Fauci Threatened w/ Contempt After Taking the Fifth 100+ Times | 7/30/26 FIRST LOOK

**Dave Rubin** (0:04)
Hey, everybody, I'm Dave Rubin, and this is First Look. It's Thursday, July 30th, 2026 We've got a packed show for you today. Anthony Fauci takes the fifth more than 100 times, gets threatened with contempt by Rand Paul, has his lawyer escorted out by Capitol Police, and faces blistering questions about the lab leak coverup and the catastrophic COVID lockdowns he helped impose. New polling shows 90% of Americans say they can easily provide ID and proof of citizenship to vote. History is made as a specially modified Qantas Airbus completes a record-breaking 24-hour nonstop flight, paving the way for the world's longest commercial routes. Let's dive in.
Fauci's Fifth Amendment Meltdown. Yesterday, in the Senate Homeland Security Committee, the chief architect of America's disastrous COVID response finally faced the music, and he folded like a cheap tent. Anthony Fauci sat there for nearly four hours and invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination more than 100 times. Every single time the questions got real, lab origin of the virus, gain of function research, document destruction, alternative treatments, the six foot rule, school closures, vaccine mandates that cost people their jobs and military careers, Fauci gave the same scripted line, on the advice of council, I respectfully declined to answer, based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution. Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky wasn't having it. Paul has been chasing this for years and he made clear that refusing to answer Congress is not a free pass.
It's against the law to obstruct an investigation of Congress, Paul warned. There will be repercussions. He announced the committee will vote next week on holding Fauci in contempt. Paul also raised the obvious legal question. Former President Joe Biden's midnight pardon of Fauci, covering actions back to 2014, does not magically erase potential perjury or obstruction charges if lawmakers can show Fauci lied under oath in previous testimony. The hearing turned explosive when Fauci's attorney, David Shurtler, kept trying to insert himself into the questioning. Paul repeatedly told him he was not authorized to speak. Shurtler ignored the warnings. At Paul's request, Capitol Police escorted the lawyer out of the room. Applause broke out in the gallery as the attorney was removed. Then Ohio Senator Bernie Moreno went nuclear. He looked at Fauci and asked the question millions of Americans have been asking for years. Who the F do you think you were for doing that? Moreno invited spectators who had been smeared as racists for saying, Wuhan virus or China virus, who knew the six-foot rule was junk science, who refused the vaccine and got fired, who watched their kids' education collapse under school closures to stand up. Several did, including Fox News host Laura Ingraham. The room got the message loud and clear. The people who suffered under these policies are done being gaslit. Republicans spent hours pressing Fauci on the lab leak theory he once dismissed as a conspiracy, on whether documents related to the government's response were destroyed, and on whether other treatments could have saved lives. Fauci stonewalled every time. Democrats of course claimed the entire hearing was an attempt to entrap him and rewrite history.
Rewrite history? The history is already written in the excess debts, the learning loss, the ruined small businesses, and the trust that was shattered. Biden's pardon was an attempt to protect the permanent bureaucracy.
Yesterday's performance showed that protection may not be as ironclad as they hoped.
America wants voter ID Democrats still say no.
New numbers from CNN's own data dork, Harry Enton, should end the debate once and for all. 90% of American voters say they can provide proof of citizenship very easily on election day.
Voter ID itself is supported by 95% of Republicans, 77% of independents, and even 62% of Democrats. Overall, a solid majority of the country wants it. The SAVE Act, which requires documentation of US citizenship when someone registers to vote, still commands 54% support, a clear majority. Enton put it bluntly, when it comes to voter ID, the voters are with President Trump on this one. And yet Senate Democrats continue to bottle up the SAVE Act after the House passed it earlier this year.
They still call it Jim Crow 2 and claim it will disenfranchise women and minority voters, even though the polling shows 9 out of 10 Americans say showing ID is no problem at all. Even some Republican senators refuse to vote for the SAVE Act. The mainstream media keeps repeating the same talking points while the data screams the opposite. This isn't complicated. Secure elections require knowing that only citizens are voting and that the people at the ballot box are who they claim to be.
Every other important transaction in American life— flying, buying alcohol, cashing a check— requires identification. Only Democrats and their media allies pretend that basic safeguard is somehow racist. The numbers are in, and even CNN admits it. The people are with Trump and with common sense.