After the COVID-19 “lab leak” theory gained traction in Washington, D.C., the liberal media went on the offensive against Republicans, claiming that they were using the opportunity to attack the Biden administration.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the US Energy Department concluded with “low confidence” that the virus likely originated from a lab leak in China.
It was high-level confirmation of what some Republican lawmakers, including Sen. Rand Paul and comedian Jon Stewart, had previously stated that COVID may have leaked from a laboratory setting, as Fox News reported.
However, mainstream journalists continued to dismiss the lab leak theory, dismissing it as Republican political fodder.
In a story headlined “‘Lab leak’ report energizes Republicans’ covid probes,” the Washington Post framed Republicans’ reaction to the Energy Department’s evident confirmation of the theory as support for “GOP talking points.”
MSNBC columnist Hayes Brown said that the “Energy Department’s lab leak assessment isn’t a smoking gun.” He also claimed that Republicans picked up power based on “Covid-related conspiracy theories”, including about Dr. Anthony Fauci.
“[H]is frequent media appearances warning about the dangers of Covid during the pandemic,” Brown wrote, “has made Fauci a perfect shadowy figure to populate numerous dark conspiracy theories.”
Again, the MSNBC columnist attached the GOP to “conspiracy theories,” predicting that “House Republicans will likely latch on to the ‘low confidence’ conclusion as proof for conspiracy theories about Covid’s origins.”
Politico took its own shots at Republicans, writing that they “are anxious to use new Covid-19 lab leak reports to lash out at the ruling Chinese Communist Party and paint President Joe Biden’s administration as soft on Beijing.”
According to the Biden administration, there is “no consensus” on the “lab leak” theory of COVID’s origin. The Hill portrayed Republicans as “seizing on a new Energy Department conclusion pointing to a ‘lab leak’ as causing the COVID-19 outbreak to call for swift action against the Chinese government.”