Rep. Brian Mast: Washington should investigate COVID-19 origin in China
Florida Republican Rep. Brian Mast told 'Fox & Friends' China needs to be held accountable, U.S. needs to investigate source of coronavirus outbreak
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The origin of the COVID-19 virus in China should be under congressional investigation, Florida Republican Rep. Brian Mast stated Wednesday.
Appearing on "Fox & Friends" with hosts Steve Doocy, Ainsley Earhardt, and Brian Kilmeade, Mast said that there should especially be "no holds barred" when it comes to possible economic warfare from China and the source of the spread.
"Obviously, China wants to be the biggest global player. I wouldn't put it past them. These are things we should be investigating in Washington right now in, say, the Foreign Affairs Committee," he asserted.
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"What is going to be the [United States'] global response or our encouragement to other nations in terms of responding to China?" he asked. "Whether it came out of a wet market or whether it came out of a lab, we know they did their absolute best to keep it secret from their people and from the world and allowed it to be spread in this pandemic way."
According to internal documents obtained by The Associated Press, in the six days after top Chinese officials had secretly determined they were facing a pandemic from a new coronavirus, the city of Wuhan at the epicenter of the disease hosted a mass banquet for tens of thousands of people and millions began traveling through for Lunar New Year celebrations.
President Xi Jinping warned the public on the seventh day, Jan. 20. But by that time, more than 3,000 people had been infected during almost a week of public silence.
The Washington Post reported Tuesday that two years before the novel coronavirus outbreak, U.S. Embassy officials had visited a Wuhan research facility several times and sent two official warnings back to Washington about inadequate safety at the lab, which was conducting risky studies on coronaviruses from bats.
The reports have sparked discussions inside the U.S. government about whether this or another Wuhan lab was the source of the virus — even though conclusive proof has yet to emerge. Another theory was that an infected bat was sold or eaten at a "wet" wildlife market.
On Wednesday, a group of more than 60 bipartisan lawmakers called for an immediate global ban on live wildlife markets and the international trade of live wildlife over their supposed links to the virus.
In addition, President Trump announced during a White House news briefing in the Rose Garden on Tuesday that the United States would immediately halt all funding for the World Health Organization (WHO), saying it had put "political correctness over lifesaving measures" in its response to China's outbreak.
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"There needs to be accountability," Mast urged. "I think Senator Cotton has spoken about that as well. That's some of the work that we should be doing in Washington right now, and it's timely."
"Again, this is one of those things that we look at and we say, this is why we are proud to be Americans because of the value that we place on life that they don't necessarily place on it in China," he continued.
"But, should we be looking for how do we react to China's government in this situation? Should we be holding their debt...Or, should every country look at [the] debt that China holds in their nation and say, 'We are going to hold that forfeit because of what you allowed to happen that has affected all of our economies?'" Mast asked. "These are real conversations that need to happen right now."