It was once denounced as a “conspiracy theory”. But suddenly, it has now become conventional wisdom.
An explosive report in the Wall Street Journal published on Sunday has already raised the ire of Senate Republicans who are now vowing to go on the warpath to get real answers.
Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK) called for “extensive” public hearings on the origins of Covid on NBC’s Meet the Press. He ridiculed China’s efforts to “silence people” when questions about the origins of the coronavirus were raised.
“I think we need to hold extensive hearings. I hope our Democratic colleagues in Congress can support it. I know Republicans in the House support it,” Sullivan told Chuck Todd. “Look, this is a country that has no problem going out and lying to the world. We just saw that with this Chinese spy balloon. It is the nature of a communist dictatorship to lie to its own people, to lie to the world. But I think we need to make sure that all countries know about it and then look at what the consequences might be.”
Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) tweeted that he plans to reintroduce legislation that would force the US government to declassify intelligence about the Covid-19 outbreak. The Missouri senator wants all relevant intelligence on the matter to be released to the public.
“The American people deserve the full truth about the origins of #covid. No more whitewashing,” he tweeted on Sunday. “I will reintroduce legislation to make the US government’s intelligence reports on covid open to the public.”
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) says Biden administration should declassify classified documents showing Department of Energy scientists believe Covid-19 leaked from Wuhan Institute of Virology lab in China
“Classified documents leaked (must be declassified!) showing DOE scientists believe COVID leaked from Wuhan Lab,” Paul tweeted on Monday.
Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) has consistently raised the possibility of the Wuhan lab leak and called for investigations into it since early 2020. The New York Times and Washington Post criticized him in February 2020 for repeated what both media referred to. as a “marginal theory”. Not so “fringe” now.
The Senate GOP in October called the lab leak theory the “most likely” scenario for the origins of Covid. The report from the office of Senator Richard Burr (RN.C.) concluded that the SARS-CoV-2 virus was “likely the result of a research-related incident” at the Wuhan laboratory in China.
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OPINION: This article contains comments that reflect the opinion of the author.