{ "error": "", "type": "text", "title": "Secretary Pompeo With Tony Perkins of Washington Watch - China", "slug": "secretary-pompeo-with-tony-perkins-of-washington-watch-china-1", "text": "
\"QUESTION:<\/strong> Yeah. Well, that was actually on my list to get to was what I call the triangle of tyranny. You got China, you got Iran, but you also have Russia putting out the same message there. I don\u2019t know if they\u2019ve all gotten together or they\u2019re just copying each other in the messaging, which is \u2013 it\u2019s kind of \u2013 I know it just doesn\u2019t add up. This breaks out in China in November. They\u2019re in lockdown. It makes it way to the United States in February, and we started it; it\u2019s a bioweapon that we created and we unleashed it on our own people? Is that the thinking?<\/p>\n SECRETARY POMPEO:<\/strong> This is a story that they have tried to propagate. We\u2019ve asked them to knock it off. The world knows that that\u2019s not the case. The world knows where this virus originated, right? We saw what happened in Wuhan, China. We saw that there were tens of thousands of people left Hubei province while the Chinese Government was aware that this virus was continuing to spread, and they didn\u2019t alert the world in a timely fashion and created enormous cost and risk to the world. We\u2019re still trying to figure out precisely how that came to be. It\u2019s important our epidemiologists, our scientists \u2013 not only Americans but those from all across the world \u2013 need to understand more about this, and we\u2019ve asked the Chinese Government, who tells us they want to be cooperative. We\u2019ve said we want to cooperate too, but that requires an openness and a transparency that we\u2019ve not been able to achieve just yet. I hope that we can because this is ongoing, and we continue to need that transparency about their weapons labs, their bio labs, all the places that this might have emanated from, so we can track down the original source of this virus inside of China.<\/p>\n QUESTION:<\/strong> So Mr. Secretary, let me ask you that question, because I know \u2013 I have a lot of confidence in our Intelligence Community and our ability as a government to track these things down. Without Chinese help and assistance in this, which, in fact, if they \u2013 if this is embarrassing to them, they most likely will not be helpful, but do we think that we\u2019ll get to a point where we can identify the source of this virus, if, in fact, it did come from the lab in Wuhan, China?<\/p>\n SECRETARY POMPEO:<\/strong> Tony, I don\u2019t know the answer to that for sure. I hope that we can collectively do that. I saw Chancellor Merkel yesterday \u2013 I\u2019ve seen leaders all across the world who have made clear the responsibility that every nation has, that China in particular has, since this epidemic broke out there \u2013 to open up, to get the information they need. We\u2019ll work hard to do that and find out the answers to those questions.<\/p>\n If we get their assistance and consent and help to do it, that would certainly make it more straightforward, but if they don\u2019t, it\u2019s important that we know not only so that there can be appropriate accountability with respect to it, but also so that we can put in place systems and processes that reduce the risk that the world will ever suffer from the massive loss of life and the economic calamity that has happened as a result of this epidemic coming out of Wuhan, China.\"<\/p>",
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