China has "indoctrinated" the United States, and it will only understand that "enough is enough" if it is cut off financially, Rep Tim Burchett said on Newsmax Tuesday while responding to the 84-page Republican report on the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.
"We're addicted to their dollars," the Tennessee Republican said on Newsmax's "Wake Up America." "Everything we have and own seems to be made in China, and that's the only thing that they're going to understand is if we say enough is enough (and) we cut them off economically."
The lawmaker referred to Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., and how House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has not removed him from the House Intelligence Committee after disclosures of his relationship with a suspected Chinese spy.
"If that tells you anything, I think they've got tentacles into every aspect of our country," said Burchett. "Secretary (Mike) Pompeo said they've even infiltrated in some areas down to the local PTAs ... but we've got a gutless bunch that's running Washington right now, and I don't see any end in sight until the midterm elections."
Meanwhile, Burchett said that nothing surprised him in the report, led by Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, which found that the coronavirus causing COVID-19 likely leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology in September 2019.
"They knew it had happened, and then they tried to cover it up, and then they had the blessings of the World Health Organization," said Burchett. "We have cables from Wuhan and other folks saying that they had some issues early on, and then, of course, they did the military games, and then that just spread from there."
He also noted that Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has not demanded that the United States quit sending the lab money, after disclosures that money had gone to Wuhan before the virus broke out.
"We actually funded parts of the Wuhan Institute," said Burchett. "The Democrats refused to investigate this and they try to label it as racism and their cohorts in some of the national media keep pushing that lie out. I'm glad the Republicans in Congress, specifically McCaul, have really jumped in on this."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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