GOP lawmaker 'wouldn't be surprised' if China deliberately started pandemic

Florida Republican Rep. Greg Steube on Thursday indicated that mounting evidence surrounding the notion that the COVID-19 pandemic was the result of a lab leak in Wuhan had left him open to the idea that Beijing may have deliberately allowed the virus to spread throughout the world.

"I mean, I don't have any facts or evidence in front of me to show the intent," he conceded during an appearance on the "Just the News, No Noise" television show. "But if you look at all the substantial and circumstantial evidence here, the timing of the leak, the fact that they denied and denied that it even came from a lab... It wouldn't surprise me at all, the Chinese Communist Party released this virus."

Steube outlined two possible motivations China might have for such an action, saying the regime might have sought to gauge "the impact that [the virus] would have worldwide."

Alternatively, he suggested China might do so because "they hated President Trump because of the tough-on-China policies that he had, not just on the economy and trade, but other military policies that he had, and knew that a huge pandemic taking out thousands and hundreds of thousands of Americans... would very much diminish his chances in reelection."

"I wouldn't be surprised if we see facts and evidence to show that that was exactly what happened," he contended. "Wow."

Formerly maligned as a conspiracy theory, the idea that the virus originated as a result of a lab leak at the Wuhan Institute of Virology has increasingly gained traction with federal agencies such as the Department of Energy and the FBI.

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on Twitter.