On Friday, Senate Republicans used the filibuster to defeat a bill to set up a January 6 commission, as Spencer reported, in a vote of 54 to 35. Before anyone points to how Republicans are evil and thus we need to bring back the filibuster, let's consider a commission which could receive support, overwhelming support. Why not a commission looking into the Wuhan virus, which is looking increasingly like it came from the Wuhan Institute of Virology?
That very idea of a "9/11 style commission" was offered on Thursday night by Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN), while on "The Ingraham Angle," because "someone has to be held accountable." He also offered:
We should demand in Congress, if we're going to form a 9/11 style commission on anything, it should be about the origins of the coronavirus and the negligence on the party of the Chinese Communist Party, and those in our own government that allowed the coronavirus to spread and became a worldwide pandemic like it did.
Such an investigation is crucial. How is it nothing but non-partisan to acknowledge we need to know where the virus came from, if only so it doesn't happen again?
President Joe Biden is looking into the theory that the Wuhan virus came from the Wuhan lab, sort of. It's also more of a matter that he's getting around to it. It's the Biden administration that is making the investigation political.
We've covered at Townhall that the president canceled an investigation which had been launched by former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. In addition to referencing this canceled investigation, Lauren Ingraham also noted that there is unexamined evidence Biden has yet to examine, as reported by The New York Times.
What are we waiting for? See, this is why we need the commission.
Instead, the administration, confirmed by Deputy Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre is depending on the WHO, the same WHO, which, as Rep. Banks reminded us, has lied to us, just as China has, of course.
Rep. Banks suggested a reason why Biden backed out of the Pompeo investigation has to do with Big Tech, and the president's own close ties with China:
The big take away here, Laura, as you've already said it very well, the Democrat[ic] Party and Joe Biden cannot afford for a commission like that to occur. This is why they killed the Pompeo probe into the origins, because the Democratic Party and Joe Biden today are wholly owned by Big Tech and the multinational corporations on who profit from a cozy relationship with China...
During the campaign trail, Joe Biden dismissed China as a threat. That's once again because their biggest donors that put them in power profit off of this cozy, soft relationship with China. It's not going to change until we take power away from the Democrats.
It sounds like the Democrats and their mainstream media allies are the ones in the wrong, though. Trump had referenced such a theory, but because of the Orange Man Bad meme, and by association, those in his administration and his allies, legitimate theories were dismissed. Even now that these theories are finally being considered, they had been delayed to the point where it's doubtful we'll ever find out the truth, or that China will be held accountable.
Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI) who spoke with Townhall earlier this month, has warned of the "corrupted" WHO organization and highlighting just how embroiled in all of this Dr. Anthony Fauci is.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), who is himself a doctor, has pressed Fauci about concerns taxpayers are funding the lab and gain-of-function research. Fortunately, Sen. Paul's amendment to defund gain of function research in passed in the Senate, by unanimous voice consent
Of course, there's Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) who consistently stuck by the theory that the Wuhan virus came from the Wuhan lab, even though he was maligned and dismissed for his so-called conspiracy theories.
Isn’t it strange that this once-in-a-century bat coronavirus pandemic just happened to emerge within a few miles of China’s biggest laboratory researching bat coronaviruses?
— Tom Cotton (@SenTomCotton) May 25, 2021
Shouldn’t we at least look at that lab? https://t.co/A1q9Ulxl4t
Evidence of a lab leak has been building for months:
— Tom Cotton (@SenTomCotton) May 25, 2021
—Lax safety conditions at Wuhan Institute of Virology
—Similarities between research at the lab and features of the virus
—Patents for bat cages and other live-animal research tools filed by WIVhttps://t.co/gLbpMPrvWX
The United States & the world must demand a full, impartial investigation into COVID-19 origins, with a special focus on the Wuhan labs.
— Tom Cotton (@SenTomCotton) May 25, 2021
Americans also deserve answers from our own public-health officials, such as Dr. Fauci, about U.S. involvement in bat-coronavirus research at the Wuhan lab.https://t.co/BRZl3z9n48
— Tom Cotton (@SenTomCotton) May 25, 2021
If we want closure in the aftermath of this pandemic—and if we want to avert the next one—we must learn about its origin. That means we must look at the lab in Wuhan and the experimental research its scientists performed.https://t.co/id456z7xAs
— Tom Cotton (@SenTomCotton) May 25, 2021
Towards the end of the segment, Rep. Banks noted "see, I hate to say 'I told you so,'" but he would surely be well within his rights to do so.