Comer accuses Becerra of withholding Fauci’s COVID-era diary from Congress
House Oversight chair says former HHS secretary failed to produce records requested in November 2023
AI-assisted coverage comparison, editor-supervised · How this was made
AP Photo/Susan Walsh
Photograph: Hot Air (embedded from source)
What this story says
- House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer accused former HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra of withholding Dr. Anthony Fauci’s COVID-era diary and cellphone from Congress.
- The diary, spanning over 1,000 pages, includes entries where Fauci discussed his influence over school closures, contradicting his earlier testimony.
- Becerra, now a candidate for California governor, has until 2 September 2026 to respond to Comer’s letter.
- The diary was later turned over to Senators Rand Paul and Ron Johnson by current HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr.
Who covered it
Percentages are shares of the 6 outlets carrying a published leaning rating. Coverage measured .
Trust
40/100
Craft
55/100
Hype
65/100
6 sources · methodology
Thin on the left so far
None of the 6 outlets with a published leaning rating that ran this story are rated left.
This story is still being watched, so it is a count and not yet a finding. Coverage keeps arriving for hours after an event, and a side that has published nothing this morning may publish by tonight. If it is still true when we stop checking, we will say so plainly.
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer has accused former Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra of withholding records from Congress. In a letter sent on 19 August 2026, Comer cited a November 2023 request by House Republicans for documents containing the terms “COVID-19,” “gain-of-function,” and “Wuhan.” The records in question include a diary kept by Dr. Anthony Fauci during the pandemic and his government-issued cellphone.
The diary, which spans over 1,000 pages, was turned over earlier in 2026 to Senators Rand Paul and Ron Johnson by current HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. It includes entries in which Fauci discussed his influence over school closures, a role he denied under oath during a June 2024 congressional hearing. Comer’s letter asks Becerra whether he knew the diary existed, why it was not produced in response to the 2023 request, and whether any Biden administration officials pressured him to withhold it. Becerra has until 2 September 2026 to respond.
What the coverage left out
No left- or centre-rated outlet ran this story. None of the right-rated reports mentioned that the diary was turned over to Congress earlier in 2026 by current HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr., as verified by the standards desk.
Still developing. We have re-checked which outlets are covering this 4 times, most recently on 19 Aug 2026, 23:00, and will add the sides that appear.
How each side covered it
Our own reading of the reporting listed below, written from the outlets’ articles rather than quoted from them. The reasoning is set out on our methodology page.
Left
0 rated outlets
No outlet rated left has run this story so far. We are still checking, and will say plainly if that does not change.
Centre
0 rated outlets
No outlet rated centre has run this story so far. We are still checking, and will say plainly if that does not change.
Right
6 rated outlets
- All six right-rated reports led on the accusation that Becerra withheld Fauci’s diary and cellphone from Congress. The California Globe and Hot Air, whose full reports are printed below, both quoted Comer’s letter verbatim: Becerra either “intentionally withheld the materials or failed to conduct an adequate search.” The California Globe added that the diary includes entries where Fauci “discussed his influence over school closures, something he previously denied under oath.”
- The California Globe described Becerra as “currently running for California Governor” and included a tweet from Fox News Politics that repeated the accusation. Hot Air framed Becerra as “the second-most brain-dead person at the cabinet table” during the Biden administration and suggested he may have been “told to” engage in a cover-up. Both outlets quoted Fauci’s 2024 testimony that the CDC, not he, was responsible for school closure guidelines, contrasting it with the diary’s contents.
- The digests from ussanews.com, Bizpac Review, Democratic Accent, and Fox News all carried the same core facts: the November 2023 request, the 1,000-page diary, the deadline of 2 September 2026, and the accusation that Becerra withheld the records. None of the digests mentioned the diary’s contents on school closures or Fauci’s prior testimony.
Read it at the source
6 outlets, grouped by the leaning a published rating gives them. Every headline links to the original; an underlined outlet name opens our profile of that publisher.
Left
0No outlet in this group ran the story.
Centre
0No outlet in this group ran the story.
Right
6- Xavier Becerra’s Chickens Coming Home to Roost: Accused of Hiding Fauci’s COVID-era Diary and Cellphone (opens ussanews.com in a new tab)
ussanews.com — is ussanews.com biased? Our profile of this outlet
- Xavier Becerra’s Chickens Coming Home to Roost: Accused of Hiding Fauci’s COVID-era Diary and Cellphone (opens California Globe in a new tab)
California Globe — is California Globe biased? Our profile of this outlet
- Fauci diary scandal widens — and now a California governor candidate is caught in the middle (opens Bizpac Review in a new tab)
Bizpac Review — is Bizpac Review biased? Our profile of this outlet
- Fauci scandal grows as top House committee accuses Biden Cabinet official of hiding COVID diary – Democratic Accent (opens democraticaccent.com in a new tab)
democraticaccent.com — is democraticaccent.com biased? Our profile of this outlet
- Fauci scandal grows as top House committee accuses Biden Cabinet official of hiding COVID diary (opens Fox News in a new tab)
- Hey, Xavier, I Know You Are Stupid...but Did You Conspire to Hide Fauci's Diary? (opens Hot Air in a new tab)
Not rated
0No outlet in this group ran the story.
Questions about this coverage
- How did the left and right cover Comer accuses Becerra of withholding Fauci’s COVID-era diary from…?
- Of the 6 outlets on this story carrying a published leaning rating, 0% are rated left, 0% are rated centre, 100% are rated right. Those percentages are shares of the rated outlets, not of every outlet that ran it. The sections above set out what each side emphasised, in its own terms.
- Is Comer accuses Becerra of withholding Fauci’s COVID-era diary from… left or right?
- Too few of the outlets on this story carry a published leaning rating to say. 6 of them do, and this site does not characterise a field under 12: at that size one newsroom filing moves the share by ten points. The percentages above are the count as it stands.
- Is the coverage of Comer accuses Becerra of withholding Fauci’s COVID-era diary from… biased?
- Comer accuses Becerra of withholding Fauci’s COVID-era diary from Congress is one event reported by 6 outlets, and this page does not rate the story as biased or unbiased. What it publishes is the spread: which outlets ran it, where named rating organisations place each of them on the spectrum, and what each side chose to lead with. A leaning rating describes an outlet's record over time, not this article, and the two should not be run together.
- Which side is not reporting Comer accuses Becerra of withholding Fauci’s COVID-era diary from…?
- When we first saw this story, outlets rated left had barely covered it. Coverage accretes for hours after an event, so that is where to look rather than a verdict — the split above is the current count, and it is the one to read.
- Which outlets covered Comer accuses Becerra of withholding Fauci’s COVID-era diary from…?
- 6 that we know of, every one of them listed further up this page with a link to its own report and to what we hold on the publisher. Nothing here is a summary of somebody else's summary: the outlets are named so the original reporting can be read.
- What is James Comer accusing Xavier Becerra of?
- Comer is accusing Becerra of withholding Dr. Anthony Fauci’s COVID-era diary and cellphone from Congress. The records were requested in November 2023 and include entries on Fauci’s influence over school closures, which he previously denied under oath. Becerra has until 2 September 2026 to respond.
- What does Fauci’s diary contain?
- Fauci’s diary spans over 1,000 pages and includes entries where he discussed his influence over school closures. This contradicts his June 2024 testimony, in which he stated that the CDC, not he, was responsible for such guidelines.
- Which outlets reported on this story?
- The story was reported by six right-rated outlets: California Globe, Hot Air, ussanews.com, Bizpac Review, Democratic Accent, and Fox News. No left- or centre-rated outlet carried the story, according to the material provided.
How did this read?
About the coverage, not about the story. We do not ask whether you agree with what happened — we have no honest use for that answer.
More in Politics
All Politics →
5 min readMichael Cohen to interview Donald Trump on podcast eight years after falloutRead story
5 min readTrump-backed candidates lose three 2026 Republican primaries in Florida and WyomingRead story
4 min readEight Black candidates nominated for US governor in 2026, only three elected in historyRead story