Joe Biden wants the intel community to redouble their efforts into probing the origins of COVID, just after it was reported that his administration shut down a state department investigation into the origins of COVID that began under Trump.
First, here’s the news of the COVID investigation being shut down:
FOX NEWS – The Biden State Department ended an inquiry into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic that was investigating whether the virus stemmed from a leak out of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, Fox News has confirmed.
The Biden administration terminated the inquiry – which was being led out of the State Department’s arms control and verification bureau and initially launched at the request of former Trump Secretary of State Mike Pompeo – after being briefed on the team’s initial findings in February and March.
State Department spokesman Ned Price on Tuesday denied shutting down the inquiry: “There has been incorrect reporting that the Biden-Harris administration shut down an investigation by the State Department’s Bureau of Arms Control and Verification (AVC) into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.” He said the team’s work ended after delivering a report in February and March, adding that “all relevant parts of the Department continue to work with the interagency on this matter.”
A State Department official earlier told Fox News that Secretary of State Antony Blinken did not disband any cell looking into the origins of COVID-19, and that the department only employed a single contractor who was conducting research on several topics – including coronavirus. That contractor, according to the official, left the State Department before Blinken’s confirmation. The official said the inquiry was closed amid concerns about methodology.
The Biden administration’s investigation into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic is currently being led out of the White House National Security Council.
Fox News has learned that David Asher was the contractor leading the investigation. Asher has a history of investigative work tracking money for the AQ Khan network, North Korea’s nuclear program, and top Al Qaeda leaders, but has fallen under scrutiny from former State Department officials.
In a statement to Fox News, Asher defended the investigation, and said that, at the time, some State Department colleagues “were deliberately playing down possible links to China’s biological weapons program.”
“It is U.S. law to engage in effective arms control and nonproliferation, not facilitate it via ‘scientific cooperation’ in the name of threat reduction or refusal to engage in effective compliance with Communist countries that openly aim to incorporate synthetic biology into the future of warfare (apparently with our naive material and scientific assistance),” Asher said.
“We don’t know for certain what happened in Wuhan but we had every reason to investigate and ask questions,” Asher continued. “As the State Department’s Jan. 15 statement said – and as additional disclosures and expert analyses of the last few months have underscored – there is probable cause for deep suspicion.”
We’ve had probable cause from the beginning to have deep suspicion that the virus came from a lab in Wuhan. But the media and Team Biden have refused to even consider that it was leaked from a lab, that is until now that the media and Democrats have egg on their faces.
After this news report came out, Biden quickly charged the intelligence community with finding out the origins of the virus:
THE HILL – President Biden on Wednesday announced a ramped-up effort to determine the origins of COVID-19, reflecting a new acceptance in U.S. political and public health circles that the virus might have emerged naturally or from a Chinese lab in the city of Wuhan.
Biden asked the U.S. intelligence community to “redouble their efforts” to come to a conclusion on the disease’s origins, calling on them to report back to him within 90 days.
“As part of that report, I have asked for areas of further inquiry that may be required, including specific questions for China,” Biden said in a statement. “I have also asked that this effort include work by our National Labs and other agencies of our government to augment the Intelligence Community’s efforts. And I have asked the Intelligence Community to keep Congress fully apprised of its work.”
“The United States will also keep working with like-minded partners around the world to press China to participate in a full, transparent, evidence-based international investigation and to provide access to all relevant data and evidence,” Biden added.
Welcome to the party, Biden. Trump told everyone last year that this had likely leaked from a lab in Wuhan and there was plenty of cause to warrant an investigation. But Biden and the Democrat media complex tried to destroy him for it. Now we see that Trump was right again in his comments.
And we thought Obama led from behind.