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Al’s Afternoon Tea: Fauci Speaks, Hunter Faces the Music (and Three Exes), Plus a Question on Trump’s Character

"Hi. I lied about the lab leak, wrecked the lives of millions of children, destroyed those who questioned me. But I did make millions in Big Pharma royalties, get my own bobble-head doll and have liberals litter their lawn with signs expressing their love for me."

By Al Perrotta Published on June 3, 2024 •

Al Perrotta

Welcome back in for Al’s Afternoon Tea. Things are so hectic right now, I’d need octopus arms to type it all up.

Fauci Unmasked Today

Dr. Anthony Fauci appeared before the House Oversight Committee earlier today to perhaps finally start answering for the hell he helped put our nation through regarding COVID-19. Naturally, he denied any wrongdoing. Inexplicably, Democrats covered for him, while managing to slip in that former President Donald Trump is now a “convicted felon” whenever possible.

Fauci is also answering for his lies about funding “gain-of-function” research through the National Institutes of Health. There is new email evidence showing that not only did his team suspect the COVID virus came from the very lab in Wuhan, China, that he was funding, but that Fauci and his team went out of their way to hide (and destroy) information that countered their public statements.

But Fauci — his trademark arrogance in full display — is sticking with his story: “The NIH did not fund gain-of-function research at the Wuhan lab.” He also claims he never tried to stop discussion of the Wuhan Lab Leak Theory. (I wonder if those whoppers come with cheese.)

In closed-door testimony from January released days before his testimony today, Fauci admitted that the rules requiring people to stay six feet apart and putting masks on children, allegedly to protect them from the virus, weren’t actually based on science. (But I thought Fauci was science. That’s what he told us, after all!)

He also played dumb with the committee, answering with some form of “I don’t recall” more than 100 times to fundamental, pertinent questions. (“Is your name Anthony Fauci?” “I don’t recall.”)

We’ll have more if necessary on The Brew tomorrow, but here’s a quick thought on the committee Democrats who showered Fauci with praise today: Weren’t the lives of the kids in your district wrecked by his non-science dictates? Aren’t people in your district dropping dead from the side effects of the vaccines he forced on the public while pocketing millions from Big Pharma? Didn’t you lose people in your district who were denied simple treatments for COVID because this man went to war against treatments that didn’t make millions of dollars for his Big Pharma pals? 

Is it all really only about politics and power? 

Hunter Biden’s Gun Trial Begins

The U.S. Department of Justice tried to let Hunter get away with it, but a sharp-eyed judge said, “Nay-nay,” and now his trial is underway. The First Son is in Delaware today, where he is facing three felony charges of illegally purchasing a gun by lying about his continued drug use. Hallie Biden (who is both Hunter’s sister-in-law and ex-lover) will be a key witness in the case. So will his ex-wife, Kathleen, and his baby mama, Lunden Roberts — a stripper from Arkansas who, incidentally, announced last week that she’ll be releasing a tell-all memoir on the day of the Democratic National Convention in August. This saga will make Stormy Daniels’s testimony look like an episode of Teletubbies. 

When Hallie’s under oath, wouldn’t it be nice to ask her what Joe Biden had to say when he ditched the media last weekend to pay her a surprise visit?

It’ll also be interesting to see just how the media twists the trial into an ode to how much Joe Biden loves his son. Not about this particular crime, nor Hunter’s history of criminal behavior. There won’t be a word about the sordid and sick dynamics in the Biden family. For example, Axios, in its preview of the case, shared how Biden aides are stressing how “emotionally painful and distracting” the trial will be for the president, and how Biden “clings” to Hunter despite his issues because he’s now the only survivor of the car crash that killed his first wife and young daughter.  

Incidentally, the president remained in Delaware last night with Hunter rather than return to the White House.

75-Year-Old Grandma in Poor Health Gets Two Years in Prison for Pro-Life Protest

Speaking at a press conference Friday, a day after being found guilty of “altering business records” in a New York courtroom, former President Donald Trump said, “If they can do this to me, they can do it to you.” “They” already are doing it. On Friday, a radical U.S. District Court judge in Washington sentenced an elderly woman named Paulette Harlow to 24 months in prison for participating in a pro-life protest at a notorious abortion clinic in D.C. in 2020.

It was a peaceful protest, though more intense than your typical prayer at an abortion mill. Harlow and fellow pro-life activists blockaded the Washington Surgi-Clinic, chaining themselves together, and spent 90 minutes praying the rosary and singing hymns because five children who died there showed signs of being the victims of illegal partial-birth abortions –and one child was born alive before being murdered. However, the protestors wrecked nothing, destroyed nothing, and did nothing violent. 

Did any of the domestic terrorists who burned buildings and churches, injured dozens of Secret Service and Park Service officers, and tried breaching the White House in 2020 get sentenced to 24 months? Did they even get charged with crimes?

Anti-Israel Protesters Take Over Israeli Consulate in San Francisco 

Breaking news out of California: A hundred or so anti-Israel, pro-genocidal protesters have “violently” taken over the Israeli consulate in San Francisco.

 

A consulate spokesman said (as of 3 p.m. Eastern time) that no consulate workers have been physically hurt. 

We pray no one in the consulate is injured in this takeover. 

U.S. Approves Ukraine Using Our Missiles to Hit Inside Russia While Air Force Hosts Drag Queens

Joe Biden secretly reversed course recently and is now allowing Ukraine to fire U.S.-supplied missiles into Russia. They’re supposed to limit them to the Kharkiv region near the border and attack only positions about to strike at Ukraine. Still … weapons with our name on them blowing up Russians in Russia? What could possibly go wrong there?

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Meanwhile, what’s our Air Force up to? Apparently, hosting drag queens, according to documents Judicial Watch and Catholic Vote have wrestled from the U.S. Department of Defense. They got hold of 25 pages of documents through a FOIA request detailing “drag shows, drag story hours and other pride events for military personnel and their dependent minors organized and paid for by the U.S. Air Force.” Off we go, into the wild rainbow yonder … 

Eating Their Own: Pro-Palestinian Protesters Disrupt Pride Parade in Philadelphia

The Philly Pride Parade was blocked Sunday by anti-Israel protesters, and the two sides clashed. The Gays for Palestine folks must have had a very conflicted day.

On the plus side, the confrontation did inspire the best line of the weekend.

Or was it the second best line?

Verdict Talk

Joe Biden must feel like the political gods are kicking  sand in his face. A judge whose family is in the pay of the Democratic Party helped move Biden one step closer to his stated goal of keeping Donald Trump out of the Oval Office again by any “constitutional” means necessary. Biden got the “convicted felon” he wanted for Trump as campaign season continues. With that, his collapsing political fortunes were supposed to turn for the better; Trump was supposed to be finished. Wasn’t that the plan?

But what happened instead? Fifteen thousand UFC fans at an arena in blue New Jersey, in even bluer Newark, stood to cheer Trump’s arrival over the weekend. That’s what happened.

The crowd then offered a chant that was not “Let’s Go Brandon,” if you catch my drift.

Biden’s poll numbers aren’t much better. With his whole campaign dependent on Trump being labeled a “convicted felon,” a Morning Consult poll suggests Biden got only slight bump with news of Trump’s conviction. He’s at 45%-44%, a gain of 3 points. (Suspiciously, we didn’t see a rush of post-verdict polls from the major media outlets. Will they show up today or did the media not like what they were finding?) 

The bad news for Biden? An Emerson poll conducted right before the verdict shows Trump is now within seven points of Biden in New York, which is as blue as it gets.

But surely Biden’s political rival must be quaking over the possibility of going to prison. Actually, Trump told Fox & Friends Weekend Sunday that he’s “okay with it.”

A Question of Character

Which gets to a question I hope we can nibble on as we sit around with our Afternoon Tea: the question of Trump’s character. For years, this has been why Christians hae not supported him. That brutishness, those mean tweets. The affairs. The boastfulness. You know the list. You’ve heard the line, and perhaps you yourself have said it: “I like his policies. But I don’t like his character.”

And yeah, at times, Trump seems to go out of his way to reinforce the “bad character” image, to the consternation of his supporters. As one advisor once said, “I love the guy, but sometimes I want to strangle him.”

However, watching Trump lately, I’m wondering if he is now demonstrating character of a different sort. Character that can (gasp!) actually be admired?

For example, perseverance. How in the world is he still standing after what’s been thrown at him, let alone be chill about it? He’s talking about the possibility of prison in the same tone he’d be talking about redoing the bunkers and greens at his Dural golf course. His “success will be my revenge” line shows a grace that many thought him incapable of. And somehow, he has retained his sense of humor.

Has your assessment of Trump’s character changed or evolved as he’s gone through these trials? Have any of your family or friends changed their minds? We’d love to hear your thoughts at contactus@stream.flywheelstaging.com.

In a related vein, The Stream has just posted Pastor Shane Idleman’s rumination, “Can Christians Still Support Donald Trump After His Guilty Verdict”?

On the Stream Menu

Tomorrow marks the 35th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre in China. We are blessed beyond measure to have Stream contributor Chenyuan Snider recount “The Democracy Movement I Knew in 1989.”  She took part in the democratic protests that shook China, and shares her powerful story in two parts over the next couple of days, so check back in for both. “I thought if courage still existed in China, one day it would become a free country.”

John Zmirak’s latest also is up: “The Supreme Court Rules 9-0: No Second Amendment, No First.” 

 

Al Perrotta is The Stream’s Washington bureau chief, coauthor with John Zmirak of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Immigration, and coauthor of the counterterrorism memoir Hostile Intent: Protecting Yourself Against Terrorism.

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