"All the facts" show there is a high chance that the coronavirus that sparked the COVID-19 pandemic came through careless activity from the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the findings in a new report could lead to information showing how American officials "did a great deal of helping with the cover-up," Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., said on Newsmax Monday.
"All facts tell us that there is a very high chance that this was in fact accidentally released through carelessness or some other activity from the Wuhan facility and covered up starting in September of 2019 by both Chinese and American officials," said Issa on Newsmax's "John Bachman Now." "That's really where the facts lead, and it's that last part that American officials did a great deal of helping with the cover-up that concerns us the most. "
Texas Rep. Mike McCaul, the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said Monday that the report, which he led with the panel's Republican staff on the origins of the disease, indicates that the leak was likely accidental but the cover-up of the incident and its aftermath are a concern.
"It took quite a while to get the DNA to figure out that in fact, this disease did not start with a bat that was indigenous to the region," Issa said of early theories on the virus. "(This) was one of the first clues that it clearly was not from the (Wuhan) wet market, but we now have more and more evidence to show that it really did come from this lab. It came from activity that was unauthorized inappropriate based on international law, but may in fact have been supported even by Dr. (Anthony) Fauci."
Issa also discussed the call from progressive Democrats like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., to reject a bipartisan infrastructure bill without approving a much larger Democrat-led spending bill.
"Even by pork standards, they want things that are completely unrelated to the term infrastructure," said Issa. "They want to redefine infrastructure as anything you spend it on. They also completely don't understand economics. The fact is this is a trillion dollars of borrowed money spending that will clearly add to inflation that is already heading toward double digits ... this is no time to just haphazardly spend money to stimulate an economy that's already doesn't have enough labor and is seeing 5-6% inflation and more to come."
Meanwhile, Issa on Monday was back in his district to present some 100 Vietnam War-era veterans with a new Congress-authorized pin recognizing their service.
"It was an unpopular war, but we treated the men and women who served during the 50s, 60s, and 70s poorly," said Issa. "This is our chance to thank them. Congress made this decision. DOD took a long time to design the pin. Now that we have it, we want to have everyone who served during the Vietnam era be able to receive the pin and wear it proudly and be thanked for their service."
Note: See Newsmax TV now carried in more than 100 million U.S. homes, on DirecTV Ch. 349, Dish Network Ch. 216, Xfinity Ch. 1115, Spectrum, U-verse Ch. 1220, FiOS Ch. 615, Frontier Ch. 115, Optimum Ch. 102, Cox cable, Suddenlink Ch. 102, Mediacom Ch. 277, AT&T TV Ch 349, FUBO and major OTT platforms like Roku, YouTube, Xumo, Pluto and most smart TV’s including Samsung+, Sony, LG, Vizio and more – Find All Systems that Carry Newsmax – Click Here