On Wednesday, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) tore into Dr. Anthony Fauci over his vehement denial of the theory that the COVID-19 pandemic originated from a lab leak in Wuhan, China.
Jordan’s comments come after a U.S. federal agency determined that the Wuhan lab leak theory was the most likely cause of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“He was trying to cover his backside, and everybody knows it,” Jordan said during a House Select Subcommittee hearing on the Coronavirus Pandemic. “And that’s the part that ticks us off.”
“This is the highest paid guy in our government getting all kinds of money to tell us things that were not accurate,” Jordan continued. “We now know U.S. tax dollars went to a lab in China, a lab that was not up to code, a lab that was doing gain-of-function research, and that’s where this thing most definitely came from.”
WATCH: @Jim_Jordan DEMOLISHES Fauci’s COVID origins story pic.twitter.com/k9muabjAS7
— House Judiciary GOP (@JudiciaryGOP) March 8, 2023
Citing a classified intelligence report recently given to the White House, the Wall Street Journal reported in late February that the “Energy Department has concluded that the Covid pandemic most likely arose from a laboratory leak.”
“The Energy Department now joins the Federal Bureau of Investigation in saying the virus likely spread via a mishap at a Chinese laboratory,” the outlet added. “The Energy Department’s conclusion is the result of new intelligence and is significant because the agency has considerable scientific expertise and oversees a network of U.S. national laboratories, some of which conduct advanced biological research.”