Former President Trump is calling on China to face “retaliation” for its role in the COVID-19 pandemic, claiming he was right all along that the virus leaked from a Wuhan lab.
In a campaign Video released on Fridaythe former president and declared candidate for the 2024 White House took the credit for proving the lab leak theory right after the US Department of Energy concluded with “low confidence” that it was the most likely explanation where the virus came from.
“Three years ago I stated that the China virus almost certainly originated in the Wuhan laboratory. Now the world is finally admitting the truth – they say I was right,” Trump said. “The cover-up of the origins of COVID-19 is one of the biggest scandals in world history. But the biggest scandal is COVID itself.”
The GOP 2024 frontrunner said it was time “to hold China and the corrupt forces that have enabled this colossal suppression of facts accountable for the damage they have caused to the world and to all of humanity. We must do something about it. It has to be some form of retaliation.”
SENATE REPUBLICANS DEMAND CHINESE COMMUNIST PARTY’S DOJ LAW OVER ROLE IN COVID-19 PANDEMIC
Presidential candidate Donald Trump on Friday called for China to face “retaliation” for its role in the COVID-19 pandemic. (Brandon Bell)
Republicans are calling on China to answer for its behavior during the pandemic, as critics have accused the Chinese regime of “blocking” efforts to probe the virus’ origins.
At a hearing in the House of Representatives last week, Dr. Jamie Metzl, a senior Atlantic Council official, urged US lawmakers to launch a full investigation into the matter.
HOUSE DEMS, GOP UNANIMOUSLY VOTE IN DECLASSIFICATION OF COVID ORIGINS INTEL, SEND INVOICE TO BIDEN
This aerial photo shows laboratory P4, center left, at the campus of Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan, central China’s Hubei Province, May 27, 2020. (Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images)
“Since the early days of the pandemic, the Chinese government has destroyed samples, hidden records, imprisoned brave Chinese journalists, gagged Chinese scientists, actively disseminated misinformation and done just about everything to prevent the kind of unhindered, evidence-based investigations that are urgently needed,” he said Metzl.
Democrats have also shown interest in getting to the bottom of COVID-19, although they are much more reluctant to embrace the lab leak theory. Both the House and Senate unanimously passed legislation requiring the Biden administration’s director of national intelligence to release any information related to the Wuhan Institute of Virology and possible links to the origins of the virus COVID-19 virus.
COVID-19 ORIGINS HEAR WITNESSES AGAINST CHINA’S ‘STONE WALLS’
Atlantic Council Senior Fellow Dr. Jamie Metzl testifies before the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic at the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill March 8, 2023 in Washington, DC (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Those votes came after the Department of Energy’s assessment was reportedly noted in a classified 2021 document updated by the office of Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines.
The “lab leak theory,” according to which COVID-19 originated from an accidental lab leak at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan, China, has been widely dismissed as a conspiracy theory and “misinformation” by Democrats, major news outlets, and scientists, and has been the subject of social media hype. Businesses in the early stages of the pandemic.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
However, with no conclusive evidence for a natural origin of the virus, the theory has slowly gained mainstream credibility.
Trump has not specified how he would hold China accountable if he were to become president again. He simply said, “Something has to be done, and it will be done.”
Fox News’ Peter Kasperowicz and Aaron Kliegman contributed to this report.
Source : www.foxnews.com