"“Deb has ststed [sic] that we should noit [sic] do clinical trials since ‘I want to see every infected person in a nursing home get plasma early on and steroids later. Forget the trial, we need to do this on EUAs. She says the same thing about vaccine trials. Clearly, she is trying to provide Trump with his October surprise. I may need to blow the whistle on her.”" . . .More...

Pete Buttigieg Wants to Pack Supreme Court With 13 Justices

"The Court has had 9 seats since 1869, and every serious attempt to alter that number has been understood as an effort to capture the Court for political ends"

 Legal Insurrection

Pictured in this post; those who could have chosen America's expanded Supreme Court Justices:

"Former Biden Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg went on Fox News Friday to pitch a plan that would hand politicians four new seats on the Supreme Court and to argue that the institution needs to be fundamentally restructured.

"Carrie Severino of the Judicial Crisis Network called out what Buttigieg is really doing, including the clip of him making his case on Fox News.

Pete Buttigieg is doubling down on his proposal for Supreme Court "reform" by calling for court packing in an attempt to undermine the Court.

The Democrats are upset that this Supreme Court isn’t a forum to impose its radical agenda. pic.twitter.com/pA6gG8tza1

— Carrie Severino (@JCNSeverino) July 24, 2026 

“The legitimacy of the Supreme Court is, I believe, the lowest it’s ever been in the eyes of the American people. It’s come to feel like a nakedly partisan institution. We could do some things about that. At a minimum, term limits so that you know for each presidential term how many Supreme Court appointments are going to go with it. I also think we would be better off with a court that has something like 13 justices that would match the number of districts that we have in the federal system, and ideally appoint them in a way

that isn’t so partisan.”

"There is an immediate factual problem with Buttigieg’s pitch. The federal system does not have 13 districts. It has 94 federal judicial districts and 13 appellate courts; 12 regional circuits and the Federal Circuit. Buttigieg confused the district courts with the appellate circuits while arguing for a sweeping overhaul of the nation’s highest court.

"That error is not even the biggest problem with the proposal.

"Increasing the number of justices from nine to 13 is court packing, regardless of how Buttigieg dresses it up. The Constitution does not set the size of the Court, so Congress technically has the power to change it, but the Court has sat at nine seats since 1869, and every serious attempt to alter that number has been understood as an effort to capture the Court for political ends.

"Buttigieg also endorsed term limits and expressed interest in a so-called “balanced bench.” Under one version of that plan, the Court would expand further still, to 15 members. Five seats would be tied to Democratic appointments, five to Republican appointments, and those ten justices would then unanimously select five more. The effect would be a court designed by politicians, for politicians."  . . . More...

: California Is Becoming a Warning for America

 Victor Davis Hanson  "Well, basically, he’s saying to Californians, and I think I’m correct, that we have the fourth or fifth largest oil and gas reserves of any state: Monterey Shale offshore, the Elk Reserve, Naval Reserve near Bakersfield. 

"So he said, “You people have the highest gas prices in the nation, and it’s kind of a drag on the rest of the nation because you have the tech sector, and you’re driving everybody out, and you’re losing your competitiveness. Part of the reason is your fuel is so expensive, your gasoline and diesel fuel, and your electricity. 

“'You’re trying to get rid of nuclear. Your wind and solar don’t work much, and you’re importing a lot of energy from the Middle East that we don’t like. So we would like to go in and take our federal leases and put them up. There’s a lot of oil out there. Get Chevron and Exxon to pump. 

“'And there are other areas that have rare earth minerals in the desert you’re not fully utilizing.” 

"That’s what he’s trying to do. " . . .

The Democratic Socialists of America are Frankenstein’s Monster   "This week Victor and Sami discuss how the new Socialist Left emerged from the Democrats catering to the excesses of their fringe, creating a political Frankenstein’s monster.

"They also provide an update on the state of the Iran war, as wartime strategic decision making necessitates the U.S. to retaliate disproportionately. "As part of the Saturday Special, Victor examines the connections between John Quincy Adams and George H. W. Bush and the entertaining exchange between Representative Gill and Smithsonian’s Director of the Museum of American History. " . . .

Newsom Is Murdering California’s Energy Industry - The Daily Signal "When I was growing up, many Americans viewed California as the sunny state with unlimited resources, an entrepreneurial spirit that inspired people across the country, and energy sources that the U.S. and the world desperately needed. Today’s California is the exact opposite of that, and it’s truly a shame.

"Everyone can see that California Gov. Gavin Newsom is preparing a run for president in 2028. While he comes from the same far left, woke camp as former Vice President Kamala Harris, he also owns an energy policy record in California that all Americans should understand—and run away from.

"California’s failures impact the energy security of our country, but it’s even more concerning to consider a future where Newsom takes his anti-fossil fuel policies to the national stage and drags the entire country into this costly abyss.

"Newsom’s policies have resulted in an energy industry exodus that is truly historic and costly for California." . . .More...

Red State examines Doctor Fauci

 

Rand Paul Managed to Silence Fauci, While Underscoring the Egregious Lies Fauci Spouted – Jennifer Oliver O'Connell    "The Wednesday Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee hearing with former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) director Dr. Anthony Fauci went as expected. [Fauci Finally Faces Congress - and Immediately Pleads the Fifth]; Democrat committee members decried the waste of time and ran cover for Fauci, and Republicans were able to make their speeches and underscore the evidence against the not-so-good doctor, and the lies and contradictions which he upheld as "The Science." This evidence and these contradictions were reinforced by the Monday release of Fauci's personal diary that he composed using government property/systems. Despite his efforts to "burn bag" this information, once it was placed on government servers, it no longer belonged to him. For a purportedly smart man, this wasn't a very smart decision."  . . . 

'My God. Horrendous.' – This Devastating X Thread Just Shredded Whatever's Left of Fauci's Legacy – Teri Christoph

. . . "These two stories just scratch the surface of what was revealed in Grage's thread – countless deaths over Zoom calls and Facetime, families being turned away at hospital doors, and the only human contact allowed the elderly was touching hands on opposite sides of a window. Heartbreaking."

I will never forget. My beautiful mother’s last Valentine’s Day. 💔

. . . "All of this, of course, stings even more when many of the same health care workers who kept you away from your sick or dying loved one also happily patted themselves on the back for being "front line workers" and celebrated that achievement by recording goofy TikTok dance videos. From inside that same hospital you weren't allowed to enter.

It's hard to believe now that we put up with this callousness, but it will never happen again. Much like flight 93 on 9/11 made darn sure Americans never again experience a hijacking attempt without putting up a fight, Anthony Fauci single-handedly has ensured that we'll never cede power to an unelected villain (and elected villains aren't exempted from this sentiment, either) over cold and flu symptoms.

The big question that remains is this: will Fauci fess up to his vainglorious misdeeds in front of the Senate, or will he take the coward's way out and plead the Fifth?

The Anthony Fauci Senate hearing takes place Wednesday at 8:30 AM ET – be sure to stick with RedState for full coverage.

Fauci Finally Faces Congress - and Immediately Pleads the Fifth – RedState

"We may have been denied the satisfaction of hearing Fauci having to answer for his

Uncle Paul's Parodies

tyrannical reign as the COVID king – where was the "No Kings" crowd back then? – but we were treated to the delightful sight of his obnoxious attorney, David Schertler, being hauled out of the room by security after ignoring Sen. Paul's warning to keep his mouth shut." . . .

"Schertler had previously ignored instructions not to sit at the witness table because he wasn't a witness. Instead, he sat smugly beside his client as he repeatedly invoked the Fifth. Clearly working in cahoots with the Democrats on the panel, Schertler, despite not being a witness and not having a microphone, began addressing the hearing."Lest any of the Fauci supporters out there clutched their pearls at the thought he was left without counsel, Paul assured those in attendance – with his tongue firmly implanted in his cheek – that the witness had at least a half dozen other attorneys on hand."Investigative journalist Catherine Herridge shared what she saw from her seat in the gallery." . . . 

Schertler, again clearly taking his cues from the Democrats present, continued to blither away, prompting Paul to call in security to haul his behind out of the room.

Fauci could face contempt over pleading the 5th during testimony—here's how

'A narcissist': Victim's family hits out at Bryan Kohberger for challenging conviction for Idaho murders

 BBC  

"That's a real problem, since courts don't take kindly to walking a voluntary plea back without hard proof that something went seriously wrong behind the scenes."

"The family of one of the victims of Bryan Kohberger has hit out after it emerged that he was challenging his conviction for four murders of students in the US state of Idaho.

"Kohberger was sentenced last year to four consecutive terms of life in prison after pleading guilty to charges of murder in the November 2022 killings.

"In recent days, Kohberger told the New York Times he was taking back his plea, which was made to avoid the death penalty. He said it had rested on "false promises and blatant disinformation".

"The family of Kaylee Goncalves, one of the students who was killed, said that Kohberger was a "narcissist", who appeared to have changed his position.

"He chose not to leave his fate - or the facts of the case - to a jury," the statement from the Goncalves family said.

" 'He never cried foul, never claimed he was uninformed or pressured, and never suggested there were problems with the discovery materials he and his counsel had reviewed for two years that should have been challenged." . . . More...

LGBTQ cruise gets wake up call on Islamic culture

"None as blind as those who will not see."

Sky News host James Macpherson says an LGBTQ cruise to Turkey got a “lesson” about the intolerance for homosexuality in Islamic culture. Mr Macpherson said Turkish authorities refused permission for the ship to dock. “They seem to genuinely believe they're oppressed in the West and are genuinely surprised that Islamic nations don't want a floating Pride parade docking in their harbour.”

Elon Musk takes on the liberal press. No, NOT MSNOW, believe it or not

Elon Musk on Europe, the far right and civil war in Britain | The Economist

"After a quick google search, I found that the interviewer grew up in a rural farm in Shropshire (an area that even now is north of 90% white British) and attended a private boarding school costing, the equivalent in todays money, roughly £10,000 grand a term (3 terms per school year). Following this she went and studied philosophy, politics and economics at University of Oxford, a course which is infamous for harboring some of the most out of touch, elitist people in the country. Straight after graduating she was recruited as an adviser to the minister of finance in Poland through a connection with her lecturer. "This women is the absolute epitome of privilege and detachment. She is not representative of the average working/middle class Brit" (Comment to this video.)

Comment: "I live in the UK all the time and I can say without doubt this woman does not go outside her bubble. I would "not go out at night in London today whereas when I was young I worked in print and lived in London. I used to go home at night every working night after the paper went to bed. London has changed. It is full of people who do not see it as home and are only on the make. People that see you as a target. The only reason crime is going down is because it is no longer worth reporting it as you will not get any help. You can now die in handcuffs while they ask the man that murdered you if he is alright. It is so far beyond a joke and this woman obviously never steps out of the taxi until she arrives at her door."

Who is Zanny Minton Beddoes? Elon Musk calls The Economist's editor-in-chief ‘traitor to the West’

Parody:  Elon Musk Acquires Total Ownership Of The Economist | Babylon Bee

"Over the course of a ninety-minute transaction, Elon Musk became the sole and absolute owner of The Economist.

"Though Musk had no reported prior interest in the aging magazine, Musk acquired total ownership of the company during a sit-down with The Economist's Zanny Beddoes.

"'Well, that didn't quite go as planned," sighed Beddoes, handing over her employee badge to Musk. "Here you go, Elon. I'll, uh, just see myself out."

"Musk, for his part, offered Beddoes the option to stay on with the company, on the condition that she do actual journalism. Beddoes made several loud screeching sounds in response, apparently declining the offer.

"Musk admitted that he had no intention of assuming ownership of The Economist when he sat down for the interview. "It just kind of happened," said Musk. "She just began making absurd, ridiculous assertions, and next thing I know, I own the entire company. I don't even want it, I have too many companies as it is. Maybe Lil' X can run it."

"At publishing time, Lil' X had been introduced as the new CEO of The Economist and issued his first directive to "replace everything in the employee cafeteria with chocolate milk."

VDH: The Socialist Monster Awakens

"The Left’s socialist revolt did not come from nowhere—it was the inevitable offspring of years of Democratic radicalization, now turning against the party that created it."

Victor Davis Hanson

The Week

. . . Democrats as Dr. Frankenstein   "Almost every weaponized scam and national hysteria in the last two decades was amplified and spread by mainstream Democrats: the farcical claim that the Wuhan-lab-hatched COVID virus came from pangolins or bats; the Duke Lacrosse and Covington Kids hoaxes; the Jussie Smollett scam, the “Hands up, don’t shoot” lie; the deification of George Floyd, often portrayed with wings and a halo; Fauxcahontas Liz Warren, touted as the first Native American Harvard law professor (thanks to her grandfather’s high cheekbones); the radical diminution of in-person voting; the canonization of Trayvon Martin and Karmelo Anthony as blameless model children; and the mythology of a 1619 national founding.

"Who allowed not just one, two, three, or four million border-jumpers into the country, but over ten million—illegal, unvetted, viewed as an assumed new political constituency, and instantaneously dependent on the welfare state?

"Who gave us three, four, five, or even more genders and biological males showering with teenage girls or female prisoners? Who sloganeered about “defund the police” and “no cash bail”?

"All this was about as radical as it gets.

"The Democratic establishment’s unhinged hatred of Donald Trump mainstreamed radicalism even further and helped birth the socialist-cum-communist Frankensteinian monster that is now devouring its mad-scientist creators." . . .

. . . "Does anyone recall Maxine Waters urging the public to bird-dog Trump administration officials and harass them whenever they were seen in public? “If you see anybody from that Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out, and you create a crowd, and you push back on them, and you tell them they’re not welcome anymore, anywhere.”

"Does anyone also remember Nancy Pelosi, then-Democratic House Minority leader, greenlighting “uprisings” over ICE deportations? “I just don’t know why there aren’t uprisings all over the country. Maybe there will be.” So spoke the radical owner of two mansions, who entered Congress with little net worth and will leave it worth over $100 million. A Tip O’Neill she wasn’t.

"Then there was soon-to-be Vice President Kamala Harris egging on the George Floyd demonstrations, which, weeks earlier, had already turned violent and indeed deadly (despite what the “fact-checkers” asserted):" . . . More...

Dems fight for fraud with the 'Stop Nick Shirley Act'

 The Western Journal   

"Bonta’s hyperbolic language in her bill attempts to paint a picture of an angry mob with pitchforks looking for the local immigration aide offices. However, it is Nick Shirley who has been the recipient of death threats and doxxing, insomuch that he been forced to hire a security team.

"Instead of eliminating rampant fraud in California, Democrats are now making an extreme effort to intimidate and silence journalists who attempt to investigate it.

"Assembly Bill 2624, authored by California State Assemblymember Mia Bonta -- the wife of current California Attorney General Rob Bonta -- is facing pushback from those who see the chilling effect it could have.

"Critics of the bill are now calling it the “Stop Nick Shirley Act.”

"Shirley is the investigative wunderkind who has determinedly exposed fraud such as the Future Leaders Early Learning in Minneapolis, Minnesota, with the owner, Fahima Mahamud, being charged with wire fraud and conspiracy to defraud the United States.

"Shirley claimed that his investigations have uncovered over $280 million in fraud committed by Somali day care centers.

"Bonta introduced the controversial bill only after Shirley uncovered massive amounts of fraud in Minneapolis and said he would do the same in California.

"After all, California has over 217,000 registered tax exempt organizations and non-governmental organizations. Many NGOs receive their money from local, state, and national government sources.

"Democratic lawmakers are behaving as if no fraud exists in California, but the facts say otherwise. Recent high-profile fraud cases in California include the Los Angeles Homeless Scheme, San Francisco Shelter Misappropriation, and Disaster Relief Divergence." . . . More

How to Think About the American Revolution

One fears the generation that chooses thought leaders like Mamdani, The Squad, Tim Walz, MSNOW, Whoopi and Joy, too many elected Democrats, whichever Chicago official comes to mind, and assorted purple-haired flag-stompers are the menace to all the gifts our founders have presented us to cherish and preserve. Dare we place this republic into their hands? The Tunnel Dweller.

Imprimis 

"So long as we continue in good conscience to appeal, as we did in our beginning, “to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions,” we may “with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence,” like Americans of all preceding generations, with good heart “pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor” in this greatest of earthly causes."

"How should we think about the American Revolution on the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence? The American revolutionaries can help us answer this question.

"John Adams, one of the chief revolutionaries, looking back more than four decades after the Declaration of Independence, recorded a memorable judgment on the Revolution in which he played such a central part. Adams lived through all the great events of the Revolution beginning well before and continuing long after July 4, 1776: the Boston Tea Party, the convening of the First Continental Congress, Paul Revere’s Ride, the Battles of Lexington and Concord, Washington’s crossing of the Delaware, the winter at Valley Forge, and the Battle of Yorktown. He understood that all the colorful circumstances, the risky and fateful choices, the acts of daring and heroism would be long remembered and would deserve and need serious study.

"But Adams also thought that we couldn’t understand the heroic deeds of the American Revolution—we couldn’t recognize their most essential lesson for us—without understanding the reason they were undertaken. As he wrote to Hezekiah Niles on February 13, 1818, the American Revolution took place “in the Minds and Hearts of the People”—a “radical Change in the Principles, Opinions Sentiments and Affection of the People,” he wrote, “was the real American Revolution.”

"The record of this revolution in Americans’ hearts and minds is one of our great national treasures. It provides precious knowledge of the American Revolution to all future times and all peoples everywhere, but especially to what America’s Founders called “ourselves and our Posterity.” It is the eloquent record of the conception and articulation of the American idea of political freedom in pamphlets, petitions, state papers, letters, sermons, constitutions, resolves,  bills and declarations of rights, memoirs, diaries, journals, treaties, and speeches—mostly in a compressed period in the 1760s and 1770s—in which a revolutionary generation learned to think and act like the Americans they were becoming.

"This “real American Revolution,” as Adams called it, culminated in the Declaration of Independence—an expression of what Thomas Jefferson called “the American Mind.” All of the revolutionary actions and documents leading to the Declaration express one dimension or another of the American idea of political freedom. Returning to them again and again is a way by which succeeding generations of Americans can continue to experience the American Revolution for themselves." . . . More

Mamdani, Our Very Own Celebrity-DJ Acting the Part of a Politician

 Phyllis Chesler Organization  

"The city, including all those who actually funded Mamdani and all those who supported him, really wanted him. They got him.

Mamdani shoots from the lip | Michael Ramirez

"Mayor Mamdani is a clear and present danger to New York City. He is not so much the problem as are the people who got him elected—and the nature of the times in which we live.

"Celebrity film stars and musicians pronounce their political opinions—all based on ignorance. They are applauded for their Jew-hating lines. So, too, Mayor Zohran is something like an actor/activist who is repeating what he has been taught, catering to the basest of prejudices. His lines repeat all the propaganda out of Iran and Qatar; he is a living bot inciting to genocide.

"Those who elected him agree with his rap-artist ways, find them "cool," and welcome his over-the-top hatred for the Jewish state and its leaders. After all, Mayor Zohran is a Shia Muslim (that's what Iranians practice), as well as one of the 1% against whom he rails.

"Nepo baby Zohran's wealth came from settler-colonial beginnings. The British sent Indian Muslims and Indian Hindus to Uganda to economically control and profit from the Black Africans in Uganda. His family's wealth emerged from this precise history, which may be why he so loudly condemns Israel as a "settler colonial" enterprise when that is factually not the case. It is a classic example of scapegoating the victim for one's own crimes or, in this case, for the source of Zohran's family's wealth.

"Our mayor's hatred is Hitlerian. After falsely accusing PM Netanyahu of being a war criminal and of having committed genocide in Gaza, he then called for his arrest on the basis of the ICC's having issued one such charge. The United States and Israel are, wisely, not party to the ICC and even Mr. Zohran had to retract the warnings of arrest once someone explained to him that he was violating both international and federal law by assuming powers that a city mayor simply does not have. However, it is a crime to harass and attempt to intimidate a foreign dignitary who is protected by diplomatic immunity. (I thank Lauri B. Regan, Esq., for having pointed this out to me.)

"Not to be stopped by the mere law, what Mayor Zohran did next was to call for a massive protest in the streets to take on the job of intimidation and harassment of the PM of a sovereign state. Is he hoping for a riot? A very violent riot? Is this the kind of red meat that he is feeding to his Masters? Served up with his diabolically creepy smile?" . . . More.

The Damnation of Fauci

 Fauci Starting To Think That Maybe Keeping A Daily Perjury Diary Was A Bad Idea | Babylon Bee  

. . . "Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Fauci kept meticulous notes in his diary about every lie he told under oath, which in retrospect had begun to seem unwise.

"That might have been a mistake," said Fauci as he prepared for Congressional questioning. "It seemed like harmless fun at the time, but I suppose writing down each crime I committed, the date, the motivation, and specific evidence for the crime could cause some trouble for me. Hindsight, eh?" . . .

Hans Mahncke (@HansMahncke) / X

Fauci's diary entry for May 21, 2020 is one of the most grotesque documents you will ever read. It opens with the mounting Covid death toll and people dying across the country, then abruptly pivots into an extended exercise in self-congratulation about his newfound fame. How was… pic.twitter.com/IMpCWerfTR

— Hans Mahncke (@HansMahncke) July 25, 2026

 Fauci diary reveals animosity toward Trump: 'A true embarrassment'  "At the same time, Fauci reveled in his own celebrity and the extensive media coverage he was receiving that turned a lifelong bureaucrat into a national star ‒ and later a villain – to many."

"Big front page article abut me appeared in the Washington Post. Very flattering. The situation with my national and international fame is explosive and really unimaginable. It is not hyoperbole [sic] to say that today I am the most famous and talked about person in the country and one of the most recognizable peson in the world. Countless profiles on me in multiple media. I cannot even read all the things that are written abuyt [sic] me since I am so busy….seriously. POTUS seems to be enamored of me even though I am taking the spotlight away from him."

Still don't doubt the media?

If you're wondering why Fauci was always so eager to go on TV, this supercut might be a helpful refresher pic.twitter.com/pvjAc86rNn

— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) July 26, 2026

Above: Numerous stations featured Fauci, but take special note of the admiration from MSNBC and CNN