CNN Newsroom host Brianna Keilar and national security correspondent Kaylie Atwood theorized on Thursday that increased focus on the possibility that the current pandemic began as a lab accident in Wuhan and not at a wet market is just another attempt by the White House and its allies to distract from the administration's failures.
Keilar reported on the news that the lab accident explanation is being looked into, but that CNN's sources say any definitive conclusion would be premature and that Beijing continues to deny them. Introducing Atwood, Keilar thought the timing of the report was too convenient, "of course, this is coming as the administration is also fused on deflecting blame and focusing instead on the Chinese."
Atwood agreed, "Yeah, that's right. That is extremely important context here, Brianna. We have seen the Trump administration and allies of the president try to deflect criticism by criticizing others for how they have handled the outbreak of this pandemic. It is a distracting mechanism."
Still, Atwood was forced to concede that the question of the virus's origins is a legitimate one, "but at the same time there are remaining questions about the precise origin of this novel coronavirus. So national security and intelligence officials have told us that the U.S. government is looking into the possibility that this novel coronavirus originated in a Chinese lab instead of a wet market ... and it's important to note that in the context of this conversation, the Chinese government has not been forthcoming over the last few months with regard to information they have provided the world about this pandemic."
Why can't the media just criticize the Chinese government or the World Health Organization. Why must they always qualify it with a "but, Trump?" Not everything has to be about Trump.
Here is a transcript of the April 16 show:
CNN
CNN Newsroom
3:26 PM ET
BRIANNA KEILAR: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo today says the U.S. government is quote, “working diligently to figure out the origin of the coronavirus.” Sources tells CNN they are specifically looking into whether the virus spread a Chinese laboratory rather than a market as previously reported. Now while those source say it's premature to draw any conclusions, China continues to deny this accusation. CNN’s Kylie Atwood is joining us now live from the State Department and Kylie, tell us about this, because of course, this is coming as the administration is also focused on deflecting blame and focusing instead on the Chinese.
KYLIE ATWOOD: Yeah, that's right. That is extremely important context here, Brianna. We have seen the Trump Administration and allies of the president try to deflect criticism by criticizing others for how they have handled the outbreak of this pandemic. It is a distracting mechanism, but at the same time there are remaining questions about the precise origin of this novel coronavirus. So national security and intelligence officials have told us that the U.S. Government is looking into the possibility that this novel coronavirus originated in a Chinese lab instead of a wet market. Now there not saying that there's any reason to believe that this is a bioweapon, this was a manmade bioweapon, but rather it could have spread from a Chinese lab accidentally and it's important to note that in the context of this conversation, the Chinese government has not been forthcoming over the last few months with regard to information they have provided the world about this pandemic and that's one thing that Secretary Pompeo highlighted when he spoke about this last night and said that the U.S. is working to get to the origin of this virus.
