Watch – Kevin McCarthy: Trump Wants W.H.O. ‘Accountability’ for Spreading Chinese Misinformation

House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) said during a press conference on Thursday that President Donald Trump wants “accountability” for the World Health Organization (W.H.O.) because the organization spread misinformation regarding the coronavirus.

“I think what the president is saying is he wants more accountability because what the World Health Organization told the rest of the world put us in a worse place,” McCarthy said during the conference call.

President Trump said on Tuesday that he will put a hold on funds sent to the W.H.O., demanding that it answers for its failures to warn the world about the dangers of the coronavirus.

The president chastised the W.H.O. for criticizing his travel ban on China during the first stages of the coronavirus outbreak. The W.H.O. has also echoed the Chinese government’s initial argument that there is no human-to-human transmission of the novel coronavirus.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said that Trump’s withholding of funding for the W.H.O. is “illegal.”

Pelosi said on Wednesday that Trump’s “decision is dangerous, illegal, and will be swiftly challenged.”

“The president is bringing to light what the World Health Organization told the entire world. In January, they told us that it did not pass from human to human. They told us to keep traveling; they actually criticized the president when he took that action to stop travel from China coming to America,” McCarthy said.

“Remember what China did. China lied to the rest of the world. And the World Health Organization took the line of China, which put us in a much worse situation, where thousands of people have now died,” he added.

McCarthy added that W.H.O. Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus is the first non-physician to serve as the leader of the organization.

“I think that there’s a real question of who’s at the lead of the World Health Organization, and the president is making sure that there’s accountability for the resources and the recommendations they are providing to the rest of the world, and they should not play politics,” McCarthy said.