Trump on 2015 $3.7 Mil. Grant to Wuhan Lab: 'Who Was President Then? I Wonder'

Nick Kangadis | April 20, 2020
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During the question and answer session of last Friday COVID-19 press briefing, a reporter asked President Donald Trump about a grant that was given in 2015 to the Wuhan lab where the coronavirus supposedly originated.

"U.S. intelligence is saying this week that the coronavirus likely came from a level 4 lab in Wuhan. There’s also another report that the NIH [National Institutes of Health], under the Obama administration, in 2015 gave that lab $3.7 million in a grant," the reporter stated before asking her question. "Why would the U.S. give a grant like that to China?"

Here's the first part of Trump's response:

The Obama administration gave them a grant of $3.7 million? I’ve been hearing about that. And we’ve instructed that if any grants are going to that area — we’re looking at it, literally, about an hour ago, and also early in the morning. We will end that grant very quickly.

But it was granted quite a while ago. They were granted a substantial amount of money. We’re going to look at it and take a look. But I understand it was a number of years ago, right?

That's when the president asked the reporter a couple of questions of his own.

"When did you hear — when did you hear it was — the grant was made?" Trump asked.

"2015," the reporter answered.

"2015?" Trump followed up. "Who was President then? I wonder." 

To view the exchange, watch below:

 

News of the grant became part of the news cycle last week when Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) joined Fox News' Tucker Carlson to speak about the grant in question.

Here's what Gaetz told Carlson:

I'm against funding Chinese research in our country, but I'm sure against funding it in China. The NIH gives a $3.7 million grant to the Wuhan Institute of Virology. They then advertise that they need coronavirus researchers and following that, coronavirus erupts in Wuhan.

And then what's really troubling to me is that either conspicuously or miraculously the Wuhan Institute of Virology is able to sequence the virus on January 2, but China doesn't admit to the virus existing until January 9 and then the Wuhan Institute of Virology doesn't release this important scientific information to the world until January 12.

So, at best, Americans are funding people who are lying to us, and at worst, we're funding people who we knew had problems handling pathogens, who then birthed a monster virus onto the world.

For that segment, watch below:

 

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