Today's Poll Question: On balance, did Dr. Anthony Fauci do more good or more harm?

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Get ready to vote on today's daily poll question at smerconish.com.

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But first, Michael explains it for you right here.

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Welcome to The Smerconish Podcast from SiriusXM.

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For Independent Minds.

**Michael Smerconish** (0:14)
Hello, hello, hi gang. Today is Wednesday, it's the 29th of July, and I come bearing a Muse bouche. I'm not going to do this every day, but I just put to bed my note for this morning's daily newsletter. What the hell? I may as well share it with you. I say this, and it relates to today's poll question. I did the Washington read of The Fauci Diaries, the Capitol's oldest ritual. Open a big book, search for your own name. I'm there twice in his daily press logs, February 19, 2020, SiriusXM radio, Michael Smerconish, and then February 22, 2020, CNN with Michael Smerconish. No editorial comment attached, innocuous. But interestingly, those dates sit inside the most contested stretch of the 1,100 pages that Rand Paul released on Monday because on January 26, 2020, so just a week, you know, two weeks before the interviews that I did with him, Fauci had privately written that the market was not the source. It was the amplifier. The market? Yeah, I'm not talking stock market. I'm talking about the wet market in Wuhan. His notes from a February 1 call record that most scientists on the line thought, quote, deliberate insertion was possible. And then three weeks later, he sits with me and said none of it. Origins came up only as geography. The virus unquestionably came from Wuhan.
What he did tell me, transparency is absolutely critical. Whenever you have information that's being held back, there are always negative consequences. He was talking about China. And to his credit, he told me the virus had, quote, the makings of a pandemic. That was three days before the CDC sounded its public alarm. So today he's back before Congress under subpoena, facing a committee chaired by Rand Paul. His Biden pardon, no shield against any perjury that might come from his lips. The hearing is going to be theater. The real question is the one that my own tape frames. When he kept his private doubts private, was that a scientist declining to spread unsettled speculation or information control?
That is the note in the newsletter. That's the sort of thing that you get from me, a daily missive, if you register for the newsletter. Go to smerconish.com and do exactly that. Yesterday, 30,777 cast ballots.
How much longer will the war with Iran last? Their choices were days or weeks, months or years.
54.26% said months. Admiral Stavridis, who was a guest on yesterday's program, said he thought that was the correct answer. 43.57% said years. Only 2.17% said days or weeks. And I guess you're correct because last night, things flamed up yet again at the hearing. I was thinking of Fauci in the Middle East.

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The Smerconish Podcast from SiriusXM.

**Michael Smerconish** (3:20)
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The Daily Poll Question at smerconish.com.

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A non-scientific social political question designed to spark broader discussions about current issues.