SMITHFIELD, Ky. (AP) — U.S. Sen. Rand Paul promised Saturday to wage a vigorous assessment into the origins of the coronavirus if Republicans retake the Senate and he lands a committee chairmanship.
Chatting with supporters at a marketing campaign rally, the libertarian-leaning Kentucky Republican denounced what he sees as authorities overreach in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. He applauded a current choose’s order that voided the federal masks mandate on planes and trains and in journey hubs.
“Final week I used to be on an airplane for the primary time in two years and didn’t should put on a masks,” he mentioned, drawing cheers from the partisan crowd. “And what I noticed within the airport? I noticed at the least 97% of the opposite free people not carrying masks.”
Paul has clashed repeatedly with Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s prime infectious illness knowledgeable, over the federal government’s COVID-19 insurance policies and the origins of the virus that prompted the worldwide pandemic.
Paul, who’s searching for a 3rd time period this yr in Republican trending Kentucky, mentioned he’s in line to imagine a committee chairmanship if the GOP wins Senate management after the November election. The Senate at the moment has a 50-50 break up, however Democrats have the slim edge as a result of Vice President Kamala Harris is a tie-breaking vote.
“After we take over in November, I shall be chairman of a committee and I’ll have subpoena energy,” Paul mentioned. “And we are going to resolve the place this virus got here from.”
The senator, a watch surgeon, continued to supply his concept concerning the origins of the virus.
“In case you take a look at the proof, overwhelmingly, not 100%, however overwhelmingly the proof factors to this virus being a leak from a lab,” Paul mentioned.
Within the U.S., many conservatives have accused Chinese language scientists of growing COVID-19 in a lab and permitting it to leak.
U.S. intelligence businesses stay divided on the origins of the coronavirus however imagine China’s leaders didn’t know concerning the virus earlier than the beginning of the worldwide pandemic, in accordance a Biden-ordered assessment that was launched final summer season.
The scientific consensus stays that the virus almost certainly migrated from animals in what’s generally known as a zoonotic transmission. So-called “spillover occasions” happen in nature, and there are at the least two coronaviruses that developed in bats and prompted human epidemics, SARS1 and MERS.
Senate Republican chief Mitch McConnell, the state’s senior senator, additionally pointed to Paul’s alternative to steer a committee if the GOP wins Senate management. If that happens, he mentioned Paul would turn out to be chairman of “some of the vital committees within the Senate, in command of well being, schooling, labor and pensions.”
McConnell was upbeat about Republican prospects in November.
“I’ve by no means seen a greater setting for us than this yr,” mentioned McConnell, who’s in line to once more turn out to be majority chief if the GOP reclaims the Senate.
