US Lawmakers call for China to face accountability on coronavirus

US Lawmakers are calling for China to face accountability as suspicion grows that the novel coronavirus escaped from a lab before touching off the catastrophic pandemic, claiming the Chinese government is responsible and must "pay the price."

"There is zero doubt that the Chinese communist government has American blood on its hands. They put American lives at risk by covering up the origin and scope of the coronavirus crisis," Sen. Martha McSally, R-Ariz. told Fox News on Thursday.

Fox News reported Wednesday that sources increasingly believe that the outbreak likely originated from a lab in Wuhan, China -- where the naturally occurring virus was being studied -- and that the virus escaped through an infected worker.

studied -- and that the virus escaped through an infected worker.

Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., said that China’s leadership “must be made to pay the price," and demanded "accountability" if those allegations are true.

"Since January, I've said it seems to be highly coincidental that this very contagious virus originated just a few hundred yards or maybe a couple miles from laboratories where the Chinese Communist Party researches coronaviruses," Cotton said on “Hannity,” adding that the latest information suggests that the Chinese Communist Party is "responsible for every single death, every job lost, every retirement nest egg lost from this coronavirus, and Xi Jinping and his Chinese Communist apparatchiks must be made to pay the price. If that turns out to be true.”

Cotton also demanded “consequences” for the Chinese Communist Party “if it turns out that Chinese negligence and then Chinese corruption and treachery was responsible for unleashing this pandemic on the world.”

The top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Rep. Mike McCaul, R-Texas, told Fox News last week, even before the latest reports, that “this is the worst cover-up in human history.”

McCaul doubled down on that sentiment Thursday, telling Fox News that it is “clear” that the Chinese Communist Party is “culpable in both the virus jumping from animals to humans in the global spread that has led to this pandemic and global economic crisis.”

Rep. Michael McCaul says Chinese government is engaged in one of the worst cover-ups in human history.