House Republicans are "certainly right" to form a new China task force to examine the country's actions concerning the beginnings of the coronavirus pandemic and other matters, and it's "unfortunate" that Democrats don't want to participate, Sen. John Thune said Thursday.
"Republicans in the House are certainly right to try to press the leadership over here to try to put together a task force to examine obviously what happened and what led up to this and what steps we ought to take in response to it," the South Dakota Republican told Fox News' "America's Newsroom." "I think it's unfortunate the Democrats don't want to participate credibly over there."
However, everything now is "highly political," said Thune, and "the Democrat leadership in the House is always looking for opportunities to poke the president in the eye. I suspect that they see working with Republicans on this, and that's something that undermines that objective."
There are many ways that China can be held accountable for its lack of transparency concerning the novel coronavirus, said Thune, but it must be remembered that "there is no transparency in that company, and we need to remember that when dealing with them."
One way the international community could react would be to ban the Huawei 5G network equipment, he added.
"We have companies in Europe, the U.K., and Germany who are entertaining the idea of having that equipment embedded in their network and I think that gives the Chinese an opportunity to surveil," said Thune. "There are other ways that I think they could step up and I know the president and leadership appear in Congress is prepared to do that. At least on the Republican side, hopefully the Democrats will join in."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.