For an Associated Press "reporter" who moonlights as an MSNBC "analyst," Jonathan Lemire is turning out to be as predictably anti-Republican as anyone in the liberal media. Last week, we caught Lemire accusing Mitch McConnell of "yet another cynical political play" in regard to a possible January 6th commission.
On Thursday, Lemire's goal was to deprive President Trump of credit for his early call in suggesting that the coronavirus originated in the Wuhan lab. On Morning Joe, Lemire described Trump and Republicans of "taking a victory lap," now that Biden and Fauci are belatedly recognizing the serious possibility that the virus did indeed originate in the Wuhan lab.
Lemire went on to accuse Trump and his allies of "practicing some revisionist history."
Here's his spinning:
We should note one thing about former President Trump and some Republicans here, who seem to be almost taking a victory lap with the idea, because of their theory that the virus may come from a lab, that this proves that they were, quote, right all along.
That’s not what President Trump said when he was first in office. In fact, we at the AP reported way back in January of 2020, just as this virus was starting to come out onto the world stage, and it started to become a concern here in the United States before it really exploded here, that then President Trump was leery about talking about the virus. Sure, for fear of rattling the stock market, but also for fear of upsetting China, because he was so desperate to get a new trade deal done with China. He thought a deal with President Xi, working with Beijing, would allow him to have something that would be part of his re-election campaign, part of his re-election plank there.
And he was leery for months of upsetting China. He eventually, of course, took very harsh rhetoric to Beijing. But right now he and his allies are practicing some revisionist history.
Lemire's notion was that in January 2020, Trump had not yet leveled his accusation against the Wuhan lab. But as Lemire himself acknowledged, January 2020 was "way back," at the very beginning of the pandemic. Morning Joe itself rolled tape of Trump in April 2020 saying he'd seen evidence giving him a high degree of confidence that the virus originated in the Wuhan lab.
Trump was way ahead of others when he raised the alarm about the Wuhan lab in April 2020. At that time, and for long after, Dr. Fauci among many others was supporting the "wet market" theory that the virus spread from animals to humans.
And incredibly, as recently as two days ago the Biden administration still wanted to entrust the investigation of the origin of the virus to the corrupt World Health Organization, which has been bought and paid for by China! Fox, meet henhouse!
Even Katty Kay of the BBC, no Trump fan she, mentioned a conversation she'd had with an Australian doctor who said:
"We have to take the politics out of this. It could be that we have not explored the lab theory enough, paradoxically, because it was the theory that Donald Trump was pushing ."
Former RNC chair turned Never Trumper/Lincoln Project member Michael Steele gave an ambiguous statement on the subject. He said that President Trump and others are doing "a lot of I told you so . . . but you can't really look at that and get stuck on that." Did Steele mean that Trump shouldn't be credited for his early call, or that the fact that Trump did make the call shouldn't prevent people now from taking the Wuhan lab theory seriously?
In any case, Lemire managed to make himself more overtly critical of Trump than two or his ardent antagonists. Nice work, "reporter" Jonathan! 
Lemire wanting to deprive Trump of his credit for his early call on the Wuhan lab is in line with the aversion of the Biden administration and the liberal media to give Trump credit for Project Warp Speed, which led to the availability of Covid vaccines much sooner than the "experts" predicted was possible. The liberal credo: no matter how praiseworthy, if Trump did it, don't praise it!
AP "reporter" Jonathan Lemire trying to deprive President Trump of credit for suggesting that the coronavirus originated in the Wuhan lab was sponsored in part by BMW.
Here's the transcript. Click "expand" to read more.
MSNBC
Morning Joe
5/27/21
6:09 am EDTPETER ALEXANDER: With suspicion growing that Covid-19 emerged from this Chinese lab, President Biden is ordering US intelligence to redouble their efforts and provide a report on the origins of the outbreak within 90 days.
It’s a dramatic shift for the White House, that just said any investigation should be run by the World Health Organization . . . Former President Trump endorsed the lab-leak theory more than a year ago. When asked if he’d seen evidence giving him a high degree of confidence that the virus came from the lab.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Yes, I have. And I think that the World Health Organization should be ashamed of themselves.
. . .
KATTY KAY: I did an interview with, actually, a doctor in Australia who was one of the very first doctors in the world, and the Australians have been really in the forefront of this theory, to push for an investigation of that lab, to push for, you know, more information from the Chinese . . . And the other thing this doctor in Australia said, we have to take the politics out of this. It could be that we have not really explored the lab theory enough, paradoxically, because it was the theory that Donald Trump was pushing, and so there was some opposition to looking at something that Donald Trump was pushing and taking it seriously.
. . .
MICHAEL STEELE: Certainly, from President, former President Trump and others, you’ll get a lot of “I told you so” and justification. But I think to Katty’s point, you can’t really look at that and get stuck on that.
. . .
JONATHAN LEMIRE: We should note one thing about former President Trump and some Republicans here, who seem to be almost taking a victory lap with the idea, because of their theory that the virus may come from a lab, that this proves that they were, quote, right all along.
That’s not what President Trump said when he was first in office. In fact, we at the AP reported way back in January of 2020, just as this virus was starting to come out onto the world stage, and it started to become a concern here in the United States before it really exploded here, that then President Trump was leery about talking about the virus. Sure, for fear of rattling the stock market, but also for fear of upsetting China, because he was so desperate to get a new trade deal done with China. He thought a deal with President Xi, working with Beijing, would allow him to have something that would be part of his re-election campaign, part of his re-election plank there.
And he was leery for months of upsetting China. He eventually, of course, took very harsh rhetoric to Beijing. But right now he and his allies are practicing some revisionist history.
