Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN) suggests the United States should “demand reparations” from China for their role in creating an economic crisis due to the coronavirus.

The congressman’s comments mark another salvo in the heated rhetoric between the United States and China over responsibility for an epidemic that started in the city of Wuhan.

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Banks took to social media and an appearance with Fox News host Tucker Carlson in which they discussed “how we can begin to demand reparations from Communist [China] for putting us through the economic strain of [the coronavirus].”

Demand They Pay the Burden

The Republican lawmaker told Carlson, “We need to start by forcing China to pay the burden and the cost incurred on the United States of America due to the coronavirus.”

Banks explained that there are a variety of measures President Trump can take in order to make them pay for the Chinese virus, including tariffs and a forced release of U.S. debt.

“I have no doubt that President Trump will do everything that he can to hold China accountable for what they’ve caused on Americans today,” he said.

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China Cost World Time and Money

Banks went on to explain the many mistakes China made in dealing with the crisis created within its own borders.

“By refusing to let CDC come to China and study the new virus, by lying to their citizens and saying the virus wasn’t transmitted by person to person contact when they knew the opposite was true, National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien has said this cost the world two months in preparation time for this virus,” Banks told Breitbart News.

He added, “China needs to pay up.” Finally, reparations all Americans can get behind.

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Americans Agree

A recent survey by Rasmussen indicates Americans support the idea of “making China pay.”

“42 percent of likely U.S. voters think China should help pay at least some of the financial costs that have resulted from the global transmission of the coronavirus which originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan,” the polling firm reports. Just 36 percent disagreed with the idea.

For those 36 percent who don’t think the president should hold China accountable, we offer this report from Fox News:

In an article in Xinhua, the state-run media agency that’s largely considered the mouthpiece of the party, Beijing bragged about its handling of COVID-19, a virus that originated in the city of Wuhan and has spread quickly around the world, killing nearly 5,000 people and infecting thousands more. The article also claimed that China could impose pharmaceutical export controls which would plunge America into “the mighty sea of coronavirus.”

China’s rhetoric is all you need to know about how the communist nation would be handling this if the United States were to blame.

This piece originally appeared in ThePoliticalInsider.com and is used by permission.

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