QUESTION: Welcome back. This is the Ben Shapiro Show. Joining us on the line is Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, sworn in as Secretary of State April 26th, 2018. Secretary Pompeo, thanks so much for joining the show again.
SECRETARY POMPEO: Ben, it's great to be back with you again. Hope you're doing well.
QUESTION: Hanging in there. So Secretary Pompeo, obviously you've been in the center of the news for suggesting that maybe, just maybe, this didn't all start with a person eating a bat; that perhaps the Wuhan virus, a virus that began in Wuhan, actually may have started in a Chinese lab. Now, we've seen a lot of speculation about this, especially because apparently the bat species from which this virus originated was not native to the Wuhan region. So what is the argument that this thing either did or did not start in a lab, and what is the position of the administration on the origins of the virus?
SECRETARY POMPEO: Well, Ben, the administration's really clear: We need the answer to that. We need the Chinese Communist Party to share with the American people the data set, the access we need, a sample of the virus - all the basic things that normal nations do and they've refuse to do.
As for the facts, I've seen a significant amount of evidence that suggests that the lab was underperforming, that there were security risks at the lab, and that the virus could well have emanated from there. But I'm happy to suspend the decision about that. What we need are answers. There are still people dying. We've got an economy now that is really struggling, and it's all a direct result of the Chinese Communist Party covering up, hiding information, having doctors who wanted to tell the story about where this began, how patient zero was formed and how it emanated from that person, and yet we can't get those answers. Even now, 120-plus days on from the Chinese Communist Party knowing about this virus, they continue to hide and obfuscate the data from the American people and from the world's best scientists.
