Trump Officials Are Said to Press Spies to Link Virus and Wuhan Labs

[Buckeye_Democrat]

Trump and his right-wing authoritarians would probably start a war just to maintain their “power”, lying and manipulating people in the process as usual.

(Sorry if this was posted already. I didn’t see it after going back through a few pages of threads.)

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/30/us/politics/trump-administration-intelligence-coronavirus-china.html

WASHINGTON — Senior Trump administration officials have pushed American spy agencies to hunt for evidence to support an unsubstantiated theory that a government laboratory in Wuhan, China, was the origin of the coronavirus outbreak, according to current and former American officials. The effort comes as President Trump escalates a public campaign to blame China for the pandemic.

Some intelligence analysts are concerned that the pressure from administration officials will distort assessments about the virus and that they could be used as a political weapon in an intensifying battle with China over a disease that has infected more than three million people across the globe.

Most intelligence agencies remain skeptical that conclusive evidence of a link to a lab can be found, and scientists who have studied the genetics of the coronavirus say that the overwhelming probability is that it leapt from animal to human in a nonlaboratory setting, as was the case with H.I.V., Ebola and SARS.

[Midnight Writer]

1. Reminds me of Cheney and his B team in the CIA who slanted intelligence for him (like Iraq WMDs)

[Buckeye_Democrat]

2. Yep. nt

[Ghost Dog]

4. It's stovepiping. Nt

[Proud Liberal Dem]

7. Exactly what I thought of

And as if that changes or excuses anything that Trump did (or didn't) do in response. He knew about what was going on in January AT LEAST. Its origin isn't even that important at the moment. It doesn't change what happened, it doesn't change who died, nor does it change where we go from here. I mean, is he TRYING to go to (literal) war with China?

[SoonerPride]

3. Always looking for a scapegoat. Always searching for an easy out to sell on the tee-vee.

He will end up using this excuse even if he doesn't have proof. He will just lie about it anyway.

[Mosby]

5. Chinese are doing the same thing

A Chinese state-run newspaper is pushing an unfounded conspiracy theory that a U.S. military athlete was the patient zero of coronavirus.

The Global Times, citing known U.S. conspiracy theorist George Webb, claims that the virus was manufactured in a U.S. military lab and brought to China by a cyclist who took part in the World Military Games in Wuhan in October.

The claim is part of a wider effort by the Chinese government to change the narrative about the origin of the coronavirus, as the Trump administration continues to label the pandemic as the “Chinese virus” or the “Wuhan virus.”

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/n7jmpx/china-is-now-blaming-a-lone-us-cyclist-for-coronavirus

[SoonerPride]

6. I would expect no less from an authoritarian government

I used to expect more of our government but they are virtually indistinguishable based upon their disinformation and lies