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Rep. Steve Scalise said on Tuesday that “socialists” in the House of Representatives do not appear to be making an effort to hold China accountable for mishandling the coronavirus outbreak there, a misstep that caused a global pandemic.
“I don’t see Congress holding China accountable and helping those families and businesses that are struggling. They still keep berating businesses, as if businesses [are] the enemy,” the Republican Louisiana lawmaker told “The Brian Kilmeade Show.”
“The socialists that are running the House right now, they seem to be spending more time attacking American small businesses than they do holding China accountable and I think people are fed up with that.”
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Meanwhile, House Republicans on May 7th launched a “China Task Force” to coordinate a strategy against the geopolitical threat from Beijing — coming amid global scrutiny over China’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy announced the group during a press conference.
The Washington Post, which first reported on the move, said that the group will be a clearinghouse to set priorities, gather information and coordinate approaches to the threat coming from China, including dealing with legislation.
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The group will look at China's influence in the U.S., its efforts to take over international organizations, supply chains and more, along with China's role in the initial outbreak of the coronavirus.
While Democrats and Republicans have been united in seeing the coronavirus threat as an urgent challenge that needed to be dealt with, and have passed a series of major bills to deal with the crisis, Republicans have placed an emphasis on the Chinese origins of the virus.
Scalise called out House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for refusing to work with Republicans on legislation that could help Americans during the pandemic.
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"We've seen this so many times where, in a crisis, you see people who just want to take advantage of a crisis to promote their own agenda that they can get in normal times," Scalise said. "But if you're going to get something done, you're going to have to work with other people."
"For [Pelosi] to sit in her house in San Francisco and write a bill without any Republican input when you got a Republican-controlled Senate, the president is a Republican, it shows you're not serious on passing that bill. If you were serious about it, you would've worked with other people that you're going to need to support it along the way."
Scalise accused Pelosi of working independently at the beginning of the negotiation process of the CARES Act.
The U.S. is currently investigating how the virus initially spread and if it was the result of an accident at a laboratory in Wuhan, China, or the result of transmission at a wet market.
Fox News' Adam Shaw contributed to this report.
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