Ted Cruz slams WaPo coronavirus origin video as Chinese propaganda: 'Let's review the facts'

Sen. Ted Cruz decided to fact-check the fact-checkers over the origins of the coronavirus and China's responsibility for the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Washington Post has released a video titled "Did coronavirus accidentally escape from a Wuhan lab? It's doubtful." In the 10-minute video, WaPo talks to virologists, professors, and health experts to try to determine the origin of the coronavirus.

Glenn Kessler, editor and chief writer of Washington Post's Fact Checker, said the video is "amazing" and shared a link to the video on his Twitter account.

Cruz watched the video and disagreed with WaPo over its claims that coronavirus didn't come from a Chinese lab in Wuhan.

"'Amazing' is definitely right word for this video. WaPo 'abandoning all pretenses of journalism to produce CCP propaganda' would be another way to put it," Cruz tweeted. "If this reporter submitted this video in a freshman logic class, it wouldn't receive a passing grade. Let's review facts."

Cruz picked apart the video and challenged the fact-checkers by presenting his own facts in a Twitter thread.

FACT 1: WaPo admits two separate labs in Wuhan were studying coronaviruses derived from bats. One lab was just 300 yards from Wuhan wet market.

FACT 2: WaPo admits bats with similar coronaviruses "live in caves 1000 miles away."

FACT 3: WaPo admits both labs had SERIOUS ... safety concerns, resulting in multiple US Dept wires—before this crisis—warning that shoddy safety protocols could lead to a global coronavirus pandemic.

FACT 4: WaPo admits China DESTROYED the lab samples after the pandemic started (raising the natural inference that they were afraid what the samples, if examined, would show. ALL OF THESE FACTS strongly suggest the virus escaped from one of these CCP labs. At this point, the evidence is circumstantial (because the CCP is hiding/blocking any direct evidence). BUT what is WaPo's conclusion? "The balance of scientific evidence strongly suggest the conclusion that the new coronavirus emerged from nature, be it in the Wuhan market or somewhere else." This is a non sequitur. None of the aforementioned evidence leads to that conclusion. What's WaPo's basis?

Cruz then poked holes in WaPo's facts and questioned the experts who were used in the fact-check video.

WaPo COUNTER-FACT ONE: The CCP and the lab director (who initially wrote "could [the pandemic virus] have come from our lab?") now deny it. "Shi, her team & the Chinese govt have adamantly denied that it could have come from this lab." WaPa takes that denial as true.

WaPo COUNTER-FACT TWO: They quote Dr. Peter Daszak, the head of "EcoHealth Alliance" as saying "China's been incredibly open. I believe it's because it's a scientific collaboration & in China they're really proud of their science; they do good work, especially in virology." That's it. Those two counter-facts form 100% of the basis for WaPo's "fact check." And #2, the claim that "China's been incredibly open," is laughably absurd. They DESTROYED THE LAB SAMPLES. They PUNISHED & SILENCED the pandemic whistleblowers. And who is this objective source, Dr. Daszak? Well, his organization, "EcoHealth Alliance" was receiving (now cancelled) US taxpayer $ to support bat coronavirus research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology! Why does WaPo NOT disclose his enormous bias, litigation exposure & conflict of interest??

And is it relevant that WaPo is owned by Jeff Bezos, the richest man in the world, who stands to make billions in China if he pleases the communist overlords? Whatever WaPo is doing, this is NOT journalism. It is apologizing for the CCP, trying to cover up their culpability.

It also doesn't help that China has reportedly refused to allow the World Health Organization to participate in an investigation into the origin of the coronavirus.

The U.S. intelligence community has launched an investigation into the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic, and while they have ruled out that the virus is a bioweapon, they have found no proof that the coronavirus did not come from a virology lab in Wuhan.

President Donald Trump doesn't believe that the coronavirus started in the wet markets in Wuhan, and said he has a high degree of confidence that the coronavirus originated from the Wuhan Institute of Virology.