Politico | Wuhan lab leak theory dogs Democrats eager to keep focus on Trump’s Covid-19 failings
- Democrats worry that murky conclusions that don’t identify the origin of the virus could play into the Republicans’ hands
- US President Joe Biden in May ordered the US intelligence community to redouble efforts to study the virus’ origins
This story is published in a content partnership with POLITICO. It was originally reported by Alice Miranda Ollstein on politico.com on July 4, 2021.
Congressional Democrats are having to balance escalating calls to investigate whether Covid-19 escaped from a lab in China with their efforts to highlight the Trump administration’s response to the pandemic and the continuing push to stamp out the virus.
The dilemma shows how much shaping a narrative of the health crisis ahead of the 2022 midterms is already consuming politicians as new outbreaks emerge in parts of the country. And it puts Democrats who control the congressional agenda in a bind, as they wrestle with the possibility of stoking potentially unprovable claims about a man-made crisis or facing accusations from Republicans of engineering a cover-up.
The issue flared again over the past week, when top House Republicans from four committees convened a self-styled hearing on the origins of the virus, during which they accused Democrats of ignoring the issue and fronting for Beijing.
