BUCK: I think Fauci is starting to lose his grip over the public’s minds. I don’t think he’s able to just say, “Listen to me or else.” So here he is actually calling out by name a member of the news media. I’m a little sad, Clay, it’s not us, but we’re working on it.

CLAY: Fingers crossed.

BUCK: Yeah, fingers crossed. I call him the little tyrant lab coat Smurf. All the names you hear, a lot of them started with the Buckster. But here he is calling out none other than our friend Tucker Carlson. Play six.

FAUCI: I’ve devoted my entire career of 50 years to try and essentially safeguard and preserve the health and lives of American people. And, as an infectious disease doctor who deals with outbreak, that gets really extended to the rest of the world. That’s what I do! The praise or the arrows and slings are really irrelevant. I do what science drives you to do. And that’s what I do. And, y’know, I’m not in it for a popularity contest; I’m trying to save lives. And the people who weaponized lies are killing people. So the only question I have is that when you show Tucker Carlson and Peter Navarro criticizing me, I consider that a badge of honor.

BUCK: I consider it “a badge of honuh” that Fauci is too chicken to come on our show and answer questions. We would ask real questions. I would want real answers, not do the usual. Look at what he starts with. “I devoted my whole life to saving lives all over the world. It’s not about the fame. I just have to be on TV every 30 seconds or else I shrivel up like a prune.”

CLAY: I gotta give credit, Buck, to Tucker Carlson for taking the slings and arrows, as Dr. Fauci just reflected. I’ve not heard Tucker say anything inaccurate about covid. In fact, almost everything, it seems to me — including the Rittenhouse interview this week — Tucker is willing to stand up and say the inconvenient truth in the face of an onslaught from the mainstream media, including Fauci and others.