Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee were frustrated with the lack of findings from the Biden administration’s 90-day investigation into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic during a closed-door briefing this week.
GOP members on the committee noted potential bias in the probe, including bias held by unrevealed experts that were consulted by the Biden probe, sources told CNN.
The briefing on Sept. 29 grew contentious when Republicans were rebuffed in their attempts to hear which experts were used as the basis of the probe which failed to conclude whether the virus escaped from the Wuhan, China, virology lab or had a natural origin.
One of the five sources noted Congress has the authority to demand that information, but Democrats have control in the House, so that will likely keep Republicans from getting the information they believe is going to expose political bias in the investigation, CNN reported.
Republicans have argued the Biden administration is effectively permitting an alleged China cover-up on the coronavirus origins to continue with bias in this investigation, according to the report.
Democrats were charged up as Republicans asked intelligence briefers yes or no questions on which individuals might have been consulted in the investigation, raising the frustrations of both political sides of the intel committee, according to sources.
Among them, EcoHealth Alliance’s Peter Daszak has had past conflicts of interest exposed as the U.S. representative to the World Health Organization, the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), and past investigative attempts to debunk the Wuhan lab leak as a conspiracy theory.
Republicans on the committee referenced publicly released information in the briefing, noting the “preponderance of evidence suggests” the COVID-19 pandemic originated in the WIV, including the August report released by Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, sources told CNN.
“Unfortunately, the Biden administration is refusing to take investigating the origins of this virus seriously,” McCaul said in June.
