How the Trump Administration Twisted Coronavirus Intelligence
The article is written by a former Pence advisor and really everyone should read the whole thing. I will offer a couple of different paragraphs as a taste
In his requests for more information, it wasnt Pences behavior that was questionable, but his apparent motives. On February 26, Pence was announced as the new head of the White Houses coronavirus task force. After Dr. Nancy Messonier, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, had raised the alarm about the virus spreading in the United States, it was widely understood inside the administration that the vice presidents job was not to control the disease but to control the narrative. Finding evidence for the lab leak theory seemed to become a public relations imperative.
The next month, Trump followed his lead, telling reporters he had a high degree of confidencean intelligence term of art for an assessment backed by significant data unsuited to alternate explanationsthat the Wuhan lab was the origin of the virus. When asked where he got his evidence, he dodged, I cant tell you that. Im not allowed to tell you that, from which any reasonable person would infer classified intelligence sources, not a months-old Washington Times article.
Considering the abuse to which the intelligence process was subjected during the last year of the Trump administration, there are ample reasons for Biden to ask for a new, updated report on how SARS-CoV-2 came to be.
The true origins of the virus may never be known. But as long as there are political points to be scored, many alumni of the Trump administration dont care.
https://thebulwark.com/how-the-trump-administration-twisted-coronavirus-intelligence/