Democrats, the establishment media and Big Tech have all come around in recent weeks on the very plausible theory that the coronavirus pandemic originated in a lab in China, but it’s stunning to see one of these people admit why the theory was so vehemently opposed.
Why was such a plausible theory shot down? According to ABC News chief Washington correspondent Jonathan Karl, it was dismissed because former President Donald Trump and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo floated the idea publicly — and because the Trump administration simply couldn’t be trusted.
Karl was speaking with ABC News’ Martha Raddatz about why the origins of COVID are so important Sunday on “This Week” when Raddatz pointed out that people who were once completely dismissive of the lab theory have “egg on their face.”
“We need to know how it started and yes, I think a lot of people have egg on their face,” Karl said. “This was an idea that was first put forward by Mike Pompeo, secretary of state, Donald Trump. And look, some things may be true even if Donald Trump said them.”
Gee, ya think?
“And there was — because Trump was saying so much else that was just out of control, and because he was, you know, making a frankly racist appeal talking about ‘kung-flu’ and the ‘China virus,’ his notion put forward that this may have, or that he said flatly that this came from that lab, was widely dismissed,” Karl said.
ABC's Jon Karl on Wuhan lab leak theory: "I think a lot of people have egg on their face….Some things may be true even if Donald Trump said them." pic.twitter.com/69Hrd25B9y
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) May 30, 2021
“But actually, there’s some real reason — we don’t know, by the way, we still don’t know, we absolutely don’t know, but now, serious people are saying it needs a serious inquiry.”
Serious people have been inquiring about the origin of the coronavirus for over a year, noting that even the proximity of the Wuhan Institute of Virology to the first known cases in 2019 was peculiar. Serious people listen when the adults are talking.
Karl is not a serious person. Neither is Raddatz.
What did Pompeo say about the COVID lab theory? Interestingly enough, just over a year ago, on May 3, 2020, the former State Department head said it directly to Raddatz on Karl’s network. Raddatz, when introducing Pompeo for that interview, started off by calling the lab theory “unsubstantiated,” to which the former secretary of state responded.
“Martha, there’s enormous evidence that that’s where this began. We’ve said from the beginning that this was a virus that originated in Wuhan, China. We took a lot of grief for that from the outset, but I think the whole world can see now,” Pompeo told Raddatz last May.
“Remember, China has a history of infecting the world, and they have a history of running substandard laboratories,” he said. “These are not the first times that we’ve had a world exposed to viruses as a result of failures in a Chinese lab.”
“And so, while the intelligence community continues to do its work, they should continue to do that and verify so that we are certain. I can tell you that there is a significant amount of evidence that this came from that laboratory in Wuhan.”
Raddatz was interviewing Pompeo a year ago about his thoughts on the lab theory. Pompeo answered succinctly that the theory was one that was being looked at. The entire establishment media, blew the whole thing off — portraying the lab theory as some sort of insane conspiracy theory.
Trump, who had the best intelligence available on what was known about the coronavirus and was looking out for Americans, not China, was floating the Wuhan lab theory as early as last April. That was the month the establishment media stooged for communist China the Democratic National Committee and got paid while the country was shut down.
Asked if he’d seen the evidence at a media briefing April 31, he responded: “Yes, yes I have.”
According to ABC’s Karl on Sunday, Trump might have been taken seriously but he was “out of control” and “racist.” Perhaps if people such as Karl hadn’t stayed so busy twisting Trump’s every word throughout his term and seeking opportunities to be offended, they wouldn’t be so behind.
The lab theory has been out and debated for over a year. People were banned from social media for discussing it.
Now, ABC News is trying to explain away the egg on its face, with Karl saying that Trump — a man he never once gave a fair shake, and who also had his every statement misconstrued by Karl and people like him — just couldn’t be trusted.
The establishment media doesn’t live in a world of facts. They live in a world of narratives they create.
It really makes you wonder how prosperous and unifying Trump’s term might have been had the establishment media not spent every second of four years ignoring the truth, dismissing half the country and attempting to start a race war.
