Politico: “Republicans finally found a commission they can get behind. Feeling vindicated after Democrats, scientists and the media gave new oxygen to the theory that the coronavirus was borne out of a laboratory accident in China, Republicans are now ramping up efforts to prod President Joe Biden’s party into opening a thorough investigation into the origins of the virus – through an independent commission or at the congressional level. But despite a growing chorus of bipartisan calls for such a probe, it’s unclear whether Democrats are actually willing to launch a wide-ranging review. The House’s select panel on Covid-19 has not committed to exploring how the deadly outbreak started, with its chair, Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), recently suggesting he’d rather look forward than backward.”

“That leaves Republicans with few options for uncovering the information they’re seeking from Beijing – but plenty of incentives to use the pandemic’s murky genesis as a political cudgel against their opponents. ‘Everyone knows Biden and the Democrats will never stand up to China because they have too much invested there. That’s why we have little faith they’ll get to the bottom of this,’ said Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.), chair of the conservative Republican Study Committee. ‘If anything deserves a 9/11-style commission, it’s the pandemic that’s left half a million Americans dead.'”