While publicly urging Americans to avoid family gatherings and maintain “social distance,” Dr. Anthony Fauci was also busy behind the scenes cultivating a chummy friendship with CNN anchor Jake Tapper. Fauci’s meetings and family dinners with the longtime CNN personality were revealed in a series of diary entries made public on Saturday by Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), who uncovered them during his lengthy and thorough investigation into Fauci and the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic. The former White House chief medical adviser thoroughly documented his actions throughout the pandemic — with a heavy focus on his own media appearances and coverage, particularly when it was overly flattering — and referenced an interview with Tapper that took place on April 13, 2020. During that interview, Fauci conceded that Tapper had asked tough — but reasonable — questions, and then had called him directly afterward to make sure that the interview had not caused him “any problems.” “Potential big problem (we shall see). NY Times reporting on an answer to a question that I gave on CNN yesterday (see above). Jake Tapper asked me if we had closed down earlier, whould (sic) that have saved lives. I said it is complicated; he persisted and I said obviously, if you close earlier there would have been lives saved, but the decision was complicated,” Fauci wrote. “I could have answered the question better and with more clarity, but the Times is now saying that I was implying that the POTUS was to blame for additional deaths according to me. The far right is tweeting to fire me. The POTUS even re-tweeted the tweet that said to fire me. We shall see how the day goes …” Fauci said that he later met with President Donald Trump, who said that he did not have an issue and business continued as usual. Of the press briefing that followed, he said, “I went out and explained that I was being hoest (sic) in my answer to Jake, but that I was not implying that anyone was responsible for more deaths … Phone call with Jake Tapper. Jake wanted to make sure the interview did not cause me any problems.” Later that month, Tapper spoke with Fauci about an interview he’d done with Coronavirus coordinator Deborah Birx. Of that exchange, Fauci wrote, “I was not on Sunday shows. Deb was on CNN with Jake Tapper and did not answer the question of whether it was a mistake for the POTUS to talk about injecting or swallowing bleach. Jake wrote me a text afterwards and said: “Birx has lost her way I fear. She has chosen to focus on defending the president and attacking the press. Odd.” On May 4, 2020, Fauci referenced a CNN interview in which Tapper had been hard on the Trump administration’s “inadequate” response to the pandemic — but had spared him the ire reserved for the president: “Jake Tapper did a segment last night on the inadequate response of the Trump administration to the pandemic. I came out relatively well.” Later that month, when Katie Miller, a spokesperson for Vice President Mike Pence, tested positive, and Fauci was directly exposed to SARS-CoV-2, he got a call from Tapper making sure that he was all right. “Jake Tapper called me and asked whether I was going inot (sic) quarantine. I explained to Jake that I would do a “modified quarantine” since I was a low risk exposure to Kstie (sic). Thid merans (sic) that I will get tested every day, would wear a mask ontinually (sic), and would spend most of my time either alone in my home office or alone in my NIH office and would go to White House or Congress with precautions of universal mask wearing and phycial (sic) distancing. I tested negative yesterday and will get tested every day for 14 days and then 1 time per week,” he wrote, adding in a subsequent entry that Marc Short was not taking enough precautions. “Marc Short (whom I resally (sic) like) practically sits on Katie’s lap and he is vey (sic) close to the VP. Yet he is not even wearing a mask. He actually should be self-quarantining. He was at a much greater risk than I.” On July 1, Fauci mentioned a dinner with Tapper and his wife: “Had dinner over Jake Tapper and Jen Tapper’s home in DC. Terrific couple. Friendship building.” By late July, Fauci was feeding questions to Tapper ahead of interviews with other officials: “Brett Giroir on Tapper (State of the Union) talking bullsh*t about testing with Jake pressing him. I gave Jake some questions to ask him.” And Tapper was calling Fauci to complain about President Trump: “Jake Tapper woke me up at 11:23 AM (I went to bed early) furius (sic) at POTUS for tweeting about the fact that Jake severly (sic) questioned Brett Giroir on SOTU CNN show today. Jake was really pissed at the craziness of it all.” In later entries — into the fall of 2020, as Americans were preparing to host holiday dinners via Zoom — Fauci mentioned another dinner at the Tapper home: “Had dinner at my home with Jake and Jennifer Tapper. Relaxed, good time. Jake clearly believes that Trump is totally nuts.” Tapper texts Fauci to attack Laura Ingraham and defend the integrity of Dartmouth pic.twitter.com/pLW5c1zuja — Emily Jashinsky (@emilyjashinsky) July 26, 2026 In a later exchange, after Fauci appeared on Fox News with host Laura Ingraham, Tapper texted to mock Ingraham, saying it was a shock that she’d graduated from Dartmouth.