President Donald Trump accused CBS News on Sunday of defending China during the coronavirus crisis.
“@CBS and their show, @60Minutes, are doing everything within their power, which is far less today than it was in the past, to defend China and the horrible Virus pandemic that was inflicted on the USA and the rest of the World, “Trump wrote on Twitter, adding that “I guess they want to do business in China!"
The president did not refer to a specific item on the show, but his tweet came soon after the network aired a story about Peter Daszak, a virologist who said he warned as far back as 2003 that a global pandemic was a possibility, The Hill reported.
Daszak added that his funding at the National Institutes of Health was cut two weeks ago. The CBS report blamed a "political disinformation campaign" against a laboratory in Wuhan, China, which conservatives have claimed could be to blame for the pandemic.
Among others, Trump himself has falsely suggested that a $3.7 grant to Daszak's research was instead sent to the Wuhan laboratory, CBS reported. Although his research included a partnership with the Wuhan lab, only some $100,000 of the grant was utilized for that purpose, The Hill reported.