The Patriot Post® · Thursday Short Cuts

Spin Doctor
“Given Senator [Rand] Paul’s obvious obsession with calling for my prosecution, his repeated slanderous comments about me, and, recently, his publicly releasing my unredacted personal diary aimed at embarrassing and intimidating me, the only conclusion I can reach is that the sole reason he is calling me before this committee is to get me to say something — anything — that could vindicate his repeated public pledges that I end up, in his words, ‘behind bars.’ Any reasonable person who has followed his unhinged obsession with me would readily come to the same conclusion.” —former NIAID Director Anthony Fauci

“Therefore, although it pains me to do so, because of the respect I have for the legislative branch of government and my decades-long record of cooperating with Congress, under the advice of my attorneys, I will invoke my right under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution to refrain from answering your questions.” —Anthony Fauci

For the Record
“Anthony Fauci believed himself to be ‘the most famous and talked about person in the country,’ and he may well have been right. Had he been a singer or an athlete, this would not have been a problem. But he wasn’t: He was a prominent bureaucrat, with a great deal of influence over our lives.” —Charles C.W. Cooke

“[Fauci’s] enduring offense will have been helping to shatter public trust in institutions and genuine expertise. The void he left is already being filled by the ravings of quacks, cranks, and conspiracists. These are the people millions of people will turn to next time we have a public health emergency. That’s Fauci’s legacy.” —David Harsanyi

Theater of the Absurd
“I don’t even see MAGA hats anymore, which makes me afraid that they’re just focused on trying to undermine the election.” —Maryland Congressman Jamie Raskin

The BIG Lie
“The purpose is cruelty and … to send this message that we don’t like immigrants and we don’t want anybody here. … Instead of going after the worst of the worst, in many cases, they’ve gone after the best of the best.” —Texas Congressman Joaquin Castro

Race Bait
“[ICE] was used to target black and brown communities… It’s never made our community safer.” —New Jersey congressional candidate Adam Hamawy

Non Compos Mentis
“I would never have voted for the resolution that praised Charlie Kirk as a vessel of biblical truth.” —Connecticut congressional candidate Luke Bronin

“I too disagree with … the Charlie Kirk honoring.” —Connecticut congressional candidate Jillian Gilchrest

“Honor[ing] Charlie Kirk, I think that was absolutely deplorable.” —Connecticut congressional candidate Ruth Fortune

Collectivist Babble
“Trickle-down economics is not a theory; it is theft. They have been stealing the wealth that we all created. It’s why everything sucks right now. It’s why people are so angry.” —Texas Senate candidate James Talarico

“Medical debt shouldn’t exist, and I think it is high past time for us to abolish all of it and finally buy people out of it by guaranteeing that promise that is yet unmet in this country of healthcare for everybody through Medicare for All.” —Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed

“Medicare for All is one of the most important things that Democrats need to do when we’re in power.” —Florida Congressman Maxwell Frost

Re: The Left
“In the parade of horribles that happened in China’s Cultural Revolution, directed by the mass murderer Mao Zedong, the communist Chinese specifically targeted property owners. At the top of the list were the wealthy and landlords. They were demonized, forced to wear dunce hats and paraded in front of mobs. The estimates are that one million landlords were murdered in Communist China during those years. We’re not there yet in Mamdani’s New York. But what he, the DSA and large swaths of the American Left are doing will inevitably result in people being murdered.” —Gary Bauer

“My simple message to the young people out there who think Marxism is cool: it ain’t, because free does not equal freedom. And the inability to think and reason for yourself is intellectual enslavement.” —Allen West