Discussing reparations from China for its responsibility in the coronavirus’ spread and cover-up of its origins, conservative radio legend Michael Savage suggested a nuanced approach of imposing tariffs on the communist regime and weighed canceling debt as a less confrontational means of achieving reparations. He also accused the Biden administration of posing more danger than the Chinese by intentionally spreading the virus through immigration policies, which have led to a significant increase in infections.
Appearing on Newsmax’s Cortes & Pellegrino Show on Friday, Savage declared China has an “obligation to do good to pay for what they have done,” noting he would “like to see [China] pay reparations” but warned that “we have to be very careful and not let our emotions override our intelligence” with regard to how to attain them.
“Remember what reparations against Germany triggered after World War I: It gave rise to Hitler and World War II,” he warned. “We better be very careful how far we take this because it could wind up as a very dangerous boomerang.”
He also noted that “China’s tone has only toughened” in proportion to reparation demands.
“History teaches us that massive reparations, claims that are perceived as unjust even by a responsible nation, can turn into great propaganda tools that could be exploited for the worst totalitarian regimes,” Savage said.
“And right now President Xi [Jinping] is more powerful than [former Chinese Communist Party chairman] Mao Zedong, with one of the most powerful militaries on earth, and I don’t think he’s going to say, ‘sure we’ll pay reparations,’” he added.
Referring to the coronavirus pandemic as “our generation’s [biological] Pearl Harbor,” Savage maintained that China should have to pay for its role in the spread of the virus, stating last year that financial reparations should be demanded of the Chinese state.
“We know that the scientists at the Wuhan Institute of Virology became so ill with COVID-19-like symptoms that required hospitalization, as far back as November of 2019. That’s established; everybody knows this,” he said.
However, noting he is a trained epidemiologist, he stated his belief that the origin of the pandemic was an “escape from [the Wuhan] laboratory,” albeit unintentional.
“I’ve not seen any evidence that the Chinese purposely caused the virus to spread. They allowed it to happen; they covered it up,” he said, “but they didn’t release it on purpose.”
After host Steve Cortes questioned if Savage was merely being naive — claiming today’s “evil and adversarial” Chinese totalitarian regime “already is the Nazi Party of the 2020s,” and consequently fear of driving the party to such extremes are unwarranted — the conservative multimedia icon expressed his fears of unnecessary conflict.
“I may be naive, but I’m also very worried about triggering a war,” Savage said, adding that the media would undoubtedly side with China, making conventional reparations even more difficult.
“[T]he powerful propaganda department of the Chinese Communist Party, as we all well know in the media, works hand in glove with the powerful propaganda departments of Facebook, Twitter, CNN, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and NBC,” he said.
“They’re not going to take the side of right here, so where is that going to leave us?” he asked.
When asked what he proposed to be done to deter China from repeating actions that led to the recent pandemic, Savage entertained the idea of withholding debt payment.
“They owe us and the world for what they have done … However, they’re not going to pay a dime,” he said, adding, “they hold an awful lot of our debt.”
“What if we just don’t pay our debt? Isn’t that another form of collection without putting a sword up in the air and saying, ‘let’s fight?’” he asked.
However, he warned that such actions, too, could be met with dire reactions.
“They could do a lot of things to us, so we [have] got to be very careful here. We’re on the cusp of a potential war. None of us want war,” he added.
Regarding President Joe Biden’s culpability in the virus’ spread, Savage was outspoken.
“We’re sitting here looking at what China did a few years ago while Biden is bringing COVID-infected illegal immigrants into America and busing them and flying them around America,” he stated, adding, ultimately, the states would foot the bill for such practices.
Savage also accused the Biden administration of being more responsible for the virus’ spread than the Chinese government.
“This is actually worse than what China did because this is known to be spreading the virus around the country,” he said.
“Maybe the Chinese didn’t even know they were doing it, [but] anyone in the Biden administration with a fourth-grade education understands that [if] you’re bringing someone with a disease, they’re going to spread it,” he added.
While former President Donald Trump has expressed his desire to hold China fully responsible for the global pandemic that originated in Wuhan, demanding the communist regime pay the U.S. ten trillion dollars in reparations, it appears President Biden — who has not called for reparations from China — is uninterested in holding Beijing responsible.
Earlier this week, press secretary Jen Psaki refused to even entertain the thought.
When asked it President Biden thought China should pay the U.S. financially for having allowed the virus to spread, Psaki replied, “Our policy hasn’t changed,” and refused further questioning.
A leaked presidential briefing document reported by NBC News on Monday revealed 20 percent of unaccompanied migrant children who illegally crossed the border over the last two to three weeks tested positive for coronavirus after being released into communities by Border Patrol.
On Wednesday, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) pointed to the Biden administration’s mishandling of the U.S. southern border and an immigration policy that could exacerbate the spread of the coronavirus as reasons why Biden had lost “all credibility” in dealing with the pandemic.
“I mean, this is a guy that ran for president saying he was going to shut down the virus,” DeSantis said. “He wasn’t going to shut down America or the economy and shut down the virus. And yet, what is he doing? He’s bringing in people from over 100 different countries across the southern border.”
Last week, Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL) said he believes the coronavirus was manmade at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) and the Chinese Communist Party-run government should be held liable for its outbreak around the world.
According to a Republican congressional report published Monday, the preponderance of evidence shows that the coronavirus leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) began its coverup months earlier than previously known.
Last week, it was revealed that the New York Times refused to investigate “the biggest story of our time”: the coronavirus pandemic’s origins.
John Ratcliffe, former Director of National Intelligence (DNI) during the Trump administration, wrote in an op-ed Monday that the notion of the coronavirus escaping from China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) is “very close to a certainty.”
On Tuesday, Rep. Greg Steube (R-FL) said it is now known the virus leaked from a lab in September 2019 and then some participants of the Military World Games that same year in Wuhan left with “COVID-like symptoms.”
“[W]e should be investigating this as a government, not just Republicans,” Steube argued.
“Unfortunately, Democrats don’t want to have anything to do with this. They would rather investigate the January 6 event where already 500-600 people have been arrested than investigate the cause of millions of deaths of people in the world and over 600,000 in the United States.”
Follow Joshua Klein on Twitter @JoshuaKlein.
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