Republican Senators Marsha Blackburn and Martha McSally have introduced legislation that would allow U.S. citizens to file lawsuits against the Chinese Communist Party over the COVID-19 pandemic.
The senators are calling it the Stop COVID Act, with "COVID" standing for "China-Originated Viral Infectious Diseases."
"This would allow the insertion of COVID-19 as a 'biological agent,'" Blackburn said, adding the change would be made to the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act.
As precedent, Blackburn pointed out that the law allowed families of the victims of the 9/11 attacks to sue Saudi Arabia for its suspected role in those attacks.
"What we are doing is giving the individual citizen the right to hold the Chinese Communist Party legally responsible for the act that they have committed," Blackburn said.
During the interview Tuesday, the senator would not rule out speculation the coronavirus that has spread across the globe was a man-made biological weapon, despite a lack of evidence.
"We're going to leave it to the intel community and Five Eyes to say exactly what happened here," the Tennessee senator said. "[China] had 3,000 cases on their hands before they said anything about this."
The theory that the coronavirus emerged from a lab in China has pitted medical experts, like Dr. Anthony Fauci, against senior Trump administration officials. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said there was "enormous evidence" to support the theory in an interview on ABC News earlier this month, though he also said he had "no reason to disbelieve" the Office of the Director of National Intelligence assessment that "the COVID-19 virus was not manmade or genetically modified."
Blackburn, who has publically shared Pompeo's view, says that whether the coronavirus was manmade, the Chinese government failed to protect its citizens and the rest of the world.
"They eliminated travel between Wuhan and the rest of China, but they allowed international flights from Wuhan to other parts of the globe," Blackburn said. "They knew about this for weeks. They didn't do anything to stop it."
Two men who were active-duty members of the Marines Corps when they stormed the U.S. Capitol pleaded guilty on Monday to riot-related criminal charges.
The Human Rights Campaign, for the first time in its 40-year history, declared a state of emergency for the LGBTQ+ community as anti-LTBTQ+ sentiment is on the rise. Cheddar News explains.
The Biden administration has stopped taking mobile app appointments to admit asylum-seekers at a Texas border crossing that connects to a notoriously dangerous Mexican city after advocates warned U.S. authorities that migrants were being targeted there for extortion.
Donald Trump arrived in Florida on Monday ahead of a history-making federal court appearance on dozens of felony charges accusing him of illegally hoarding classified documents and thwarting the Justice Department's efforts to get them back.
The Human Rights Campaign has declared a state of emergency for the lgbtq+ community. The unprecedented move comes after the passage of more than 75 anti-gay bills this year alone. Here with more is Cheddar News senior reporter Chloe Aiello.
President Joe Biden welcomed hundreds to the White House on Saturday for a delayed Pride Month celebration aimed at showing LGBTQ+ people that his administration has their back at a time when advocates are warning of a spike in discriminatory legislation, particularly aimed at the transgender community, sweeping through statehouses.
Silvio Berlusconi, the boastful billionaire media mogul who was Italy’s longest-serving premier despite scandals over his sex-fueled parties and allegations of corruption, died Monday. He was 86.
“Any consumer can tell you that online airline bookings are confusing enough," said William McGee, an aviation expert at the American Economic Liberties Project. "The last thing we need is to roll back an existing protection that provides effective transparency.”
Cheddar News checks in to see what to look out for Next Week on the Street as former president Donald Trump makes an appearance in federal court after being indicted. Investors will also keep an eye on the Federal Reserve meeting to see what comes out of that while earnings continue to pour in.
