<p>On Sunday, a senior writer for The New York Times suggested that the mainstream media dismissed the theory espoused by Arkansas Republican Sen. Tom Cotton, later championed by former President Trump, that COVID-19 escaped from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, simply because they refused to consider that Cotton, an avowed conservative, might be correct.</p>
<p>New York Times writer David Leonhardt appeared on CNN’s “Reliable Sources,” where host Brian Stelter asked, “This week &#8230; you wrote about the lab leak theory, and how the conversation about this possible COVID escaping the Wuhan lab theory has been re-evaluated. It&#8217;s been reckoned with all of a sudden. What happened this week? Why is this back in the news?&#8221;</p>
<p>“Well, so, it&#8217;s pretty clear that we don&#8217;t know how COVID started,” Leonhardt answered. “Many people think the most likely explanation is that it jumped from an animal to a human being at a food market in Wuhan, China. That is certainly plausible. But it&#8217;s also plausible that, with some research at a top virology lab in Wuhan, China, it somehow escaped from there. We don&#8217;t know the answer. And what happened was a bunch of people started arguing that it likely escaped from this lab in Wuhan. And some of them were scientists who you&#8217;ve never heard of, necessarily, and who made serious arguments. But some of them were conservative politicians like Senator Tom Cotton. And after Cotton started doing it, Donald Trump, when he was president, started doing it.”</p>
<p>“And I think people made this mistake,” Leonhardt admitted. “I think a lot of people on the political left and a lot of people in the media made this mistake. They said, ‘Well, if Tom Cotton is saying something, it can&#8217;t be true,’ they assumed that. And that&#8217;s not right.”</p>
<p>As far back as January 30, 2020, Cotton theorized that the virus might have come from Wuhan. Speaking at a Senate Armed Services Hearing, he asserted, &#8220;I want to talk about the biggest and most important story in the world. The Wuhan coronavirus. This coronavirus is a catastrophe on the scale of Chernobyl for China. But actually, it’s probably worse than Chernobyl, which was localized in its effect. The coronavirus could result in a global pandemic. While you were all sleeping overnight, the number of diagnosed cases in China increased by 30%. Let me be clear: that’s not new cases; that is just newly-admitted cases. It is probably several orders of magnitude higher than that.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;We still don’t know where coronavirus originated,&#8221; Cotton said. &#8220;Could have been a market, a farm, a food processing company. I would note that Wuhan has China’s only biosafety level-four super laboratory that works with the world’s most deadly pathogens to include, yes, coronavirus.&#8221;</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">The Wuhan coronavirus is a catastrophe on the scale of Chernobyl for China, only Chernobyl was localized. The coronavirus is spreading worldwide. </p>
<p>Last night, confirmed cases increased in China by 30%. The true numbers are likely much higher. <a href="https://t.co/oV6zua7sJj">pic.twitter.com/oV6zua7sJj</a></p>
<p>&mdash; Tom Cotton (@SenTomCotton) <a href="https://twitter.com/SenTomCotton/status/1222923797503803392?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 30, 2020</a></p></blockquote>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">We still don’t know where coronavirus originated. Could have been a market, a farm, a food processing company.</p>
<p>I would note that Wuhan has China’s only biosafety level-four super laboratory that works with the world’s most deadly pathogens to include, yes, coronavirus. <a href="https://t.co/CtuU2czBLp">pic.twitter.com/CtuU2czBLp</a></p>
<p>&mdash; Tom Cotton (@SenTomCotton) <a href="https://twitter.com/SenTomCotton/status/1222971592403226628?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 30, 2020</a></p></blockquote>
<p>On February 9, 2020, after China’s ambassador took umbrage, calling Cotton’s suppositions “absolutely crazy” and claiming that the virus was “probably coming from some animals,” Cotton fired back, “Here’s what’s not a conspiracy, not a theory: Fact: China lied about virus starting in Wuhan food market. Fact: super-lab is just a few miles from that market. Where did it start? We don’t know. But burden of proof is on you &amp; fellow communists. Open up now to competent international scientists.”</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">.@ambcuitianki, here’s what’s not a conspiracy, not a theory:</p>
<p>Fact: China lied about virus starting in Wuhan food market <a href="https://t.co/Jgpy1Oh75Y">https://t.co/Jgpy1Oh75Y</a></p>
<p>&mdash; Tom Cotton (@SenTomCotton) <a href="https://twitter.com/SenTomCotton/status/1226549890160963594?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 9, 2020</a></p></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Fact: super-lab is just a few miles from that market</p>
<p>Where did it start? We don’t know. But burden of proof is on you &amp; fellow communists. Open up now to competent international scientists.</p>
<p>&mdash; Tom Cotton (@SenTomCotton) <a href="https://twitter.com/SenTomCotton/status/1226549891360546817?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 9, 2020</a></p></blockquote>
<p>Roughly a week later, Cotton stated on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures,” “China was lying from the beginning and they’re still lying today. … Here’s what we do know: this virus did not originate in the Wuhan animal market. Epidemiologists who are widely respected from China who have published a study in the international journal the Lancet have demonstrated that several of the original cases did not have any contact with that food market. The virus went into that food market before it came out of that food market. So we don’t know where it originated. But we do know we have to get to the bottom of that. We also know that just a few miles away from that food market is China’s only biosafety level 4 super laboratory that researches human infectious diseases.”</p>
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‘If Tom Cotton Is Saying Something, It Can’t Be True’: NYT Writer Admits Media Dismissed Claim Of Wuhan Virus Origin Because Cotton Said It

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‘If Tom Cotton Is Saying Something, It Can’t Be True’: NYT Writer Admits Media Dismissed Claim Of Wuhan Virus Origin Because Cotton Said It