JUST IN: Rand Paul Asks Samantha Power: 'Did USAID Fund Coronavirus Research In Wuhan China?'

senator Paul Miss Powers did usaid fund coronavirus research in Wuhan China we did not fund gain of function and the question is did You fund coronavirus research in Wuhan China before my time there was the predict program with which you're familiar which ended in China in 2019. this is a 200 million dollar program and the GAO has also identified that some of these grants went directly to the Wuhan Institute of virology where there is a suspicion that the lab League began that began the pandemic um has usaid awarded funds to the academy of military medical Sciences in China I not to my knowledge but I'd have to I think the answer is once again yes GAO has found that there have been sub-awards of NIH money is probably as well as usaid money that went to the academy of not just medical research military medical research in China now part of the unknowns here is we can't get the records to look at this so I've been asking for months and months for records in September of last year I wrote Miss Powers the usaid request asking for records from the predict program these are not classified these are simply records of scientific research and we want to read the grants to find out what they were doing and whether the research was dangerous or not um the response I got from your agency was usaid will not be providing any documents at this time they're just unwilling to give documents on scientific Grant reposal we're paying for it they're asking for 745 million dollars more in money and we get no response so two weeks ago the ranking member uh Rish myself and 25 other Republican Senators unfortunately so far signed a letter once again there's still no response we're not asking for classified information we're not asking for anything unusual 20 million people died around the world you're supposed to be an agency that cares about the death of people around the world we you know talk about starvation and famine and 20 million people died from a virus and you won't give us the basic information about what grants you're funding around the world and who you're funding should we be funding the Academy of military medical research in China they're now off limits but did we fund them and who was making the decision you know who ran the predict program UC Davis have you had any conversations with UC Davis about research in China and whether it was advisable so again to set the record straight first of all the predict program ended in 2019 we have people and yet it goes on in other forums and other names that's that's certainly not usaid program well you have you have a program called emergency pandemic threats program still don't you if I could just just finish in response to the first set of allegations um we have provided hundreds and hundreds of pages of documents related to the predict program for the very reason that you say because we are not to us we are again as I know you had an exchange with secretary blinken as well consistent with long-standing practice not going to give them to us responsive to the Committees of jurisdiction not going to you've been consistent and not giving us any information but what we've provided hundreds of pages in response to your ranking to the Senate Homeland Security and government Affairs committee for example we've had we've been requesting this and got none of it I'm on that committee as well the thing is is what we get from you and from the state department at large is that if Senator Menendez signs it you'll give it documents until then you'll give us nothing and we have got nothing zero you said will not be providing any documents I now have 25 Senators have sent you a letter and you aren't responding and we don't we want we want to see the scientific grants we give you the money the taxpayers give you the money we deserve to know where the money went whether it happened look you're right it had it ended in 2019 when did the virus come about in about 2019 some of the research proposals that came about in 2018 were Wuhan Institute of virology asking for money to create a virus with a furin cleavage site in a coronavirus a sars-like virus with the fury and cleavage site that's exactly what covet turned out to be they wanted money to create such a virus so we want to know are there other research proposals that you either granted or denied that were on the same veins of creating viruses that could have become coveted 19. we can't tell because you won't give us information again we consistent with long-standing practice we are providing extensive documentation we have a whole that's true nothing other than that that is not it is actually that is not true everything we have asked we have not gotten I have not seen one document on the predict program I understand that again consistent with common practice systems you're not going to give it to me I don't know we're providing uh all of the kinds of documentation that you are not you're we are dishonest you're being dishonest we haven't gotten one scrap of paper from you not once yeah with the Committees of jurisdiction we are providing all of the paperwork you are not requested by that I'm on the other committee I'm the ranking member on the other committee and I haven't seen a scrap of paper from that committee either well that is here's what the American the American actually I can't tell you what American people think this that because you won't respond because you respond with a non-response that you have something to hide I don't know if you have anything to hide or not I want to see every Grant proposal that had to do with coronaviruses that went to China from the U.S government from all facets of the US government and every bit of the Biden Administration is stonewalling us and will not give us the information it makes us think and makes us suspicious that you're hiding something it wasn't even you this was the previous administration we go back two or three administrations we just want to see the information and yet you sit there and you say we will do something we are doing something which is absolutely the opposite of the truth you are not being honest

Channel: Forbes Breaking News

Views: 1,431,474

Keywords: Sen. Rand Paul, China, Senate

Id: OkfaXm56mdU

Length: 6min 10sec (370 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 26 2023