Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon said “blood is on the hands” of the Chinese Communist Party for the coronavirus pandemic.
“The city of Wuhan and the decent, hard-working Chinese citizens did not have to be destroyed,” Bannon, who rose to prominence in the Trump administration for his focus on America’s economic dependence on China, told Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo on Wednesday.
“Hubei province did not have to be destroyed. Italy, Spain, South Africa, the United States, all of this is at the doorsteps of the Chinese Communist Party,” he continued. “The Chinese people are the biggest victims. This is a murderous group of gangsters, and they’ve got to be held accountable by the world.”
Bannon, host of the daily podcast War Room, backed President Trump’s decision to close travel between China and the U.S. in January against the advice of officials from the World Health Organization.
“President Trump is 100% right to go after the World Health Organization, that’s really been a front organization for the Chinese Communist Party in this entire endeavor. … The Chinese Communist Party and their culpability in this is really what has to be addressed.”
The debate over whether or not China and WHO acted appropriately given the size and scope of the highly contagious disease boiled over during the question-and-answer session of Tuesday’s White House coronavirus press briefing when the president announced he is considering cutting funds to WHO. Trump also tweeted that the organization “blew it” in its mismanagement of the pandemic.
Bannon said the Chinese government understood the threat the disease posed to the greater international community but failed to act on its internal data.
“The Chinese Communist Party knew about human-to-human transmission in December,” added Bannon. “All of this could have been stopped.”
