House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy told Breitbart News exclusively this weekend that he is considering various proposals that would allow Americans to sue the Chinese Communist Party for wrongful death if a loved one died of coronavirus or for damages to their businesses if they suffered due to the pandemic.
The move, which would be enabled either by amending the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act or by passing a statue with a standalone private right of action allowing Americans who lost loved ones to sue China over wrongful death or Americans whose businesses suffered to sue for damages, is under consideration, according to the House GOP leader. Congress previously did something similar for family members of 9/11 victims, allowing them to sue the Saudi Arabian government. That legislation, called the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA), sailed through Congress with wide bipartisan support. Former President Barack Obama vetoed the plan in 2016, but Congress days later overrode Obama’s veto, enacting JASTA into law.
Asked on Breitbart News Saturday on SiriusXM 125 the Patriot Channel whether Congress was considering similar action against the Chinese Communist Party as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, McCarthy said he is definitely open to such an idea and is working with members crafting legislative proposals to that effect.
“This is something I’ve been working with others on and entertaining it and looking toward legislation like that,” McCarthy told Breitbart News.
McCarthy added that the United States has a “responsibility to hold China accountable on this.”
“Why did China stop domestic flights but keep international flights? Why did they influence the World Health Organization to lie to the world? Why did they hoard PPE at a time when they knew what was coming?” McCarthy said. “This is a severe crisis that could have killed millions of Americans. They could have come forward and told us from the very beginning. Now, they don’t want the truth to come out. They fight it.”
He also noted that while there are “many ways” to investigate China and hold the Chinese Communist Party accountable, getting the court system—and American coronavirus pandemic victims engaged in lawsuits—is one way that could be very effective in doing so. He also said he hopes other countries join the push to hold China accountable too.
“I think there are many ways we can get to the bottom of this, but I think one of the ways you seriously can is put the judicial system at work as well too,” McCarthy said. “Let’s get all the information we can and then let’s hold the party responsible for this … accountable for the damage that they’ve done—the lives lost, the businesses collapsed, the children who haven’t been able to be in school, and just life itself, not just in America but around the rest of the world too. Why wouldn’t the other countries around join with us to hold China accountable?”
Earlier in the interview—where McCarthy also called for Dr. Anthony Fauci’s resignation or removal from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)—he specifically mentioned Australia’s push to investigate the origins of the coronavirus and the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
“Here you have—Americans deserve the truth behind the destruction that unfolded the last year,” McCarthy said when asked if he would support a 9/11-style commission to investigate the Wuhan lab and coronavirus origins. “Now we’re finding out that State Department people were threatened to not look into it. You’ve got China threatening Australia when they want to look into it. You’ve got Dr. Fauci, who I need a chiropractor any time you talk to him because he gives me whiplash switching from one position to the other. You don’t have to have a 9/11 Commission. Why doesn’t Congress do its work under the Democrat majority looking into this when hundreds of thousands of Americans were dying? Why would they attack individuals who said it came from Wuhan? Why would they attack Tom Cotton? Why wouldn’t they answer Rand Paul when he was raising the questions of funding going in there? Why did they take it down from Facebook — that we weren’t even allowed to speak about it? Why were Republicans the ones driving it and Democrats denying it? That is a problem.”
In particular, Democrats in Congress under House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s leadership have refused to investigate the Wuhan lab. They have held no hearings on the matter—and Democrat President Joe Biden even shut down a State Department investigation that the Trump administration had ongoing when Biden took office. Biden has since ordered a new probe after more revelations have come out in the Wall Street Journal indicating workers from the Wuhan lab in question mysteriously became sick in late 2019 well before the pandemic began to hit China. Pelosi, even in early 2020, withdrew from a bipartisan China commission she had agreed to before the pandemic. McCarthy proceeded with it anyway from the minority and the minority panel produced a report on its findings late last year.
As more evidence emerges about the origins of the virus and more comes out about Fauci’s role in funding that lab with U.S. taxpayer dollars—emails of his released the past couple weeks have severely undercut his credibility—what happens next and what the United States does in response remains in question. McCarthy’s answers on Breitbart News Saturday are the clearest sign yet that at least Republicans—even if the Democrats are not doing anything on this—are developing policy framework for how exactly to force accountability upon the Chinese Communist Party over this. McCarthy’s comments also come in the wake of former President Donald Trump’s statement calling for China to pay $10 trillion to the U.S. and the rest of the world for the damage the Chinese Communist Party inflicted.
“Now everyone, even the so-called ‘enemy,’ are beginning to say that President Trump was right about the China Virus coming from the Wuhan Lab,” Trump said in the statement last week. “The correspondence between Dr. Fauci and China speaks too loudly for anyone to ignore. China should pay Ten Trillion Dollars to America, and the World, for the death and destruction they have caused!” Trump reiterated the call to massive applause at the North Carolina GOP convention, where he delivered the keynote address, this weekend.
China has for now laughed off Trump’s statement, with Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin telling media that China will not pay for this. “Trump repeatedly ignored the facts and tried to shirk his responsibilities of failing to respond to the epidemic and tried to divert people’s attention,” the Chinese government spokesman said. “We believe the American people have a fair judgement as to who should be held accountable. It is those hypocritical politicians who ignored people’s lives and health should be held accountable.”
But if this JASTA-like idea starts gaining traction—especially if the Republicans take the House back in November—things could drastically swing against the Chinese Communist Party on this matter and quickly. It was not until 15 years after 9/11 that JASTA was approved by Congress, which overrode Obama’s veto to get it done. Litigation filed by 9/11 victims in early 2017 as a result of JASTA remains ongoing several years later.
LISTEN TO KEVIN MCCARTHY ON BREITBART NEWS SATURDAY:
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