Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt on Thursday discussed his lawsuit against China, which alleges Chinese officials are to blame for the coronavirus pandemic, which has 2.5 million across the world, put people out of work and damaged economies.

Schmitt told Fox Business Network’s “Mornings with Maria” that Missouri alone has been “damaged to the tune of tens of billions of dollars” in addition to the lost lives, and China should be held responsible for their “malfeasance.”

“What we know is that the Chinese government engaged in a campaign of deceit and deception, of misrepresentations, of malfeasance in really critical weeks — in the months of December and January when they were aware this disease could be transmitted human to human,” stated Schmitt. “And valuable time was lost all the while they were hoarding quality PPE. China went from being a net exporter of PPE to being a net importer of PPE during this time. It was really avoidable. This could have been prevented.”

He continued, “The nature of our claim is essentially that because of China’s actions — or their inactions — Missouri has been damaged to the tune of tens of billions of dollars. We have our state legislature coming in next week, trying to craft a budget for next year. There are hundreds of millions of dollars worth of withholds for this year’s budget. And you have families, families who have lost the ability to put food on the table. And the human toll here of people being separated from loved ones, losing loved ones, not being able to see loved ones in nursing homes or go to funerals — it’s immense. And so my job as the state’s chief legal officer is to hold them accountable, the people who are actually responsible for all this, and that’s the Chinese government and other Chinese authorities.”

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