There is no excuse for Anthony Fauci’s arrogant incompetence or the news media’s corrupt decision to serve as his personal public relations agent. On the other hand, maybe it’s time for Americans to stop expecting excuses, explanations or apologies from our contemptuous elites – and time for us to move on without them.

This week, testifying on Capitol Hill, President Biden’s chief medical adviser melted down in front of the cameras.

Republican Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul asked Dr. Fauci what he knew about the coronavirus experiments conducted by Chinese scientists at an unsecure lab in Wuhan, the city where COVID-19 first emerged. He asked about recently discovered emails showing Fauci and his colleagues in federal public health agencies orchestrating a smear campaign against scientists who published evidence of the “lab leak” theory. Paul asked Fauci about his mistakes since the pandemic began – on masks, shutdowns, school closures, vaccines and the good doctor’s insistence that he “represents science” and therefore should not be questioned.

Republican Kansas Sen. Roger Marshall focused his questions on Fauci’s personal finances. Fauci is the highest paid employee in the federal government and has wielded immense power over Americans’ lives for two years. Yet his financial holdings – all potential conflicts of interest – are being hidden from public scrutiny by the National Institutes of Health.

The petulant Fauci attacked Paul. He accused Paul of lying and playing politics. He called Marshall names. What he didn’t do, though, was answer the questions. Fauci never explained why public health leaders wanted to “put down” the lab-leak theory. He never explained his connection to the Wuhan lab. He lied about his financial disclosure reports being public information.

Anthony Fauci has not just failed in his job to protect the American people from the pandemic. Evidence is mounting that he knew more about its origins and dangers than he ever admitted. Every day, it looks more and more like Fauci has spent the last two years not helping the federal government fight this virus, but covering up his own culpability for its spread.

This should be the biggest story of the Covid era. But perhaps the only institution that has failed the American people more than our public health “experts” in this pandemic is the news media. For two years, the press has lionized Fauci as a pure and heroic scientist unsullied by politics and dishonesty. But it’s nonsense.

Fauci himself has admitted that he changes his advice according to public opinion polls! He admitted he lied about masks early in the pandemic. And documents show he lied about his connection to the Wuhan research. To reporters – all political, all biased – Fauci was never a public official to be held accountable, but a cudgel to beat President Donald Trump with.

Remember, Trump suspected Chinese scientists all along. He wanted to protect our borders from the foreign virus. He has supported reopening schools and making masks optional. He supported the use of promising COVID treatments. All of these positions have been proven right by the evidence. But every one was mocked, attacked and demonized by Fauci and his cheerleaders in America’s newsrooms.

We will never know how many of the 800,000 Americans who have died from Covid-19 would have lived had the news media done its job and told the truth. But like Fauci, they cared more about beating Trump than beating COVID. Just like they care more about pushing trans lunacy than the safety of school children or fairness to female athletes. Just like they care more about the narrative of the Jan. 6 “insurrection” than in finding out what really happened that day. Just like they care more about protecting left-wing celebrities and politicians than finding out who was involved in Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell’s sex trafficking ring.

The elite’s failure is not due to dereliction, but contempt. They hate the American people, our values, our patriotism and religion. Most of all, they hate that the Constitution gives us power over them, instead of the other way around. Fauci goes to Congress and sneers at the people’s representatives. The media covers up his mistakes because they are as much a part of our corrupt ruling class as the politicians and bureaucrats.

It is a disgrace – but also an opportunity. Thankfully, despite the best efforts of Big Government, Big Media and Big Tech, Americans have alternative sources of news. We have a Freedom of Information Act to expose government lies. We have leaders like Sens. Paul and Marshall, and like U.S. Reps. James Comer and Jim Jordan, who just released emails implicating Fauci and his colleagues in the massive, international cover-up of the Wuhan lab leak.

And the truth is finally getting out there. Across the country, parents are fighting back against politicized Covid rules and anti-American Critical Race Theory in our schools – and the pundits who lie about them. President Biden’s approval ratings just hit an all-time low – heading into what looks like an historic wave election.

As bad as things look, 2022 may be the year the American people throw off the yoke of corrupt elites who hate us, take back our country from them, and start to make America great again ourselves.

Jim DeMint is a former U.S. Senator from South Carolina. You can follow him on twitter @JimDeMint