GOP Sen. Marshall: Report U.S. Gave over $1 Billion to Chinese, Russian Entities Is ‘Tip of the Iceberg’

On Friday’s broadcast of the Fox Business Network’s “Maria Bartiromo’s Wall Street,” Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS) reacted to a report by Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) and Open the Books that the U.S. government has given at least $870 million in U.S. grants and contracts to Russian entities and $490 million to Chinese entities since 2017 — an amount that exceeds the at least $48 million the Government Accountability Office estimated has gone to China from 2017-2021 by stating the findings by Ernst and Open the Books are “the tip of the iceberg” of money going to U.S. adversaries.

Marshall stated, [relevant remarks begin around 4:00] “This is the tip of the iceberg once again. We’ve been trying to follow the money. … The ultimate sin is funding the Wuhan Institute of Virology. This is — first of all, they used EcoHealth, which is out of compliance with other grants. This is where the COVID-19, the SARS-CoV-2 virus was made and most likely leaked as well — accidentally leaked, I’ll add. So, we’re throwing money at people that basically killed over a million Americans and we’re doing more research, paying for more research on bat viruses in less-than-safe places, you can’t make this up, Maria.”

The report notes that the findings probably don’t “reflect the total amount because federal agencies do not follow the trail of tax dollars to their final destination.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett