On Thursday, on Fox News Channel’s “The Ingraham Angle,” Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) said there were still questions about the tenure of former Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Anthony Fauci.

According to the Arkansas U.S. Senator, it was unclear what relationship Fauci, who played an integral role in the U.S. response to COVID-19, had with China.

“Anthony Fauci was seemingly hell-bent on stopping that theory from gaining traction,” host Laura Ingraham explained. “We know that for a fact with the emails even redacted that were released, Senator. But what really is going on here? I mean, how involved was the United States, through the funding of the Eco-Health Alliance, to the Wuhan lab, with what may have turned into this out-of-control experiment looking for a vaccine, or perhaps for, you know, China’s side weapon research, that could have ended up killing a lot of people? I mean, it doesn’t look good.”

“No, it certainly doesn’t, Laura,” Cotton replied. “As you say, Tony Fauci was partly responsible for tax dollars going to this lab, contrary to even Barack Obama’s guidance. And it continued after Donald Trump became president because Tony Fauci wanted to maintain his relationships. He wanted to keep the spigot of money flowing. We need to get to the bottom of exactly what his relationship was with China. And as Brad Winthrop has said, what he may have been doing to try to influence the quality of intelligence assessments about that lab.”

Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor