The Office of the Director of National Intelligence said Thursday that the intelligence community has “coalesced around two likely scenarios.”
“Either it emerged naturally from human contact with infected animals or it was a laboratory accident,” the statement said.
The laboratory theory had been dismissed but has recently been given new attention. The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday that three researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology became so ill that they sought hospital care in November 2019, around the time the virus first spread.
The World Health Organization (WHO) issued a report in March dismissing the laboratory theory as “extremely unlikely.”
Florida Rep. Gaetz says Americans have obligation to use 2nd Amendment
Phelan M. Ebenhack/AP
Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., addresses attendees during a rally featuring himself and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., Friday, May 7, 2021, in The Villages, Fla. (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack)
and last updated 2021-05-28 10:47:46-04
DALTON, Ga. â Florida Representative Matt Gaetz said Americans were sometimes obligated to use the Second Amendment as he railed against âSilicon Valleyâ during a speech Thursday night in northern Georgia.
Representative Gaetz (R-Fl) was appearing with controversial Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor-Green whose comparisons between the Holocaust and wearing masks have been condemned by her party leadership in the House of Representatives, including Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy.
McConnell doubles down to pressure Republicans, asking for ‘a personal favor’ to block January 6 commission
In the last 24 hours, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has ramped up the pressure on his GOP Senate colleagues to oppose a bill creating a January 6 commission, according to two Republicans familiar with his effort.
One of those Republicans told CNN that McConnell has even made the unusual move of asking wavering senators to support filibustering the bill as “a personal favor” to him.
“No one can understand why Mitch is going to this extreme of asking for a ‘personal favor’ to kill the commission,” said the Republican.
In the last 24 hours, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has ramped up the pressure on his GOP Senate colleagues to oppose a bill creating a January 6 commission, according to two Republicans familiar with his effort.
In a state that gave former Republican President Donald Trump 57.8% of the stateâs 2016 vote for president and 57.6% in the 2020 presidential election, Republican Third District U.S. Rep. Michael Guest found the courage to join 35 other Republican members of Congress in voting for an independent commission to investigate the Jan. 6 insurrection on Capitol Hill.
That vote bucked Trump and GOP House Minority Leader Kevin McCarty. The vote drew immediate criticism from the Trump faction in the national GOP and criticism on social media in Mississippi. Guestâs vote aligned him with the stateâs only Democratic congressman, Second District U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson of Bolton â the chairmen of the House Homeland Security Committee who led negotiations on behalf of his party for establishment of the commission.