During a weekly press briefing, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called out a CBS News reporter for promulgating a false narrative that Trump officials made contradictory statements on the origins of the coronavirus. In his statements to reporters, Pompeo urged the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to provide transparency to the world regarding the origin of the coronavirus outbreak.
A CBS News reporter claims Pompeo, among other Trump officials, have made contradictory statements about the origins of the virus. Pompeo has stated repeatedly that transparency from the CCP is required in order to solve the global pandemic and understand the true origins of the virus.
“You said in multiple interviews on May 1st, April 30th, and other days some version of ‘we don’t know if the virus came from inside the lab in Wuhan.’ And then, on Sunday, you said there’s enormous evidence the virus came from inside the lab,” the CBS News reporter said.
“Those statements are both true. They’re entirely consistent,” Pompeo said.
“Why are you highlighting one and not the other?” the reporter asked.
“I’ve now answered this question, I think it’s the 13th time. Happy to try to answer it again. I’m not sure what it is about the grammar that you can’t get,” Pompeo said. “We don’t have certainty, and there is significant evidence that this came from the laboratory. Those statements can both be true.”
“The most important piece here is that the American people remain at risk. The American people remain at risk because we do not know – to your point, we don’t have certainty about whether it began in the lab or whether it began someplace else. There’s an easy way to find out the answer to that: transparency, openness, the kinds of things that nations do when they really want to be part of solving a global pandemic, when they really want to participate in the things that keep human beings safe and get economies going back again,” Pompeo said. “We’ll continue to work on that, we’ll continue to get more certainty, and I hope – I hope we get an answer. Where did patient zero begin? Where precisely did this start?”
Mainstream media outlets routinely work to undermine legitimate claims of the Trump administration and its allies. When Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., suggested the Wuhan virus may have originated in a Wuhan lab, the New York Times blamed him for peddling conspiracy theories. In actuality, Cotton merely believes it’s ridiculous to discount the Wuhan lab theory because the CCP refuses to reveal the virus’s origins.
While media outlets desperately aim to blame the Trump administration and allies for misleading Americans about coronavirus, Pompeo highlights the real culprit of disinformation and deception amid the coronavirus pandemic, the Chinese Communist Party.