Fox News host Greg Gutfeld took aim at media for driving people away from the lab-leak theory of the novel coronavirus’ origin by painting it as a conspiracy theory.
Gutfeld said on Tuesday’s broadcast of “The Five” that journalists had pushed people to ignore what appeared to be the most obvious answer because they allowed their hatred of former President Donald Trump to convince them that what he believed could not be true. (RELATED: ‘Adopt-A-Gang-Banger’: Greg Gutfeld Has A Solution For Democrats Who Don’t Want Gang Members Deported)
WATCH:
“The poor pangolin got blamed for everything and now the bats are getting blamed,” cohost Katie Pavlich began, noting that the New York Times appeared to be blaming Trump for discrediting the very lab-leak theory he said he believed.
“President Trump and Mike Pompeo, the secretary of state, both suggested they had seen evidence that this was formed in a lab and they also suggested it was not released on purpose but they refused to release the evidence showing what it was. So because of that, it made this instantly political I think, example 1,000 when the Trump Administration learned that when you have burned your own credibility over and over again, people are not immediately going to believe you,” the NYT’s Maggie Haberman told CNN’s John Berman.
“Burning credibility, Greg,” Pavlich prompted Gutfeld.
“That’s rich. This answers a question, when Dana says why wouldn’t you believe Pompeo? They wouldn’t have diminished the lab theory if it wasn’t for their emotional hatred for Trump. Their emotional dislike actually prevented them from logically thinking about this,” Gutfeld replied.
“They’ve just admitted that their own Trump derangement syndrome has caused them to trash science and even ignore possibly the most plausible theory,” Gutfeld continued, saying that in most cases, the most obvious explanation tends to be true — and that someone eating something from a wet market that then spread worldwide and killed over three million people seemed to be a stretch.
“That was somehow, somehow more plausible than a crooked lab that is literally down the street doing experiments with novel coronaviruses that are known to not be totally competent when it comes to their hygiene, known for their sloppy work that could, in fact, allow the virus to escape. What is the more plausible theory?” Gutfeld asked. “Obviously that one but we were bullied into it by the media because Trump. Because Trump.”
“When you put it this way and you think about it, China murdered my father-in-law. Everybody you know that died — was murdered, changed my life forever, change my wife’s life forever,” Gutfeld added. “They are murderers. That government is a murderous government, we know that, so what are we going to do about it? I don’t know.”
Pavlich argued that the media should have been more willing to ask those important questions, but Juan Williams pushed back, arguing that Trump and then Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had muddied the waters when they claimed to have seen proof but had not shared it publicly.
“The birther movement, the big steal? Oh, come on, that’s why when you say ‘people cry wolf, they lose credibility,'” he said.