Kerby Anderson

Democratic leaders in the House of Representatives want to investigate the US response to the coronavirus pandemic. In Watergate investigative style, they want to know what the president knew and when he knew it. It looks like merely another attempt to criticize the president. But if they are really interested in knowing what we knew back in January, the person they should question is Senator Tom Cotton. While most of Congress was preoccupied with other matters (like impeachment), the senator was warning the US government of an impending danger. On January 22, the Arkansas senator sent a letter to the Secretary of Health and Human Services warning that the Chinese Communists were likely censoring key information about the disease. During the impeachment trial, the US Senate held a classified briefing on the virus. Only 14 senators showed up for the hearing. By January 28, Senator Cotton’s letter to many cabinet officers was calling for a ban on travel from China to the US, while also urging an evacuation of Americans from China. He even missed hours of the impeachment trial because he was meeting with administration officials. Why did he see the danger that so many others missed? He says that he has been aware of the Chinese government’s dishonesty for years. He also noticed the extreme measures the government was taking in January (putting more than 75 million Chinese in lockdown). People were confined to their apartments. Sometimes the front doors of the buildings were welded shut. People were being arrested if they left their homes. The words of the Chinese Communists were meant to be reassuring. But their actions told another story. They were doing all they could to stop the spread of the virus. Senator Cotton is not a doctor nor even a health care expert. But he could see what China was doing and did what he could to alert the president and the US government. He deserves our thanks.