{"id":1957542,"date":"2023-06-26T17:58:02","date_gmt":"2023-06-26T21:58:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/obscures-more-than-it-illuminates-lawmakers-slam-bidens-covid-origins-report\/"},"modified":"2023-06-26T18:00:01","modified_gmt":"2023-06-26T22:00:01","slug":"obscures-more-than-it-illuminates-lawmakers-slam-bidens-covid-origins-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/obscures-more-than-it-illuminates-lawmakers-slam-bidens-covid-origins-report\/","title":{"rendered":"Lawmakers criticize Biden&#8217;s COVID origins report for being misleading."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fobscures-more-than-it-illuminates-lawmakers-slam-bidens-covid-origins-report%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1957542&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div>\n<blockquote>\n<h2>&#8216;This is not sufficient,&#8217; says Ohio congressman Mike Turner<\/h2>\n<\/blockquote>\n<figure><figcaption>A Wuhan, China, lab technician in Feb. 2020 \/ Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>The Biden administration&#8217;s newly released report on the origins of COVID-19 is so vague it violates the 2023 law that requires the administration to declassify information on the virus&#8217;s genesis, Republican lawmakers are arguing.<\/p>\n<div>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/winred.tomcotton.com\/tom-cotton\/defend-scotus-ads-beacon?utm_source=rc&#038;utm_medium=beaconads&#038;utm_campaign=2023maybeaconscotus\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Link<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/winred.tomcotton.com\/tom-cotton\/defend-scotus-ads-beacon?utm_source=rc&#038;utm_medium=beaconads&#038;utm_campaign=2023maybeaconscotus\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Link<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul><\/div>\n<p>President Joe Biden&#8217;s director of national intelligence published the declassified portion of the report on Friday, days after the agency blew past Congress&#8217;s June 18 deadline to release the information, as established under the COVID-19 Origin Act of 2023. The report was supposed to lay out the administration&#8217;s intelligence on China&#8217;s now-infamous Wuhan Institute of Virology and the lab&#8217;s potential links to the COVID pandemic&#8217;s origin. But GOP lawmakers are expressing major dissatisfaction with the report, arguing the information provided was insufficient and &#8220;obscures more than it illuminates.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Ohio Republican congressman Mike Turner, for example, said during a Sunday CBS interview that the lackluster report violates the COVID-19 Origin Act and will likely lead to a &#8220;battle&#8221; between Congress and the Biden administration&#8217;s director of national intelligence, Avril Haines. &#8220;This is not sufficient. \u2026 We want the intelligence released, not their opinion about the intelligence,&#8221; Turner said. &#8220;We passed a law saying, &#8216;Declassify it.&#8217; It&#8217;s the law of the land. Release this so the American public can see it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Friday&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/national-security\/intel-report-says-lab-leak-is-now-considered-a-possibility-by-every-us-intelligence-agency\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">report<\/a> comes after years of speculation over the Wuhan Institute of Virology&#8217;s culpability in the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic. To date, evidence shows that risky gain-of-function research on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/obscures-more-than-it-illuminates-lawmakers-slam-bidens-covid-origins-report\/\" title=\"Lawmakers criticize Biden's COVID origins report for being misleading.\">bat coronaviruses\u2014including research funded<\/a> by U.S. grant programs\u2014took place at the Wuhan lab ahead of the pandemic&#8217;s emergence in the United States. GOP critics have subsequently accused the federal government&#8217;s medical experts of working to obfuscate the institute&#8217;s potential role in starting the pandemic. Former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases head Anthony Fauci, for example, <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2023\/03\/06\/fauci-sneered-at-gop-lab-leak-concerns\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/official-in-d-c-mayors-office-its-a-necessary-evil-to-allow-darwinism-to-kill-off-the-foolish-unvaccinated\/\" title=\"Official in D.C. Mayor's Office: It's a 'Necessary Evil' to Allow 'Darwinism to Kill off' the 'Foolish' Unvaccinated\">repeatedly dismissed concerns<\/a><\/a> that the virus leaked from a lab in Wuhan, going as far as to commission a paper to &#8220;disprove&#8221; the theory.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to Turner, Coronavirus Subcommittee chairman Brad Wenstrup (R., Ohio) on Saturday <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/COVIDSelect\/status\/1672596727692668929?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">blasted<\/a> the Biden administration report, with the subcommittee&#8217;s Twitter account calling it &#8220;deficient and disappointing.&#8221; Washington Republican congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers, meanwhile, said the &#8220;Friday night &#8216;news&#8217; dump of a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/gop-lawmakers-react-to-us-covid-origin-report-american-people-deserve-better\/\" title=\"GOP lawmakers respond to US COVID origin report: 'Americans deserve better'.\">mere 10-page summary<\/a> is a slap in the face of Americans who deserve full transparency about what information the government possesses regarding the origins of COVID-19.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;President Biden should follow through with what Congress has required: to declassify all information we need to help answer one of the most important public health questions of our lifetime,&#8221; McMorris Rodgers said in a statement. &#8220;Perhaps the most important lesson we&#8217;ve learned throughout the pandemic is that our government must be honest and forthcoming if we are ever to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/biden-justice-department-nominee-faces-ethics-minefield-from-fathers-corporate-interests\/\" title=\"Biden Justice Department Nominee Faces Ethics Minefield From Father\u2019s Corporate Interests\">restore public trust<\/a> and obtain justice for the victims of the pandemic. \u2026 This report fails to live up to either.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The Office of the Director of National Intelligence did not return a request for comment.<\/p>\n<p>Republicans have specifically criticized the report&#8217;s failure to name the scientists at the Wuhan Institute of Virology who in late 2019 were among the first to fall ill with COVID-like symptoms. Just days before the report&#8217;s release, <a href=\"https:\/\/public.substack.com\/p\/first-people-sickened-by-covid-19?r=58hqy&#038;utm_medium=ios&#038;utm_campaign=post\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">news reports<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/u-s-funded-scientist-among-three-chinese-researchers-who-fell-ill-amid-early-covid-19-outbreak-3f919567\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">confirmed<\/a> the names of those scientists, who all reportedly worked on bat coronaviruses at the Wuhan lab. While Friday&#8217;s report confirmed that scientists at the lab did indeed fall ill with COVID-like symptoms in late 2019, it did not identify who those scientists were.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The law explicitly requires the director of national intelligence to release details on these researchers, including their names, symptoms, and involvement in coronavirus research at the [Wuhan Institute of Virology],&#8221; Wisconsin Republican congressman Mike Gallagher <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RepGallagher\/status\/1672662222693072897?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">said<\/a> in a Saturday statement. &#8220;This DNI release does none of that and, in many ways, obscures more than it illuminates.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Friday&#8217;s 10-page report also highlights &#8220;biosafety concerns&#8221; at the Wuhan lab and confirms that &#8220;genetic engineering&#8221; of coronaviruses did take place there prior to COVID-19&#8217;s emergence in the United States. The report notes that Wuhan lab researchers used <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/new-study-less-than-1-in-100-million-chance-that-covid-19-has-natural-origin\/\" title=\"New Study: Less Than 1 in 100 Million Chance That COVID-19 Has Natural Origin\">genetic engineering techniques<\/a> that make it hard to detect if the changes were intentional but nonetheless asserts that &#8220;almost all&#8221; intelligence agencies believe COVID-19 was not genetically modified.<\/p>\n<div>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/winred.tomcotton.com\/tom-cotton\/defend-scotus-ads-beacon?utm_source=rc&#038;utm_medium=beaconads&#038;utm_campaign=2023maybeaconscotus\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Link<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/winred.tomcotton.com\/tom-cotton\/defend-scotus-ads-beacon?utm_source=rc&#038;utm_medium=beaconads&#038;utm_campaign=2023maybeaconscotus\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Link<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul><\/div>\n<p>In addition to deriding the report&#8217;s lack of transparency, Kansas Republican senator Roger Marshall, a member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, called for the report&#8217;s authors to testify before Congress.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;As we&#8217;ve seen nearly every step of the way while trying to uncover the origins of COVID-19 virus, the Biden administration has failed to be transparent with the American people and members of Congress,&#8221; Marshall told the <em>New York Post<\/em>. &#8220;Today&#8217;s release of the declassified documents is late and does not provide the full picture of what our intelligence agencies know.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Biden&#8217;s report on COVID-19 origins fails to meet requirements, claim GOP lawmakers. Ohio congressman Mike Turner criticizes the vague findings, stating they violate the 2023 law mandating the declassification of information on the virus&#8217;s origin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2088,"featured_media":1957543,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[544],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1957542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-free-beacon"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1957542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2088"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1957542"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1957542\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1957543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1957542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1957542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1957542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}