It was once denounced as a “conspiracy theory.” But suddenly, it’s 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 actual answers.
Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK) called for “extensive” public hearings into Covid’s origins on NBC’s Meet the Press. He derided China’s efforts to “shut people up” when questions were raised about the coronavirus’s origins.
“I think we need to do extensive hearings. I hope our Democratic colleagues in the Congress can support that. I know the Republicans in the House are certainly supportive of that,” Sullivan told Chuck Todd. “Look, this is a country that has no problem coming out and lying to the world. We just saw that with this Chinese spy balloon. It’s the nature of a Communist dictatorship to lie to their own people, to lie to the world. But I think that we need to make sure every country knows that and then look at what the consequences could be.”
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) tweeted that he plans to reintroduce legislation forcing the U.S. government to declassify intelligence on the Covid-19 outbreak. The Missouri senator wants all relevant intelligence on the issue released to the public.
“The American people deserve the full truth about #covid origins. No more whitewash,” he Tweeted on Sunday. “I will again introduce legislation to make the US government’s intelligence reports on covid open to the people.”
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) says the Biden administration should declassify classified documents showing scientists at the Department of Energy believe Covid-19 leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology laboratory in China.
“Classified documents leaked (they should be declassified!) showing scientists at DOE believe COVID leaked from Wuhan Lab,” Paul tweeted on Monday.
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) has consistently raised the possibility of the Wuhan lab leak and called for investigations about it since early 2020. He was slammed by the New York Times and Washington Post in February 2020 for repeating what both outlets referred to as a “fringe theory.” It’s not so “fringe” now.
The Senate GOP in October called the lab leak theory the “most likely” scenario for Covid’s origins. The report from the office of Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) concluded the SARS-CoV-2 virus was “most likely the result of a research-related incident” at the Wuhan laboratory in China.
Follow Kyle Becker on Twitter @kylenabecker.