Lindsey Graham Asks if 'Deep-State Science Department' Shot Down COVID Lab Theory

South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham asked if there was a "deep state science department" that rejected the theory that COVID-19 came from a Wuhan lab during a press conference Monday.

Speaking from a lab in Greenville, South Carolina, Graham began the press conference lauding improvements in COVID-19 testing, the impact of vaccines on the severity of the infection, and the lab's work in testing COVID-19 variants for the country. However, the senator's speech quickly veered into the virus's origins.

"Right now I think the big story with COVID, is where did it come from? And does it matter where it came from?" he asked.

Graham stated that the World Health Organization was shown "what China wanted them to see" and that they weren't able to conduct an investigation in Wuhan to determine whether it had originated there.

"It was a dog and pony show. But first I want to know, how did our government potentially get it so wrong?"

Graham then spoke about a group of scientists who wrote a letter in the earlier days of the virus alleging that the concept of COVID-19 originating in a lab leak was a right-wing conspiracy.

"How did they know? Is there a deep state science department?" he asked. "Is the NIH and the State Department--were people in those two organizations trying to tamp down the idea that it may have come from the lab because they support the lab?"

Graham also said there were people in the state department "raising the alarm" that the coronavirus came from a lab in China instead of the alternative speculations that it came from a bat, but those people were silenced.

"Seems to me that people at NIH had curiosity and their curiosity was stopped. I want to find out, who are the people involved in stopping asking the questions about--could it come from a lab? Because those people did this country a great disservice."

Graham then defended former President Trump, who had received backlash after suggesting that the virus was the product of a lab leak while still in office. The senator claimed the negative response came from people who didn't want Trump to be right.

"Trump suggested this may have come from a lab and he was called a xenophobic racist by suggesting it came from the lab in China," he said. "Well, some people just don't want Trump to ever be right and those same people are stakeholders in the grant program where their livelihood is on the line."

He proceeded to say that the former president's comments were weaponized against by people who "blame everything on Trump and to marginalize his theory of the case" during his failed 2020 election bid.

"I think part of the motivations were political, not scientific," he added.

Newsweek reached out to Graham for comment but the senator was not available by publication time.