Listen up, everyone who’s annoyed that Dr. Anthony Fauci decided to stonewall congressional oversight by pleading the Fifth this week: Fredo wants to set you straight.
By “Fredo,” of course, I mean the lesser of the Cuomo brothers: Chris, former CNN host and self-described friend of the Fauch.
In a video that got ratioed to all hell and back on social media because the former COVID bro failed to read the room, the current NewsNation host decided to stick his neck out for his old friend — and got it chopped off.
So in case you missed Fauci’s “testimony” before Congress on Wednesday, a bit of history. This is how things started, with Fauci and Chris Wallace on CNN back in 2022:
Fauci in 2022: “I am very happy to testify before any congressional oversight committee.
I have nothing to hide. I can explain and validate everything that I’ve done.
I’m going to do what I need to do, and that is cooperate fully, because we have nothing to hide at all.” pic.twitter.com/vRYKHnLkPr
— Natalie Winters (@nataliegwinters) July 29, 2026
See? Nothing to hide. Willing to share everything, and to “explain and validate everything that I’ve done.”
Or … not. That’s how it started, here’s how it went earlier this week:
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) asked Dr. Anthony Fauci a string of questions during his Senate testimony Wednesday, like, “What day of the week is it today?” and “What color tie are you wearing?” Fauci continued to invoke his Fifth Amendment rights to every question from senators.
One… pic.twitter.com/2YUDDApr4j
— CBS News (@CBSNews) July 29, 2026
Gosh, Mr. I Represent Science™ certainly clammed up in the intervening years, in spite of the fact he got a preemptive pardon from now-former President Joe Biden on his way out the door for anything he might have done. So, as long as he told the truth, there was nothing to worry about. That, in a nutshell, explains why he didn’t want to talk.
However, this is the man who effectively oversaw America’s pandemic response. We also know that some elements of that response, publicly, were at variance with what he was thinking privately, all thanks to a diary that was kept on government computers and was released last week in advance of his testimony.
Considering the schoolchildren who fell behind, the elderly people who died alone, the crippling mental toll, the people criminalized for merely not wearing a mask or taking a vaccine, the individuals branded as conspiracy theorists for perfectly rational beliefs about the origins of the virus — don’t they deserve an answer, especially if Fauci has already received a pardon?
No, of course not. First, Fredo — a nickname Cuomo despises because it comes from the weak-sister Corleone brother in “The Godfather” saga — explained on his NewsNation show on his NewsNation show why Americans aren’t entitled to answers.
Chris Cuomo suggests that Republican animus toward Fauci and focus on his NIH funding gain-of-function research is about saying “America cause the [COVID] pandemic” and not China.
He says Republicans should be giving Fauci immunity and not holding him in contempt:“Is finding… pic.twitter.com/QC6Zh4JA5v
— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) July 30, 2026
“Is finding him in contempt of Congress — is that going to make Fauci speak? I doubt it,” Cuomo said.
“And we all know his answers anyway. If they really think Tony Fauci can answer some of the vexing real questions about the pandemic, why don’t they give him immunity? My suggestion is they’re not even talking about that because this is about finding a fall guy as much as anything else.”
But Fauci already has immunity — in the form of a presidential pardon for his acts during the pandemic. So long as he doesn’t lie under oath in the present or the future, he should be fine.
That makes this explanation strange by itself. Stranger still is Cuomo’s suggestion that we can guess his answers.
During the pandemic, remember, we were told that if we didn’t have several degrees in epidemiology, we could all just shove our questions and “trust the science.” Now we’re being told we can intuit what Fauci was going to say?
That wasn’t sufficiently Fredo-esque, so on Friday, he decided to play the tough guy on X.
“I don’t know who here needs to hear this,” Cuomo began, in a tone no serious adult should consider using in a social media video, ever. “But, if you were forced by the situation where people were coming after you to plead the Fifth and take everything that comes with that, what would you be doing right now?”
Fredo insisted he’d be in the fetal position after the coherence-challenged hypothetical he posed. But that Tony Fauci, “he’s a real one.”
WARNING: The following video contains vulgar language that some viewers will find offensive.
Tony Fauci is a friend and Congress is about lawfare not answers pic.twitter.com/TQ1dzUGZFa
— Christopher C. Cuomo (@ChrisCuomo) July 31, 2026
“You wanna find out who started COVID? That’s great,” Cuomo continued. “Are you saying Tony Fauci did? Did you say in America did? [sic] Then what are we talkin’ about? … Tony Fauci was foisted into a position because they didn’t want to take the smoke. Trump did it first and then the Biden administration. But you’re just going after one 80-year-old man?
“This is not about the truth,” Cuomo said. “It’s about bulls***, and everybody sees it.”
Ah, Fredo’s still got it. And by “it,” what I mean is a false sense of bravado and complete ignorance regarding how he comes across to other people. Let’s leave aside the fact that there’s nothing — nothing — courageous about taking the Fifth Amendment on a subject you’ve received immunity on already, particularly when you were the most powerful unelected, non-cabinet, non-judicial official since World War II.
This is also especially rich for someone who yukked it up with his brother — then-New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo — during the worst of COVID. Remember, too, that Cuomo ended up leaving his CNN job in shame — although not over his kid-gloves treatment of his brother, who also had to resign over sexual harassment allegations (not over having killed a fair number of nursing home patients with his COVID policies).
Remember what Chris Cuomo was doing during the pandemic? The internet sure remembers.
Why would we ever trust you to tell the truth about anything? pic.twitter.com/YF3xE5Oz4B
— Janice Dean (@JaniceDean) August 1, 2026
Who remembers this??? 🤡 pic.twitter.com/zO2oXe1wV7
— The Constitutional Conservative (@TheCCShowcast) August 1, 2026
With friends like you, Fauci doesn’t even need impartial journalists… pic.twitter.com/xiqDH1b0Ua
— Chris Musselman (@TakeRightTurn) July 31, 2026
Yeah, of course we know (at least) that Tony Fauci is a friend of yours; we’ve seen your dumb show in fits and starts, although most of us couldn’t be bothered to sit through a whole one. When COVID was a thing, it was a nightly alarm-fest, except for your bits where you’d promote your brother.
And now, as Fauci refuses to give us answers, you give us tough talk through the phone screen. No wonder you’re getting ratioed by people who still have memories and Fauci is getting roasted by the public.
You couldn’t wish this upon two more deserving people.
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