Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) told Fox News anchor Martha MacCallum on Wednesday that there must be “consequences” for communist China’s alleged silencing of whistleblowers who tried to warn the world about the outbreak of the coronavirus.
“There needs to be accountability. Look, first we have to defeat this crisis,” Cruz said. “But afterwards, there needs to be a careful accountability as to the communist government’s in China’s responsibility, both for covering it up and suppressing it, that we know, and also whether the communist government played an inadvertent part in the outbreak itself.”
“There were two State Department cables that you referenced that occurred early on that described two different labs in Wuhan, within miles where the outbreak occurred that were studying bat coronaviruses, and the Chinese government does not want to answer questions about whether they were studying the novel coronavirus and whether it was an accidental escape from their own labs,” Cruz continued. “There needs to be real accountability because the State Department was worried about the threat of a pandemic from these labs before the pandemic occurred and China. That may be part of the cover-up, they don’t want to answer basic questions.”
Cruz added, “I think the United States, I think the world community, needs to insist on accountability and consequences for China’s responsibility here.”
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TRANSCRIPT:
FOX NEWS ANCHOR MARTHA MACCALLUM: Senator Cruz thank you for being here thank you for being here tonight. You hear all of the conversation you hear all of the conversation and you have been involved in trying to crack down on some of the disinformation that’s come out of China. Tell me a little bit about that effort, Senator.
SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX): Well Martha, great to be with you. China has long been the most significant geopolitical threat the United States faces, and the communist government there engages in oppression, engages in torture of its citizens. We have always viewed it as a human rights offense when they censor and silence free speech. We have now seen that it’s not just a human rights threat, but it is also a threat to national security and global health. When it comes to this Wuhan outbreak, the Chinese communist government has direct responsibility, direct culpability, for silencing, for covering it up. When you had brave physician whistle-blowers blowing the whistle, the Chinese government came down on them and silenced them, they did everything they could them to keep it quiet, and had they acted promptly, there may well have been a possibility this could have been contained as a regional outbreak. Instead, it became a global pandemic. The lives lost, many of those are directly at China’s doorstep. I think there needs to be direct accountability. I introduced legislation today to sanction Chinese officials that are engaged in actively censoring and silencing public health information that endangers the lives of Americans and people across the globe.
MACCALLUM: That’s what I wanted to ask you. I think everybody recognizes the acts, the bad actor that China is in this situation. But where’s the teeth? How do you make it matter? How do you change their behavior with consequences with an act of Congress?
CRUZ: There needs to be accountability. Look, first we have to defeat this crisis. We have to defeat the pandemic, the public health pandemic, and also the economic crisis. But afterwards, there needs to be a careful accountability as to the communist government’s in China’s responsibility, both for covering it up and suppressing it, that we know, and also whether the communist government played an inadvertent part in the outbreak itself. You were just talking with Secretary Pompeo. There were two State Department cables that you referenced that occurred early on that described two different labs in Wuhan, within miles where the outbreak occurred that were studying bat coronaviruses, and the Chinese government does not want to answer questions about whether they were studying the novel coronavirus and whether it was an accidental escape from their own labs. There needs to be real accountability because the State Department was worried about the threat of a pandemic from these labs before the pandemic occurred, and China, that may be part of the cover-up, they don’t want to answer basic questions. I think the United States, I think the world community, needs to insist on accountability and consequences for China’s responsibility here. I also think we need to reassess China’s role in our supply chain, far too much of our medical products, of our pharmaceuticals, are manufactured in China, and they threaten the lives of Americans [by] cutting off vital medicines. We need to bring critical infrastructure back to the United States of America.
MACCALLUM: Yeah, I think a lot of people would like to see legislation around that and perhaps incentives for pharmaceutical companies that make it more reasonable for them to produce these drugs at home. That’s what they’re going to need in order to create change for their shareholders and the bottom line that is obviously a concern to them as well.