Sen. Tom Cotton: 'WHO is in the pocket of China'
'Dr. Tedros needs to be fired,' says Senator Tom Cotton discussing cutting off funding to World Health Organization over possible corruption and past transparency
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The World Health Organization (WHO) is "in the pocket of China" and their relations must be investigated, Arkansas Republican Sen. Tom Cotton asserted Thursday.
Appearing on "America's Newsroom" with host Ed Henry, Cotton pointed specifically to the words and actions of W.H.O Chief Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
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"He was a cabinet minister in Ethiopia when China was investing deeply there and bribing cabinet officials. He has a well-known and, frankly, well-deserved reputation for corruption that's gone from Ethiopia [to] now the WHO," Cotton remarked.
"That's why the president is right that we need to condition future funding of the WHO on reforms going forward, transparency about the past, on the replacement of the leadership at the WHO, and the admission of Taiwan, at least as an observer to the WHO," he stated further. "If we can't do that, then we're going to have to establish our own organization and invite members of the civilized world to join us using American standards of transparency and accountability."
President Trump escalated tensions with the organization on Wednesday, once again criticizing the agency's response to the coronavirus outbreak and threatening to withhold funding.
"So, we're going to do a study, an investigation, and we're going to make a determination as to what we're doing. In the meantime, we're holding back," he told reporters at the daily White House briefing.
The president also complained that China contributes just a "small fraction" of the amount of funding the U.S. sends to the WHO every year and said he believes the WHO needs to "get their priorities right" and treat every country "properly."
"And, it doesn't seem that way, does it?" he asked.
In response to a question about the president's comments, Tedros warned against politicizing the health crisis "if you don't want to have many more body bags."
"The focus of all political parties should be to save their people," Tedros said.
"Ed, I'm disgusted by that kind of threat from some two-bit third-rate international bureaucrat," Cotton responded. "That's why Dr. Tedros needs to be fired [and] frankly needs to be investigated so we can find out just how deeply in China's pocket he is."
Cotton pointed out to Henry that the WHO was seemingly "more interested in politically correct appeasement of China-- calling the virus something besides what it should be called, which is the China virus or the Wuhan coronavirus--than it was trying to get to the truth."
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"So, for instance, it accepted China's ludicrously false claims that there was no human to human contact in the early days of this virus. It refused to respond to some of the learning that we had from Taiwan because Taiwan is not viewed by Beijing as a country," he continued.
"These are the kinds of things that have to change at the World Health Organization and Dr. Tedros's two-bit accusations and threats are not going to change those facts," Cotton concluded.
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