Further investigation is needed to determine the origins of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, but even circumstantial evidence points to China and its Wuhan research laboratory, Rep. Mike Turner said Thursday.
'"The Wuhan lab is in Wuhan and conducts this type of research," the Ohio Republican said on "CNN Newsroom." "The outbreak occurred there. It didn't happen in Shanghai or in Paris. It raises the level of, you need an investigation ... there is very circumstantial evidence that the Wuhan lab is the source."
If it is proven conclusively that the coronavirus came from the Wuhan lab and wasn't from an animal source, it still must be determined if a leak was accidental and if the research was being done to create intentional harm.
"If it's intentional, obviously the whole world has a greater level of concern and China needs to be held accountable by the world for the nearly 3 million people who have died from this disease," said Turner. "If it's unintentional but did occur manmade we have an issue of a cover-up and how do we address this dangerous type of work going on."
Meanwhile, Turner rejected a question asking why Republicans are pushing hard for a COVID investigation but have blocked forming a commission to study the Jan. 6 incidents at the Capitol.
"I think everybody is for bipartisan investigations," he said. "The problem is the politicization of all of this by (House Speaker) Nancy Pelosi. If you want bipartisanship, ask Nancy Pelosi why she won't bring Republican bills even to the floor ... we have over 400 criminal investigations ongoing about Jan. 6. That's where these investigations need to be. I think one of the important questions that probably Nancy Pelosi needs to answer which would help the bipartisan aspect of any investigation is what was her role or her office's role in the lack of appropriate security of Jan. 6."
Thirty-five House Republicans did vote for the formation of a commission, and Turner said he can't answer for everyone. As for himself, he believes Pelosi has made the investigation and the reaction to Jan. 6 "so partisan that I can't trust that her claims that a bipartisan commission is a bipartisan commission."
"She can start by returning the house to a bipartisan regular order by allowing Republican bills to go to the floor, by coming forth and saying what was her role in the lack of security on Jan. 6, and I think she can go a long way to building bridges," he said. "Thirty-five Republicans trusted her. I do not. And until she returns the House to a bipartisan work where she will allow both Republican and Democrat bills to come to the floor, where she comes forward and says what was her role Jan. 6, all of this becomes a show trial and it becomes not bipartisan but Nancy Pelosi's political agenda."
And, said Turner, he just can't vote for that kind of deal.
"If there truly was a bipartisan effort that was truly not politically driven by Nancy Pelosi, that would have had my support. That wasn't this," said Turner.
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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