NYT reporter blames Trump for media’s failure to properly cover Wuhan lab leak theory

In an appearance on CNN, Maggie Haberman blamed former President Donald Trump and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for the COVID lab leak theory being "made political." Haberman blames the politicization of the theory on Trump repeating the theory after "burning {his} credibility" and bringing it up in an "election year."

Host John Berman asked Haberman why she thinks the initial discussions around the origins of COVID-19 were "clouded" and why the theory that COVID-19 originated in a lab was not widely discussed. Berman acknowledges that the theory has "come a long way from people dismissing this as a conspiracy theory to a lot of people taking this seriously."

Haberman said that the reason behind this is "a few months after the pandemic had begun" Trump and Pompeo "both suggested that they had seen evidence that this formed in a lab, and they also suggested that it was not released on purpose, but they refused to release the evidence showing what it was and so because of that, that made this instantly political." She went on to call it "example 1000" of Trump "burning his credibility."

Haberman acknowledges that there "hasn't been clear answers from Chinese officials about it" but says the chief person to blame for the dismissal of the theory is President Trump. Haberman also blames "Trump supporters" for misunderstanding and misrepresenting the origins of COVID-19 and continuing to fog up the debate.

Haberman was discussing the recent flip-flop from Dr. Fauci that he is "not convinced" that COVID-19 evolved from nature. It is a sensitive subject for Dr. Fauci as he has been accused by those like Rep. Jim Jordan of directly funding the research that caused the COVID-19 pandemic.

Jordan refers to gain of function research, where viruses are made more dangerous for research purposes. Such gain of function research was being practiced at the Wuhan Institute of Virology on the same bats that the coronavirus originated. Investigations of the lab leak have been clouded by Chinese Communist Party.