Ted Cruz lays down legislation, 3 reasons why China MUST be held accountable for pandemic
This whole thing could have been stopped in China 🇨🇳 as President Trump said in his daily press briefing today and he’s right on.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Senator Ted Cruz has introduced legislation to hold China accountable for its role in the coronavirus pandemic and initially covering up the outbreak.
The Texas Republican discussed the responsibility of the Chinese government in a Fox News interview with Sean Hannity as U.S. officials have become more confident that COVID-19 originated in a laboratory in the city of Wuhan.
(Source: Fox News )
“China’s responsibility and culpability for this pandemic is enormous and there’s at least three different aspects of what China has done that should be deeply concerning,” Cruz said on “ Hannity ” this week.
The first of the points shared by the senator was that COVID-19, which has been responsible for the deaths of over 156,000 people worldwide, originated in a Chinese lab. He noted that there are two labs in Wuhan “controlled by the Chinese government that were studying not just coronaviruses but bat coronaviruses within miles of where this outbreak occurred.”
Despite State Department concerns being raised multiple times about the safety and security of the labs, the Chinese government, Cruz noted, has “refused to answer” whether they were studying the novel coronavirus in one of these labs and “did it escape accidentally.”
“They are stonewalling and refusing to answer that,” Cruz said before going on to his second count of China’s guilt.
The senator accused the Chinese Communist Party of a cover-up, keeping silent about the virus for weeks as they “tried to hide and try to obscure this outbreak.”
“When you had physician whistleblowers bravely try to blow the whistle on this, the Chinese government came down on them, they silenced them,” Cruz told Hannity. “If they behaved like an ordinary, responsible government, there is a very real possibility we could have gone in with health professionals, contained this outbreak, quarantined those infected and kept it as a regional outbreak rather than a global pandemic.”
The Texas lawmaker then pointed out that the U.S. should be concerned about its supply chain, including pharmaceuticals and medical devices, being sent to China.
“We have got to correct that and bring those critical supply chains back to the United States,” he urged.
“They hid it, they protected their own people. They let the rest of the world get infected and die,” Hannity responded. “They saved themselves and knowingly knew the risk for the rest of the world, that would mean they had blood on their hands.”
If China had not covered things up and “hadn’t been afraid of being embarrassed,” there wouldn’t be a global pandemic facing the world, Cruz contended.
“There needs to be serious accountability. There needs to be serious transparency and the Chinese Communist government doesn’t want to see it,” Cruz said, adding that same could be said about the mainstream media in the U.S. which devoted early reports to “debunking” what they called the conspiracy theories about China’s culpability.
“The argument from science is that it doesn’t appear that this virus was created in a lab, that it appears to be naturally occurring,” Cruz explained. “The question is not was it artificially constructed, the question is were they studying this virus from that and did they screw up and accidentally infect someone and let it out? And they don’t want to answer that question.”
“Most of the mainstream media doesn’t even want to acknowledge the question exists,” he added.
Cruz, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, announced his proposed legislation called the “Ending Chinese Medical Censorship and Cover Ups Act of 2020,” earlier this week and said it would be just “one of the necessary steps” he would undertake when the Senate reconvenes to hold Chinese officials accountable.
“China’s censorship and suppression are now not only a threat to human rights in China and around the world, they are a direct threat to U.S. national security and our economy,” he said when introducing the bill.
He noted that there are two labs in Wuhan “controlled by the Chinese government that were studying not just coronaviruses but bat coronaviruses within miles of where this outbreak occurred.”
Despite State Department concerns being raised multiple times about the safety and security of the labs, the Chinese government, Cruz noted, has “refused to answer” whether they were studying the novel coronavirus in one of these labs and “did it escape accidentally.”
“They are stonewalling and refusing to answer that,” Cruz said before going on to his second count of China’s guilt.
The senator accused the Chinese Communist Party of a cover-up, keeping silent about the virus for weeks as they “tried to hide and try to obscure this outbreak.”
“When you had physician whistleblowers bravely try to blow the whistle on this, the Chinese government came down on them, they silenced them,” Cruz told Hannity. “If they behaved like an ordinary, responsible government, there is a very real possibility we could have gone in with health professionals, contained this outbreak, quarantined those infected and kept it as a regional outbreak rather than a global pandemic.”
But, it is just so much easier for many of the hard core liberal left to blame everything on Trump!
True enough. See below!
Even if true (HINT: it's not).... How does this detract from Trump's refusal to address the situation until it was too late?
I might take Cruz seriously but he chose Hannity to air this. That is like taking vegetarian cooking tips from Jeffrey Dahmer.
So you are just upset because of the platform and not of the message. If he had gone on Maddow and said the exact same thing, would you have approved? Keep in mind far less people watch Maddow than does Hannity, so the message would have gotten out to far, far less people.
Nah, I'm still upset that not enough people thought Ted Cruz would make a better POTUS then the rest of the field, but then my respect for Ted fell off a cliff when he didn't slap the shit out of Trump or challenge him to a duel like Andrew Jackson would have done if someone impugned Jackson's heritage, father or wife.
Since then all Cruz has done in DC is waste oxygen and take up space.
But if enough people did vote to have Cruz as president, the liberal hate machine would still be out no different than they are today, and accuse him of the same shit libs have been falsely accusing Trump of for the past 4 years........all because Cruz has an R behind his name.
Totally agree.
Same as the 'conservative hate machine' from 2008 through? complaining about all of the false accusations against the last POTUS?
Say it ain't so. /s
Like what? I will give you the birtherism thing. That was bs.
And when you make a feeble attempt to answer, make sure you include the mass media hatefest and fake "news" stories over the first 3 years of his presidency.
Give me a break.
There wasn't a conservative hate fest for 8 years on NV & NT?
There weren't fake news stories about gay trysts, bath houses and murders to cover them up?
google pictures of obama lynched in effigy. ( about 652,000 hits ) (lot's of pictures mostly domestic)
" " " trump " " " " ( about 37,100 ) ( many only Kathy Lee's BS )
Many are about Trump himself claiming the impeachment was a lynching.
Only one American lynching pic that I noted with a quick look, lots of Palestinians and other foreigners.
McConnell swore to make Obama a one term POTUS by denying him any legislative victories.
Mulvaney admitted it recently. Tea Party members didn't come to DC to pass any thing, they came to stop everything Obama proposed. They came to shut everything down.
From 2008 on, they bitched about his race, his school grades, transcripts, lack of experience, his wife's bare arms, his tan suit, his feet on the desk, ( how dare that boy), adhering to local customs and bowing to Asian diplomats, etc.
Nothing was too petty.
For a few here it hasn't stopped yet.
So you got nothing.
No accusations that lasted years, no media and democrat (same) conspiracies to oust the president, no fake stories that relied on "those close to the event", no impeachment hearings that ended up producing articles that had zero to do with the original complaints, but some bs articles just to say democrats impeached the president, no hatefest day in and day out about Obama's failure handling of SARS.
The media and democrats (same) just rolled over and acted like they heard nothing.
There is daily bitching about swine flu, murder by drone, administrative malfeasance, letting the stock pile of PPE languish, the debt, the debt, the debt, if you just open your eyes and read.
I guess or at least hope, the debt BS will go away, but I'm not optimistic.
You and I go back many years.
I had no delusions about the outcome of this conversation.
Have a safe weekend.
btw, SARS outbreak was in 2003 when Bush was POTUS
and Obama was in his 6th year as an Illinois State Senator
Don't feel bad, according to most Americans polled at Trump Rallies, Obama sat in the Oval office and did nothing as the World Trade Center towers burned and collapsed on 09/22/2001.
You and I both know I meant H1N1, but go ahead and take that dig.
Which one of those led to fake impeachment articles to appease the lunatics that said they were running only to impeach the president.
At last count, it was zero.
On a lighter side, thank you for the concern and kind words. We are going fishing Tuesday.
That's because it wasn't seen as a failure by the majority of Americans or anyone else - it killed hundreds of thousands world wide, only 12,000 here in 18 months.
That's because they treated it the same as every other pandemic - handed it over to HHS, CDC, FDA and told them to get a vaccine which they did in record time - still using it, I believe.
They did not panic, did not shut down the economy and yes they had 12 thousand causalities on top of the 40,000 flue deaths that year over an 18 month period.
Regardless of how many Americans die in this pandemic, it will be remembered for how it was handled, shutting down the economy and the self inflicted recession which appears imminent.
Oil futures went negative today, a first.
Have fun fishing, make sure you wear life vests and masks.
Then you should have made sure that you said H1N1 because now it looks like you're back tracking to make yourself look good. Would it have been that hard to just say, Oops, I meant H1N1 instead of the comment I quoted? It really is too hard to admit a mistake, isn't it?
Go ahead, blame China if it makes one feel better.
However, the US had one case of COVID-19. Then it had less than a dozen. The it had a hundred or so. Then it had a thousand or so. Then ten thousand or so----and so on. This is our problem and how we deal with it is our problem too.
As far as Cruz. Candidate Trump besmirched his family and his wife----and Cruz licks Trump's shoes.
Well, what logical scientific origin would YOU choose to blame? Mars? Venus? Jupiter?
I hear that the Christian God created all things, not the old Roman gods which came before him/her.
We might start there, but it's probably off topic.
[This comment stands. If Jasper's comment was not off topic, neither is SP's.] sandy
Blame gets you nothing. Can we deal with this or not?
Scientific origin? God maybe? Hell, I don't know, do you?
The secular progressive way to disrespect a seed.
That will be the day. They hate Trump so much that they are totally in bed with China in their attempt to blame him.
If what you mean by "disrespect", is that he took it way off topic for no good reason, then I agree. And I think SP as much as admitted that in his comment.
But we aren't even sure if SP is a secular progressive, nor can we claim that all secular progressives would "disrespect" a seed in the manner in which you feel SP has. Careful with such generalizations please.
[Deleted]
That attitude is simply part of his MO. To him everyone is a secular progressive, no matter what their beliefs are or their political associations. And the term secular progressive is clearly intended to be an insult and a term of disrespect.
It's a term he uses for everyone who does not agree with him, or his human Messiah, Trump.
Thank You Raven
daft has no value?
The daily accusations about China are a diversion away from Trumps poor performance.
They also point to the Republicans and Trumps campaign strategy. Since Biden is obviously not a socialist ala Sanders, Trump needs a new strategy. The play will be that Biden is soft on Chinese communists, and communism in general. Take it to the bank. There will be a new McCarthyism directed at the Democratic Party and Biden and whoever his running mate is in particular.
China may well be to "blame". How does that help Americans get better? Or not get sick?
Or the daily accusations against Trump are a diversion away from China. It can work either way John. Depends on which side of the spectrum one is on.
The guilt of the Chinese post the accidental release of the virus is becoming more clear every day.
[deleted] whose carelessness and callous disregard for human life is plain for all to see in order to carry out their vendetta against other Americans.
Your comment displays politically myopic and intolerant partisanship. Would you have taken Cruz 100% seriously if he'd said the same on MSNBC or CNN shows? Facts are facts.
and all Ted Cruz ever expresses are his opinions.
and right leaning NT posters
and everyone in the middle too,
It’s time for the world to hold China and its communist regime responsible for their actions since the Wuhan virus was unleashed upon the whole world by their deliberate actions.
Deliberate actions to sicken and kill their own people and damage their own economy? Is that your opinion, or is your hatred of China REALLY based on your anger of how Christians are not allowed to proselytize there? That's the REAL reason for your hatred of the CCP - Have you not noted that there are millions of Christians in China who are allowed to pray to Jesus, and they haven't been put into Re-education Camps?
I never said that the initial release of the virus was a deliberate action. The cover up and everything that happened since is.
Oh and it was reported that China was now using this crisis to arrest leaders of the protests in Hong Kong 🇭🇰 that ended months ago. The elderly leader arrested said he stands by what he did with no regrets and was glad to have instilled personal liberty, elections, democracy, and free market capitalism into all the younger generations in Hong Kong.
A wasted effort, a stupid sacrifice - everybody knows that in a while the CCP will govern Hong Kong and nobody is going to stop it.
The CCP won’t even exist in 2047.
I know that's number 1 on your wish list, but my advice to you is not to rely heavily on wishful thinking.
Their people will turn on them after this betrayal of them by their leaders. The whole world is questioning them or blaming them for what has happened world wide because of their actions post virus release. The only way they can survive is to make an enemy of the euro /pacific /North American English speaking world over the values of the people of Hong Kong and start a new Cold War while isolating itself and all who live there from the outside world it’s not actively trying to physically conquer. Japan, USA, Australia, Taiwan, and India can lead their neighbors in containing China the same way we contained the Soviet Union.
It's interesting to see that you're more aware of the mood of the Chinese people than I am.
They haven’t faced the brunt of being ostracized by the rest of the world yet. Most of them don’t even know of the extent of the guilt their regime for what happened to the rest of the world.
Their being ostracized by the rest of the world is your opinion only, and they're well aware of your present government's incitement and the general resentment expressed by many Americans - it's all on the TV news here. However, that is bound to strengthen the resolve of the Chinese people who already are very loyal to their government even if they know that the CCP made mistakes at the beginning of the epidemic.
Some have been and it’s only a matter of time before they come for the rest of us there.
Such paranoid delusions.
I'll say.
I've been saying it for a while now.
then why doesn't the dominionist weasel place blame for the covid-19 virus all the way up at the top? his god's will.
"his god's will." Got to laugh at that. "Stormy Who" gets you a bagel.
Communist regimes state religion is atheism. Atheists should be embarrassed by how the government reflecting their values is behaving
ignorant theocrats usually confuse anti-dominionists with atheists.
There are no theocrats or dominionists here. Just ordinary Bible believing Christians.
Not much of a difference. Especially if you think laws or public policy should reflect biblical tenets.
A woefully ignorant and disingenuous statement. First off, atheism isn't a religion. Duh! Second, what exactly do you think "atheist values" are?
americans that place bible verbiage over the the laws of the US Constitution are basically dominionists
Absolutely. There are Biblical laws, and there are man mad laws. Biblical laws do not supersede man's laws.
Religion does not belong in politics or mans laws.
Only those who refuse to obey man's laws dare to put religious laws before man's laws. And that is against the Constitution. Man's laws.
Real Christians understand that and adhere to that rule. Only those who are Christians INO or those who pretend to be Christians and use their God's name to their advantage to fool the ignorant among us, would dare to Biblical laws over man's laws.
Atheism is a religion.
Go ahead and explain.
Real Christians will obey mans laws and respect civil authority right up to the point a human law requires a believer to break one of God’s laws in order to obey a human one. Even then we still respect civil authority even while obeying God over man regardless of the civil cost of said civil disobedience. Even if the cost of such obedience to God over man is a capital offense. Just like Daniel defied a direct law of the king he was the prime advisor to and was placed in a den of lions for it. The symbolism of my icon has real meaning.
Then they are not real Christians. Just Christians INO who make up their own laws to suit their own chosen beliefs that is only a way for them to have their own way. The world is full of them, and real Christians know they are full of it.
No true Christian would willingly defy God in order to obey a man made law in any country on earth that would force him or her to break with what God expects. Look at all the countries around the world where our mere presence and beliefs are a crime against the state and or the majority religion there and yet we are there anyway.
Are you a minister or preacher or "corner-shouter" or a God expert?? Or do you just like to proselytize?
Still using an avatar that offends all American, especially veterans?
I also thought that when the S&S is in a march past, it is never to be dipped to honour anyone.
True. No mere mortal. We bow to no other human being, not even the head of state in the Chinese Communist Party.