XPost: alt.tv.pol-incorrect, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, alt.politics.usa
XPost: sci.med.diseases

New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman suggested to CNN on Monday that
the reason the media did not treat claims seriously that the
coronavirus pandemic originated from a lab accident at the Wuhan
Institute of Virology was because the information was coming from the
Trump administration.

“I do think it’s important to remember that part of this issue when
this was first being reported on and discussed back a few months after
the pandemic had begun was that then President Trump and Mike Pompeo
the Secretary of State both suggested they had seen evidence that this
was formed in a lab and they also suggested it was not released on
purpose, but they refused to release the evidence showing what it was,” Haberman told CNN’s “New Day” on Monday.

“And so because of that, that made this instantly political,” she
claimed. “I think that that was, you know, example 1,000 when the Trump administration learned that when you have burned your own credibility
over and over again people are not immediately going to believe you,
especially in an election year.”

WATCH:
https://twitter.com/i/status/1396866630785851399

https://twitter.com/i/status/1397159197092061188

TRANSCRIPT:

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: I want to bring in CNN Political Analyst and Washington Correspondent for the “New York Times,” Maggie Haberman.
Maggie, so nice to see you this morning. This matters, understanding
where coronavirus and how the pandemic began matters.

A lot of the discussion about the lab leak I think was clouded early on
because there was a suggestion by some that it was somehow a Chinese
weapon that caused this.

That’s not what we’re talking about here. We’re talking about a lab
accident. But we’ve come a long way from people dismissing this as a
conspiracy theory to a lot of people taking this seriously, Maggie.

MAGGIE HABERMAN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: We have John. And look, I do
think it’s important to remember that part of this issue when this was
first being reported on and discussed back a few months after the
pandemic had begun was that then President Trump and Mike Pompeo the
Secretary of State both suggested they had seen evidence that this was
formed in a lab and they also suggested it was not released on purpose,
but they refused to release the evidence showing what it was.

And so because of that, that made this instantly political. I think
that that was, you know, example 1,000 when the Trump administration
learned that when you have burned your own credibility over and over
again people are not immediately going to believe you, especially in an election year.

However, that does not mean it’s not worth discussing. There has been a
sort of persistent, albeit, relatively quite focus on whether that was
the origin of the virus and it is compounded by the fact that there are
— have not been clear answers from Chinese officials about it and that investigators trying to find out the origin have been stymied.

So I do thing we’re in a different period of this, John. But I also
think it’s important to remember, because I think it’s getting reframed
in a way that’s just not true to what happened. I don’t mean here.

BERMAN: Right.

HABERMAN: I mean in this broader debate by Trump supporters about what
happened when this was originally raised.

BERMAN: And I think a lot of people want just answers at this point and
it is important.

HABERMAN: Right. That’s right. That’s right.

--
Trump won.

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