Posted on 03/02/2023 7:51:04 AM PST by SeekAndFind
A pair of Republican senators on Wednesday night declared the U.S. Senate had unanimously passed their bill requiring the Biden administration to declassify intelligence related to the origins of COVID-19.
The bill, known as the COVID-19 Origin Act of 2023, specifically aims to investigate the possibility that the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes COVID-19, leaked from a lab in Wuhan, China.
Republican Sens. Mike Braun and Josh Hawley reintroduced the bill on Monday after the Department of Energy (DOE) provided a classified intelligence report to the White House and certain members of Congress, which concluded that the COVID-19 pandemic most likely arose from a lab leak. The FBI had previously come to a similar conclusion.
Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) made a request for unanimous consent of the bill, which was granted “without objection.” Unanimous consent enables a bill to pass without a recorded vote.
“Tonight the Senate UNANIMOUSLY passed my bill to declassify all the intelligence the government has on #covid origins. Let the people see the truth!” Hawley wrote on Twitter.
In further comments during an appearance on Fox News’ “Jesse Watters Primetime,” Hawley cited the importance of transparency and accountability in allowing the public to understand the origins of the pandemic.
Tonight the Senate UNANIMOUSLY passed my bill to declassify all the intelligence the government has on #covid origins. Let the people see the truth! — Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) March 2, 2023
Hawley told Watters that the bill needs to pass in the House of Representatives, “and then we can get this thing done.” They previously introduced a similar bill which passed unanimously in 2021.
The bill would require Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines to declassify the information in the U.S. government’s possession on the most likely origins of COVID-19.
“Listen, the American people—it’s past time—let’s show them what the government has. Let everybody see for themselves. Let everybody read it,” he told Fox News after the vote.
Braun also declared the unanimous passage of the motion, likewise calling on the House to pass the bill.
“The House needs to pass this bill to let the American people see the facts! President Biden can’t ignore this: time to let Americans decide for ourselves,” he wrote on Twitter.
On Monday, Hawley expressed concerns about the lack of transparency surrounding the pandemic’s origins, saying that for “nearly three years,” those questioning the Wuhan lab leak theory were “silenced and branded as a conspiracy theorist.”
However, the DOE’s report supports oft-maligned hypotheses that the virus emerged from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which is located nearby to a wet market broadly cited as the pandemic’s ground zero.
“Now, these prudent skeptics stand vindicated,” Hawley said in a statement.
“The Biden administration must immediately declassify all intelligence reports pertaining to the origins of COVID-19 and the Wuhan Institute of Virology. The American people deserve to know the truth.”
Braun also criticized the Biden administration for its posturing on the lab leak theory.
“The Biden administration has called the lab leak theory a conspiracy theory from the beginning, and has only started to publicly admit they were wrong as the evidence becomes overwhelming,” Braun said in a statement.
Braun said that the Biden administration had kept information about the origins of COVID-19 a secret despite an earlier version of this bill passing the Senate unanimously in 2021.
“The American people deserve transparency, free from government censors or media spin. It’s time to declassify everything we know about COVID’s origins and the Wuhan Institute of Virology, now,” he said.
...
The Chinese regime has long dismissed the possibility of a lab leak, saying the virus’s origins “should not be politicized.” Its efforts to suppress the theory recently included warning Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of Twitter, Tesla, and SpaceX, not to share the lab leak report.
But Who Released it?
Do not, for a NY minute, believe that our government will EVER tell its citizens the truth of all this!!!
RE: But Who Released it?
By “release” what do we exactly mean?
Was it done ACCIDENTALLY, or DELIBERATELY?
Really. A unanimous vote? Very suspicious.
My view is that the international labs are linked—and it is not that “China” did it or the “US” did it but the trans-national Big Pharma/Big Medical Research folks are responsible with their “gain of function” research.
The Senators have no clue what they are dealing with here....
The Biden regime will release what they consider the “most credible” intelligence and it will miraculously support a natural evolution of the virus in spite of it’s molecular make up clearly showing otherwise.
The big lie is being staged.
Correction, genetic make up.
Those that know very little or nothing are busy flapping their lips for column inches and/or face time.
Those who *DO* know are mute.
And even if accidentally released, it appears that it was intentionally spread with Wuhan being under domestic Chinese quarantine but international flights being allowed.
Fauci’s passport needs to be revoked.
The ENHANCEMENT was deliberate...
The ENHANCEMENT was deliberate...
“GAIN OF FUNCTION, etc”
I can't imagine they're going to point at fauxi or big Pharma. This smells more of an attempt to get ahead of the story CYA exercise.
But given that, I can't imagine they can control the narrative to preclude the question of fauxi/big Pharma's part in it. How are they going to stop Rand Paul from asking those questions?
I’m still waiting to find out who triggered the 2008 stock market crash.
We do know that in one day, 500B was pulled from the market.
Who did it, no one will say.
I’m sure the GOP will get right on this.....
They can't... and so what?<>br The media and the Senate will just ignore him!
BTW, who hired Craig Livingstone?
I see pages of black markings in our future.
Bingo!
WOW! There is NOTHING as aggressive as a Republican who knows their bill has zero chance of becoming law.
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