On Monday’s broadcast of the Fox Business Network’s “Kudlow,” Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT) stated that the treatment of Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) for first floating the lab leak theory is reminiscent of the way Communists in China treated dissenters during the Cultural Revolution.
Daines said, “[S]ome on Capitol Hill…were talking about this was a viable theory as to why the COVID virus started in Wuhan, and it might have been a lab leak. Look, you can’t believe anything the Communist dictators in China are saying. Remember, we just came off the Chinese spy balloon fiasco, they called that a weather balloon. So, why should we believe in the propaganda coming out of Beijing regarding the COVID virus? I think it is probable now, looking at these public intel. reports, that it did come out of that lab. And I’ve asked, I was the first, in fact, member now to insist upon getting this information. I’m going to go into the SCIF. I want to read the reports firsthand and see what D.O.E.’s got at the moment and I’ll make a judgment myself.”
He continued, “But if you remember, Sen. Cotton was out there publicly when this first came out a few years ago, he was belittled. It reminds me of what the Communist Chinese during — did during the Cultural Revolution. They would belittle those who had contrary opinions. And at the end of the day, I think the Chinese were complicit in trying to cover up whatever happened there in Wuhan. And I think the lab leak is very much a viable theory. And I want to see the intel. myself and get to the bottom of it.”
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