Tuesday on Hugh Hewitt’s nationally syndicated radio show, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) reacted to media outlets, including MSNBC, criticizing his proactive approach in taking on the threat of the Coronavirus.
The virus’ origins are from mainland China, and because of that, Cotton has insisted the Chinese government should be more transparent.
As Hewitt pointed out, those overtures have drawn backlash from not only the People’s Republic of China but MSNBC, as well.
“I have to say that the fake news media seems angrier at me for raising questions about the origins of the Coronavirus than they are at the Chinese Communist Party for contributing to this huge mess, to begin with,” Cotton said. “So from the very beginning, after China, remember, finally acknowledged that they had a problem in Wuhan, which they hid for many weeks, which would have, if we had known, would have allowed us to get further ahead of the virus. The Chinese Communist Party said it originated in a food market in Wuhan. Yet an authoritative study in the Lancet, the respected international science journal, by Chinese scientists, refuted that almost conclusively. Fourteen of the original 41 cases had no contact with that food market whatsoever.”
Cotton speculated the virus could be connected to China’s biosafety laboratory and slammed the Chinese Communist Party for a record of “dishonesty and incompetence.”
“So we still don’t know the origins of this Coronavirus,” he said. “And I have merely pointed out for several weeks now that China’s only biosafety level 4 laboratory dealing with human infectious diseases is just a few miles away from that laboratory. I don’t know where this virus originated. Natural causes somewhere other than that food market is still the most likely hypothesis.”
“But given the Chinese Community Party’s record of dishonesty and incompetence in managing this crisis, we at least have to ask the question whether or not it’s connected to that laboratory and demand that international scientists be admitted to study the evidence of both in the food market and the laboratory and in those original cases, especially the original 14 cases that had no contact with the food market if we want to get our hands around how this virus originated and what that can tell us about diagnosing it and trying to treat it,” Cotton added.
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