What' Fauci's personal diary reveals about relationship with Pence
What' Fauci's personal diary reveals about relationship with Pence
Lucy Tobier, Indianapolis StarWed, July 29, 2026 at 4:08 PM UTC
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Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, former National Institutes of Health leader Dr. Anthony Fauci reached a breaking point in a meeting. Medical providers were having trouble accessing protective equipment, but the Coronavirus Task Force kept insisting the supplies were there.
"I essentially said that this is bullshit and we need to communicate to them how they can actually get the material," he wrote on March 27 in a diary entry. "I asked, is it our job to just check our own boxes or are we trying to actually get the job done in real life."
During the meeting, Fauci had an unlikely ally, who supported his order: former Vice President Mike Pence.
"Good for him," Fauci wrote about Pence listening to him during the meeting. The diary entry is one of more than 200 mentions of Pence, detailing a years-long friendship between the two.
The diary, over 1,000 pages of daily summaries and media clips, was released by Sen. Rand Paul, R-KY, on July 25 as part of his ongoing research effort into "the origins of COVID-19 and risky taxpayer-funded life sciences research." Paul also released diaries from 2001 to 2015 in which he alleges that Fauci documents "his role in creating the federal biodefense complex." The senator has not indicated how he obtained the documents. Paul chairs the Senate's primary oversight committee, the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
More: Anthony Fauci faces Republican grilling on COVID-19
Paul subpoenaed Fauci, who testified before the committee on July 29 but refused to answer Paul's and other senators' questions, instead citing his rights under the Constitution's Fifth Amendment. Paul said it was illegal to obstruct the committee's investigation, and that there would be repercussions for Fauci.
Fauci, who led the NIH for 38 years, has faced criticism from Senate Republicans over his leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic, including accusations that he covered up the virus' origin. During the pandemic, President Donald Trump attacked and contradicted Fauci and his advice and case and testing data.
More: Anthony Fauci pleads Fifth, refuses to answer questions about COVID-19
David Schertler, Fauci's legal counsel, said Paul's "public crusade," including a book and over 600 tweets, against Fauci began five years ago when Paul accused Fauci of being responsible for the deaths of millions of people in a Senate hearing and was lying to cover it up. Fauci responded by saying if anyone was lying, it was the senator.
"It appears that Dr. Fauci’s response triggered in Senator Paul an intense and seemingly pathological course of retribution, revenge, and obsession with Dr. Fauci," Schertler said in a statement on July 29. "Just this week, Senator Paul publicly released Dr. Fauci’s unredacted personal diary that discusses many issues completely unrelated to the matters at hand for the purpose of distorting Dr. Fauci’s words and trying to embarrass or intimidate him."
Pence did not respond to requests for comment made through his organization, Advancing American Freedom.
In his 2022 memoir, "So Help Me God," Pence wrote that he was glad Fauci was on the task force and they worked well together. He also wrote that he still didn't understand why Fauci resisted the idea that the virus originated from a lab.
`No regrets' Pence memoir describes his unlikely partnership with Trump that fractured on Jan. 6
The typed diary contains Fauci's reflections after meetings, interviews and phone calls. It begins with a list of Paul's takeaways – written in a pink cursive font with hearts dotting an "i" – including that Fauci "gloried in the positive attention" and "demonized those who questioned the official narrative." He also wrote that Fauci understated the possibility that the virus originated from a lab leak, rather than from an animal.
Unity in the Task Force in a divisive time
Fauci and Pence began meeting and calling one another regularly after Trump asked Pence to oversee the COVID-19 response effort. Throughout lockdown and vaccine rollout, Fauci wrote about his frustration with the White House's statements that it was in a good place with cases. Fauci frequently has referred to himself as "the skunk at the picnic."
The vice president's office told the White House Coronavirus Task Force to temporarily "stand down" on media appearances, according to Fauci's notes from Feb. 27, 2020.
"This got interpreted that Fauci was being muzzled and triggered an amazing twitter storm that was widely and virallytweated (sic) to not suppress the 'great Fauci,'" he wrote. "I was getting hundreds and hundreds of emails of support."
Later that year, Fauci continued to write that White House officials blocked him from television interviews and berated him over his public comments. Trump was among those who yelled at him, Fauci wrote.
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On June 29, 2020, Fauci wrote that he expressed to Pence he needed to appear on TV to give the "risk reduction message." A few days later, on July 1, he wrote that his relationship with Pence was getting stronger while media speculated a schism between Trump and Pence over Fauci.
"[Pence] did promise that he would get me out there on TV since he really liked my message. First time anyone ever spoke that way to VP," Fauci wrote on June 29. "He truly likes me a lot (and vice versa). Now we have to get the POTUS press people to agree. Interesting intrigue in the White House. POTUS people versus VP people."
On July 10, Pence asked Fauci to speak privately, according to the diary. He told Fauci how much respect he had for him and asked for advice on the White House's approach.
Fauci wrote that he told Pence that he'd be coldly honest with him. He said starting press conferences saying the country was in a good place while caseloads and deaths remained high meant Pence would lose credibility. Instead, Fauci advised him to start by saying there was a big problem and that the White House was addressing it.
Pence agreed with him, Fauci wrote, and "was clearly grateful" for his honesty. After that, the pair proceeded to recreate a photo of Fauci and former Vice President Dick Cheney during the 2001 anthrax attacks.
In multiple other task force meetings and phone calls, Pence backed Fauci's calls for more stringent measures and action. On March 28, Pence helped Fauci keep Trump "on track" during "a disturbingly rambling discussion." Even publicly, Pence was a bridge between Fauci and Trump.
"At the awkward task force briefings that dominated afternoon television in March and April, the three roles of the three men played out as theater: Fauci the doomsayer, Trump the misinformed optimist, and Pence the child of a troubled marriage trying to smooth things over during mom and dad’s public fights," wrote Ryan Lizza and Renuka Rayasam in a June 2020 POLITICO article pasted in Fauci's diary.
Jan. 6 and the goodness Fauci recognized in Pence
After their time working together ended, Fauci continued to write about his respect for Pence. Shortly after Joe Biden won the 2020 election, Fauci received a call from Pence about "how much he respected me as a scientist and as a person." However, as Trump ramped up his efforts to delegitimize the election outcome, Fauci's criticism of the Trump Administration included Pence.
"The GOP leaders are remaining silent with very few exceptions," Fauci wrote on November 20. "They are all afraid that TRUMP will target them either as a private citizen or if he runs in 2024. Shameful cowards!! I am so disappointed in Pence whom I really like."
When Pence refused to reject Electoral College votes, Fauci wrote that his admiration for Pence returned, even comparing himself to Pence as public figures. On January 10, 2021, he wrote:
"Poor Pence. He had been so loyal, but I am pleased to see that the goodness that I recognized in him is coming out, albeit a bit late in the game. The crazies in the Trump following are calling for the execution of Pence, similar to Crazy Steve Bannon calling for my beheading."
Before Biden took office, Fauci described a "farewell conversation" with Pence, who had gone from the distrusted opposition to an ally over the course of a year. Pence told him the Coronavirus Task Force would not have been able to accomplish what it did without Fauci, according to the diary.
"I told him how important it was for his legacy that he acted with such dignity and resolve over the last days when he refused to go along with Trump’s attempt to get him to overthrow the election results," Fauci wrote. "WE parted by saying we will always be there for each other."
Did Fauci glory in his attention?
Early on in the pandemic, Fauci notes, and reacts with some shock to, receiving praise. On March 4, 2020, he wrote how fun it was to join Pence in his motorcade "driving at 50 miles/hour down usually crowded streets that are now all blocked off." On March 10, 2020, he wrote that "for better or worse, I am becoming an international celebrity."
But Fauci had a complicated relationship with his new role and wrote that he did not like mass attention. In 2022, he described a red carpet event at the Kennedy Center as "weird and a little bit unnerving" and said he was embarrassed by the honors and praise he received. Earlier on, after multiple media profiles of Fauci appeared, he tried to reassure Trump that he had no intention of outshining the president.
"The profiles always pit me (the good guy) against the POTUS (the bad guy)," he wrote on May 23, 2020. He also wrote that he talked to Pence's chief of staff, Marc Short, about it, saying, "I have no desire to conflict with, embarrass or show up the POTUS."
Included in the diary are brief mentions of Fauci's popular support during the pandemic, including mention of a beer named after him in Georgia (the "Fauci Spring"), a song dedicated to him and an SNL skit. Pence seemed to echo his public support. On May 13, 2020, Pence told Fauci he was the "most visible and trusted asset in the country." Katie Miller, Pence's press secretary, called Fauci after he described Trump screaming at him on the phone.
"Both of them (POTUS and VP) asked Katie to tell me that they both loved me and are sorry about what happened," Fauci wrote on June 3, 2020.
Lucy Tobier is the politics reporting intern for the Indianapolis Star. She can be reached at lucy.tobier@indystar.com or on X at @TobierLucy.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: What' Fauci's personal diary reveals about relationship with Pence
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