I can think of few things more likely to make Americans believe that the U.S. government is hiding the truth about the origin of Covid-19 than if President Biden vetoes a bill that would require the declassification of existing intelligence on Covid’s origins. As our Ari Blaff reports, the White House has not yet indicated whether Biden will sign the legislation. To head off one potential objection, the bill allows officials to “redact information to protect sources and methods.”
The bill passed 419–0. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez voted for it. Marjorie Taylor Greene voted for it. Sheila Jackson Lee voted for it. Lauren Boebert voted for it. Hakeem Jeffries voted for it. Kevin McCarthy voted for it.
The liberals and the conservatives, the urban and the rural, the insane and the sane — for once, every House member, no matter their philosophy or ideology — all agreed that the U.S. government should declassify what it knows about how the pandemic got started.
If, in the face of that, the Biden administration says, “Sorry, nope, we can’t tell you,” then the American people will justifiably conclude that the classified intelligence is indeed enormously consequential and the administration fears the consequences of the American people knowing it.