Watch live on cspan, online at cspan. Org, listen live with the free cspan radio app. Mike pompeo state called for china to be more transparent about the coronavirus pandemic while speaking to reporters. He also responded to questions on the potential origins of the virus. This is 25 minutes. Sec. Pompeo sec. Pompeo good morning. It has been 128 days since a chinese doctor shared information on the internet about a patient with a sars like virus. Her colleague shared the doctors report online with medical colleagues. The next day, Regional Health officials in wuhan the next day, Regional Health officials in wuhan indicated they were treating dozens of patients with an unknown viral pneumonia. Within days, chinese officials detained the doctor and seven others for spreading false statements on the internet. China saw that it had an emerging Public Health crisis on its hands. They knew. China could have prevented the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people worldwide. They had a choice. But instead china covered up the outbreak in wuhan. China covered up the outbreak in wuhan. The National Health commission ordered virus samples destroyed. Brave chinesered citizens who raised alarms and deployed its propaganda organs to denounce those who called for simple transparency. That brings us to today. China is still refusing to share the information we need to keep people safe, such as clinical specimens and details about the many covid19 patients in december 2019. Not to mention patient zero. Truth telling and calls for transparency arent about politics. Tois about the ongoing need save american lives. Today. An ongoing threat ask medical professionals in new york city. I think they will agree. We need countries to share reliable data in a timely way. The next time that a calamity like this hits. We need reliable partners. As a result of chinas choices, countries are starting to understand the risk and taking action to protect their people. Nigeria andeks, of lies a whole host and misdeeds. Spain has returned defective test kits to china. The Czech Republic and other nations have received shoddy ppe. The australians and swedes have called for an independent review into the outbreak. The United Kingdom cant go back to business as usual with beijing. Even the e. U. Foreign affairs chief committed that brussels has been a little naive about china. I am heartened by this newfound realism. The free nations of the world are starting to understand china doesnt share those Democratic Values we hold dear and that this matters to the entire world. There is no true winwin with a communist regime unless you get to the fair terms, and the reciprocity in the phase one trade deal. Now countries have a chance to further insist on what is right for their people. Nations toall on all support taiwans participation as an observer at the World Health Assembly and other relevant venues. Directorll on who general to invite taiwan to observe, as he has the power to do, and as his predecessors have done on multiple occasions. Turning to the subject of those who are trying to do good around the world, today the United States is committing 130 million in Global Health and refugee assistance, bringing our total to more than 900 million. More than 120 countries. Congress has provided 2. 4 billion in total. This new tranche of Funding Provides more than 40 million for countries in the pacific, prioritizing places like india and bangladesh and indonesia. Also more than 20 million in Global Health assistance. Weve allocated 11 million contributions to the iaea as well to support Member States in their fight. 225lso happy to announce million in additional aid separate from the covid19 assistance that i just mentioned. Assistance that i just mentioned. This will provide the u. N. World food programs emergency food operations as well as which was forced to scale down because of the ongoing interference. Whether it is our work countering diseases, the state department is very focused on saving lives, and by implementing the policy, president Trumps Administration has gone further than any in history in making sure tax dollars do not subsidize the global abortion industry. Ill take a handful of questions. First, i mentioned hong kong last week. We are delaying our report to congress. We will assess hong kongs autonomy to allow us to account for any additional actions beijing may be contemplating that would further undermine the people of hong kongs autonomy as promised by china when they entered into the agreement with the people of hong kong. Im excited to report that negotiations on the u. S. U. K. Freetrade agreement are underway. Few matters related to the islamic a public of iran. The United States sanctioned a company who were doing business, generating revenue and resources for their terror campaign. Anyone conducting business with iranian entities should exercise extreme caution. Moment like to take this to commend our german friends for taking strong action against suspected has bolo supporters and hope that all other e. U. Members states will follow. Our gratitude goes out to switzerland for its efforts to extend michael whites medical furlough and seeking andnitarian furloughs bringing home all u. S. Citizens wrongly detained. We welcome their assistance and appreciate all they have done. We are not the only nation whose citizens are subject to the iranian regimes brutality. Iranian guards on the border of afghanistan abused, tortured, drowned afghan migrants who dared to cross the border, simply in search of food and water. To close on an upbeat note, to human rights victories. TheUnited States will see to ban female genital mutilation and cutting. A step closer to a future in which women and girls worldwide wont have to suffer this barbaric practice. See countries to follow sudans lead. It is only fitting that on the same weekend as International Press freedom day, the family of successfully challenged a ruling that overturned the conviction of four individuals responsible for murder. Finally, while on the topic of South Central asia, i want to give a shout out to to one of my colleagues, alice wells. Shes done remarkable work. Whois an exemplary diplomat has served the American People and i wish her all the best in her future endeavors. Reporter [inaudible] how are you . Sec. Pompeo im good. Reporter on behalf of the press corps, we are very sorry for your recent loss. Our deepest condolence. Sec. Pompeo thank you, that is very kind. Reporter on china, what do you mean when you say there is enormous amount of evidence that the virus is from the wuhan lab . Thereason i ask is because army general said yesterday that we dont know if the virus emerged from the wuhan lab. Separately, when the covid19 was gaining momentum in january and early february, chinese officials assured american officials that it was under control and would be resolved on its own, may be because of the warming weather. Feel is this administration pondering punitive measures on china . Sec. Pompeo ill take the questions in sequence. I saw the statements entirely consistent with what everyone in the administration said. The Intelligence Community is still figuring out precisely where this virus began. Heres how this could get solved quickly. Chinese communist party could do what they are committed to do. Their obligation to be transparent, to be open. Simple things that nations around the world do to make sure that pandemics like this dont get out of control. I mentioned the number of days. This is an ongoing challenge. We still dont have the access. We dont have the samples. It is not even just that in the moment they couldnt do the right thing. They continue to be opaque, to deny access for this information. This could happen again. Why, when i see people say america is bullying china, we are demanding only what we demand of every nation. Be a reliable partner. The very things the chinese say they want to cooperate great. Cooperation is about action, about opening up, sharing information. In thege that is possession of only the Chinese Communist party. They are the ones that can help unlock that. If they need technical assistance, we are happy to provide that assistance. The world needs answers to these questions for not only the current moment, but to make sure we reduce the risk. As for the details, i think the administration has laid out a timeline. It is pretty clear that the Chinese Communist party misled the world. They knew more and they didnt share that and they had an obligation to do so under interNational Health regulations. They didnt do that. The World Health Organization also failed to do that. It is not only that they didnt enforce, but the World Health Organization itself needs to demand an investigation. They need to be just as concerned as the United States and australia and other countries that we still dont have access to the answers we need. These are important issues that are ongoing. Sorry for your loss. Sec. Pompeo thank you very much. Reporter [inaudible] and on the other hand, Israeli Defense officials said that iranian officials are closing military bases. Sudan,ce you mentioned [inaudible]ove we are working to get each of those things done with respect to sudan. We want to support that, whether it is there ambassadors being credentialed and accepted here, or is being prepared to send an ambassador there. We will get it done as quickly as we can. I dont have any travel to confirm, but in the upcoming hours and days, we will see an announcement. We are hoping to be on the ground. We are hoping we can get that started up before too long. We are hoping we can get the economy back open all across the world as well. I dont have anything that i can add with respect to Israeli Defense, but we have been very clear to the assad regime and to the russians and syria, the iranians need to leave, not only the Southwest Corner that has a direct and real impact on israel, but more broadly through the country. The very terror regime that we talk about in the iran republic, supportsn that is s what assad has done, that caused six or 7 Million People to have to flee syria, we hope that they will rethink that and get back to doing what iran needs to do, to take care of its own people in this difficult time. We think those resources could be much better used to support the iranian people. Rich, how are you . Reporter good, how are you. Sec. Pompeo way in the back. Reporter i know. Would you be able to tell us, or does the u. S. Know who may have initiated or bankrolled this operation in venezuela over the weekend, and has the state department started engaging with the regime . Sec. Pompeo your first question, as i think the secretary of defense said, there was no u. S. Government direct involvement in this operation. If we would have been involved, it would have gone differently. We arewho bankrolled it, not prepared to share any more information about what we know took place. We will unpack and share that information as it makes good sense. What was your second question . Reporter the two american citizens. Sec. Pompeo it is a consular matter any time there are americans detained. We are working to get them back. If these are americans that are there, we configure a path forward. We want to get everyone american back. If the regime decides to hold them, we will use every tool we have available to get them back. Mentioned dr. I want to zoom in on something you said about her. Shes discussed publicly in an interview, many of the facts you mentioned, except for one, that the National Health commission ordered samples destroyed. Is that based on evidence you have or public reporting . Bit, onoom out a little china, u. S. , and e. U. , the you has not joined in your call to investigate china. Are the u. S. And the e. U. On the same page when it comes to china . Sec. Pompeo let me see what i can get you that supports the statement i made. I will make sure the team does that. E. U. Held a donors conference. China was there. The party that perpetrated this this began in wuhan, china was there. We regret that there wasnt a call for transparency from them. That is always appropriate. Understand,t, as i Chinese Communist party didnt show up with a dime either. I talked about all the assistance we provided. If you look at the response around the world, who it is that is leading the response, it is the United States of america, and it will continue to be so. We will continue to work with our partners across the e. U. We are working with countries all across europe. We think they are coming to see, just as the United States sees with great clarity, how this came to be, how it could have been different, and the things that need to change now to prevent the ongoing crisis, things i talked about in my opening remarks, and things that need to change such that we reduce the risk Something Like this happens again. I think people across europe are seeing how this came to be and they are not going to tolerate business as usual. Why not show up to that donors conference . Sec. Pompeo we are going to do everything we can to provide the resources, skills, and leadership to deliver a response, and we will do that with our european partners. Reporter i just want to go back to kind of puzzling. , hehad statements about doesnt know. Dr. Fauci says there was evidence the virus evolved in nature. Sec. Pompeo barbara, barbara reporter im just wondering, and also the Statement Last week doesnt talk about any evidence. Are you basing your assertion on information that all these parties do not have . Sec. Pompeo let me just put this to bed. Your efforts to spend your whole life trying to drive a little wedge between senior american officials, it is just false. Of thoseevery one statements is entirely consistent. Lay them down together. There is no separation. We are all trying to figure out the right answer. There are Different Levels of certainty at different places. That is highly appropriate. People stare at data sets and come to Different Levels of confidence. Everyone of us knows the reality. The reality is this came from wuhan. To can provide the answer precisely where patient zero is . Where this actually came from . We know who can unlock the keys to that. Fauci, general miller, myself, we all know how to get to this answer. That is where our focus is. Reporter have you made a formal request . Have you asked the cdc to make a formal request for data access . Sec. Pompeo there have been many formal requests and we will continue to make formal requests. Reporter did you get a formal response from beijing . Sec. Pompeo you should ask the ambassador. Oped this morning. And i cant wait for my call to china daily news. Have youri actually statements from last week. You did a lot of interviews with conservative colleagues. Sec. Pompeo i can hardly wait. Reporter but seriously, you said in multiple interviews, some version of, we dont know if the virus came from inside the lab in wuhan. And on sunday, you said there is enormous evidence the virus came from the wuhan lab. Did the intelligence change . Sec. Pompeo those statements are both true, entirely consistent. Have now answered this question, i think the 13th time. Im not sure what it is about the grammar that you cant get. We dont have certainty and there is significant evidence that this came from the laboratory. Those statements can both be true. I have made them both. They are all true. Focus on the most important piece here. The American People remain at risk. The American People remain at risk because we do not know, we dont have certainty, whether it began in the lab or someplace else. There is an easy way to find out the answer to that. Transparency, openness. The kinds of things that nations do when they want to be part of solving a global pandemic, when they want to participate in the things that keep human beings safe and economies going. We will continue to work on that. I hope we get an answer. More evidenceeven about where it came from, and when we do, we will make that clear. Thanks, everybody. Reporter [inaudible] heres a look at live coverage thursday. On cspan,eastern the head of the National Institutes of health testifies before the senate about new technologies to produce covid19 testing. The senatean two, back at 10 00 a. M. Eastern voting on whether to override president terms veto of a measure restricting his ability to take military action against iran without senate approval. The president s, available in paperback and ebook, presents biographies of every president , organized by their ranking by noted historians, from best to worst, and features perspectives into the lives of our nations chief executives and leadership styles. Visit our website, topan. Org thepresident s learn more about each president and order your copy today, wherever books and ebooks are sold. Following his recovery from the coronavirus, british Prime Minister Boris Johnson returned to the house of commons wednesday to take questions from members about the pandemic and the u. K. s response. This was also the first time the Prime Minister faced questions from new Labour Party Leader keir starmer. We now come to questions for the Prime Minister. I would like to welcome the Prime Minister back to his rightful place. The whole house and the whole country are delighted at his recovery, and welcome back to his elected house. I called up Prime Minister to answer his engagements. P. M. Johnson mr. Speaker, thank you for your kind words. It is good to be back, even though i have been away for longer than anticipated. I would like to pay tribute and 29 care 107 nhs workers, and all those who have sadly died from coronavirus. I know the sympathies of the house i with their families and friends. If i
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