During her White House Press Briefing on Friday, January 31st, President Donald Trump’s new Press Secretary, Karoline Leavitt, commented on the recent news that the CIA believes the “lab leak” origin story for Covid is accurate, and she sounded off on the reporters who once doubted him and others on that theory.
That came when she was asked how Trump would respond to China over the lab leak news, with the reporter asking, “The CIA actually revealed that they do also believe that COVID-19 was from a lab leak in Wuhan, China. How is the president planning on responding to this additional Intel from the CIA? And will it impact how he responds to them with tariffs?”
Responding, she slammed Central Intelligence Agency Director John Ratcliffe for taking so long to reveal to much of America a truth that has long been known in certain circles. She said, slamming Ratcliffe, “Yeah. Kudos to John Ratcliffe for revealing that truth and that fact to the American people, many years too late.”
Continuing, she then slammed the recently departed Biden Administration for not releasing the information that it apparently long knew was the case, saying, “The Biden administration had a chance to let the American people know the truth about that and for some reason they chose not to.”
That’s when she obliterated the media for refusing to entertain different theories, saying, “I also would just like to point out that several years ago when I was working in this press shop and President Trump would take to this podium to brief the American people on COVID-19, he suggested that COVID very well may have came from a lab in Wuhan, China and many members in this very room mocked him for that, said he was spewing conspiracy theories.”
She then emphasized her point that Trump was telling the truth about a subject the media refused to consider, not “spewing conspiracy theories,” as the head in the sand media claimed. She said, “He was not. We now know that to be the confirmable truth. It took many years for it to come out, but the president was right in this instance again.” Watch her here:
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For reference, a CIA spokesperson announced in a statement on January 25 that the agency thinks the lab leak theory is true, saying, “CIA assesses with low confidence that a research-related origin of the COVID-19 pandemic is more likely than a natural origin based on the available body of reporting.” The agency hedged a bit, adding, “CIA continues to assess that both research-related and natural origin scenarios of the COVID-19 pandemic remain plausible.”
Following up on the question about what will happen to China over the lab leak later on in the press conference, Leavitt was asked, “So just pulling up on her question before, President Trump is holding China accountable on fentanyl by ramping up tariffs. So, how is President Trump planning to hold China accountable on COVID origins?”
Leavitt said that the tariff on China is coming, though Trump hasn’t commented on what will happen over COVID-19 specifically. She said, “I haven’t spoken to the president about the COVID origins specifically in regards to any actions he may or may not take when it comes to China. But as I have previewed quite a few times today, he will be implementing a 10 percent tariff on China tomorrow.”
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video