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Days after a bombshell report was dropped by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) which concluded that the COVID virus escaped from the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China, FBI Director Christopher Wray publicly admitted that his agency agrees.
That doesn’t mean there’s consensus in the Biden Administration, however, even though we’re three years into the pandemic. National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said Monday that despite DOE’s report, there’s still “not been a definitive conclusion.” It’s probably in a lot of people’s best interests that that point is never reached.
A coalition of 18 agencies and organizations make up the U.S. Intelligence Community, but they can’t decide on the origins of a novel coronavirus that evolved from bats and was first discovered near a Chinese biosafety level 4 (BSL-4) lab that studies bat viruses? Hmm.
We’ll start with Wray, who appeared on Fox News with “Special Report” host Brett Baier on Tuesday:
🚨BREAKING: FBI Director Christopher Wray said that the origin of COVID was likely the result of a laboratory leak in China pic.twitter.com/ducPWduotG
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) February 28, 2023
Although the FBI’s position on this theory dates back to October 2021, it’s the first time the director has publicly acknowledged it:
The FBI has for quite some time now assessed that the origins of the pandemic are most likely a potential lab incident in Wuhan.
That assessment will likely further strain our relationship with the Chinese, who have accused the US of politicizing the issue. Wray’s next sentence will make them even angrier:
I will just make the observation that the Chinese government seems to me has been doing its best to try to thwart and obfuscate the work here … and that’s unfortunate for everybody.
Meanwhile, Kirby is not convinced by the report from Energy, sounding a little defensive in a press briefing Monday:
Top Biden official John Kirby: “There’s not a consensus right now in the US govt on how COVID started”
They’re still covering for China.
How stupid do they think we are?pic.twitter.com/iKR5FrKxnI— Lidia Curanaj (@LidiaNews) February 27, 2023
“The intelligence community and the rest of the government is still looking at this,” Kirby said. “There’s not been a definitive conclusion, so it’s difficult for me to say — nor should I feel like I should have to defend press reporting about a possible preliminary indication here. What the president wants is facts.”
National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan also wasn’t swayed by the report:
National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan says he "can't confirm or deny" an intelligence report from the Department of Energy, which concludes the coronavirus pandemic was likely the result of a Chinese laboratory leak. pic.twitter.com/HunpkrSYEL
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) February 26, 2023
“Right now, there is not a definitive answer that has emerged from the intelligence community on this question,” Sullivan told CNN’s Dana Bash on Sunday. “Some elements of the intelligence community have reached conclusions on one side, some on the other. A number of them have said they just don’t have enough information to be sure.”
Republicans heading the House Oversight Committee are demanding answers. Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) and Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio) wrote Monday:
Uncovering the truth about the origins of COVID-19 is vital to U.S. national security, critical to the prevention of future pandemics, and will bring some semblance of closure to the families of those who lost loved ones during the pandemic.
Fox News reports that getting that answer is going to be very difficult because the intelligence agencies’ opinions are all over the map:
The National Intelligence Council as well as four other government agencies assess at “low confidence” that COVID-19 originated as a result of natural transmission from an infected animal, but the CIA and other government agencies remain undecided.
Perhaps if the nation’s media and our own government hadn’t spent the entire pandemic censoring and canceling anyone who dared to question the “wet market” origin theory of the virus, we’d be further along in this investigation—and closer to the truth.
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