Cruz Mocks Washington Post Fact-Checker Over New COVID Lab Leak Report

On Sunday, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) mocked a Washington Post fact-checker following a new report that the U.S. Energy Department concluded the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic was most likely a result of a Chinese lab leak.

Citing a classified U.S. intelligence report, the Wall Street Journal reported that the “Energy Department has concluded that the Covid pandemic most likely arose from a laboratory leak.” The conclusion is particularly significant because it is “the result of new intelligence” and the Energy Department “has considerable scientific expertise and oversees a network of U.S. national laboratories, some of which conduct advanced biological research.” 

The FBI has also concluded that the pandemic resulted from a lab leak in China. 

In 2020, Cruz had responded to a tweet from Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler that claimed it was “doubtful” the pandemic originated from a lab leak.

“‘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 responded at the time. “If this reporter submitted this video in a freshman logic class, it wouldn’t receive a passing grade.”

Cruz continued to write a thread explaining the evidence for a lab leak that was known at the time. 

“I fear @tedcruz missed the scientific animation in the video that shows how it is virtually impossible for this virus jump from the lab,” Kessler wrote in response to Cruz’s comments. “Or the many interviews with actual scientists. We deal in facts, and viewers can judge for themselves.”

On Sunday, Cruz responded to Kessers’ 2020 tweet claiming a lab leak “is virtually impossible” with a screenshot of The Wall Street Journal report, which featured the title, “Lab Leak Most Likely Origin of Covid-19 Pandemic, U.S. Agency Now Says.”

4 ????’s for Glenn. https://t.co/587JmvrIOE pic.twitter.com/K0pO6BPvxp

— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) February 26, 2023