As President Donald Trump called out the World Health Organization's bungling of the global coronavirus pandemic, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., vowes to cut WHO out of the next U.S. funding bill unless it changes its leadership.
"I'm not going to support funding the WHO under its current leadership," Graham, the chairman Senate Appropriations subcommittee overseeing foreign operation, told Fox News' "The Daily Briefing" on Tuesday. "They've been deceptive, they've been slow, and they've been Chinese apologists.
"I don't think they're a good investment under the current leadership for the United States, and until they change their behavior and get new leadership I think it's in America’s best interest to withhold funding because they have failed miserably when it comes to the coronavirus."
Graham's comments echo those of Trump during the coronavirus task force daily briefing Tuesday night.
Graha, though, said his work in the Senate would "take the burden off the president" from cutting funding to WHO. Trump had faced impeachment by House Democrats last summer for delaying aid to Ukraine, circumventing congressional appropriations.
Trump's fiscal 2021 budget request cut funding from 2020's $123 million, according to Bloomberg, to about $58 million.
Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., wants an investigation into WHO, alleging it assisted in a "Communist China cover up," The Hill reported.
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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