GOPers Intro Bill To Punish Purveyors Of False Info About Coronavirus — From Other Countries

WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 30: Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) (Photo by Sarah Silbiger/Getty Images)
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Sens. Josh Hawley (R-MO) and Tom Cotton (R-AR) are bringing the iron first of justice down on officials who disseminated false information about the coronavirus — so long as they hail from other countries.

The ‘”Li Wenliang Global 5 Public Health Accountability Act of 2020,” named for the Chinese doctor who raised the alarm about the severity of the disease before dying of it himself, authorizes sanctions on countries that “deliberately concealed or distorted information” about international public health emergencies.

The legislation seems targeted at China, where the coronavirus outbreak originated. The U.S. intelligence community has reportedly concluded that Chinese officials hid the extent of the crisis. Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), joined by five other Republicans, introduced similar legislation in the House on Tuesday.

Luckily for some of Hawley’s and Cotton’s peers, the legislation only applies to officials in other countries.

One section of the bill specifically names as liable for punishment an official who “financially benefits from acts intended to deliberately conceal or distort information about a public health emergency of international concern, including coronavirus disease 2019.”

The FBI has reached out to at least one lawmaker, per CNN, after media reports revealed that Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) unloaded between $628,000 and $1.7 million in stocks while receiving private briefings about the outbreak as head of the Senate Intelligence Committee. The optics of the situation were worsened when NPR unearthed that he’d described the disease as much more dire when speaking with members of an exclusive social club than he had in public statements.

Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-GA) has also come under fire for selling stocks worth between $1.275 million and $3.1 million between late January and mid-February. She and her husband bought stocks worth between $450,000 and $1 million, including one software company that has shot up in value due to its teleworking technology. To the public, she downplayed the severity of the disease and echoed President Donald Trump’s response.

Burr said that he made his sales based on public reports; Loeffler said that third-party managers control investment decisions on behalf of her and her husband.

Alongside the senators, Trump himself has engendered widespread criticism for dismissing the severity of the pandemic for weeks.

Despite the blind eye towards possible distortion of the pandemic by Americans, Republicans aren’t the only ones seeking to punish China for its lack of candor.

Last week, the bipartisan team of Reps. Jim Banks (R-IN) and Seth Moulton (D-MA) introduced a nonbinding resolution to censure China for making “multiple, serious mistakes” in its response to the outbreak, including muzzling medial professionals and booting journalists from the country. The resolution also called on Chinese officials to publicly acknowledge that the disease originated there.

Moulton ultimately stripped his name from the resolution, apologizing “particularly to members of the Asian-American community” who felt targeted by the legislation.

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Notable Replies

  1. reminders

  2. So China lied about Covid-19 for 3 WEEKS…
    Trump/GOP lied about Covid-19 and denied, dismissed and delayed response for approx. 3 MONTHS…

    Greed-Over-People Party always finds someone to blame except themselves!

    Take a listen to Dr. Desai in Fox News saying that the Trump Regime knew about Covid Dec 2019 because of WHO!

    So what did Covidiot Trump do after his acquittal from the rigged impeachment trial? He had victory laps, rallies, golfing, purging of his perceived enemies…lied, denied, delayed response…QPQ with some governors…played TV doctor, worried about his blown hair, Tv ratings, FB followers…on and on

    So still blame foreign purveyors of FALSE Covid info?
    Trump would NOT dare do that against his master in the Kremlin!

    https://twitter.com/JoshuaPotash/status/1245534266437652482

    Addendum:

    Feb 3rd, the Army warned that up to 150,00 Americans can die from Covid…

    March 4, President Trump told Fox News host Sean Hannity that the World Health Organization’s coronavirus death estimate of 3.4 percent of cases was a “false number,” since it contradicted a “hunch” he had. “It’s not that severe,” the president said.

    So what about this purveyor of disinformation who knowingly lied about it?

  3. Well now Joshy Hawley is upset that the SBA won’t give loans to churches and non-profits. He’s getting an earful on Twitter.
    He’s been pushing this China lied theme for weeks, yet nothing about Trump’s inaction and lies.

  4. GOP Bill Target Foreign Purveyors Of False Info About Coronavirus

    How about the domestic ones? Looking at you, FAUX, Flush, OAN, etc…

  5. Sens. Josh Hawley (R-MO) and Tom Cotton (R-AR)

    The heartland horrors who make Sarah Huckabee Sanders look like Madame Curie.

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