LAB LEAK: "Fringe Theory" No More

More than three years later, Biden administration officials now believe COVID-19 was the result of a Wuhan lab leak.

This represents a significant about-face for Democrats, who routinely characterized any blame of China as “racist” and “xenophobic.” In fact, when Republican Senator Tom Cotton first floated a Chinese lab leak as the potential culprit in 2020, Democrats and their allies in the media immediately cast it as “debunked” and a “fringe theory.”

So how did we get here? Soon after taking office, Biden — who promised to hold China accountable — shut down a Trump-era investigation into COVID’s origins, instead relying on his administration’s own inquiry and a flawed investigation by the World Health Organization.

Then, the Biden administration stonewalled:

• JUNE 2021: Secretary of State Antony Blinken suggested Biden would rely on the World Health Organization — which dismissed the lab leak theory at China's behest — to investigate the Wuhan lab.
• MARCH 2022: Anthony Fauci — then Biden’s top medical advisor who called the lab leak hypothesis “a circular argument” and actively tried to suppress the theory — said he didn’t want to say anything “disparaging” about China.
• NOVEMBER 2022: Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre snapped at a reporter who attempted to ask about the investigation into COVID’s origin.
• NOVEMBER 2022: Fauci said he didn’t “know what that means” when asked if he agreed with using words like “coverup” and “intentional distortion” to describe China’s role in the pandemic.

Further, Nicholas Burns, who would go on to become Biden’s ambassador to China, was equally as dismissive — calling the assertion “feckless and reckless.”

Will Biden, who has so far refused to get tough on Xi Jinping for his role in the pandemic, move forward in the search for the truth? Or, in typical Biden fashion, will he continue stonewalling the investigation into the Chinese Communist Party?

If history is any indication, it’ll be the latter.