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She did not respond to a request to elaborate on whether it was possible the virus may have inadvertently escaped from a lab. The Wuhan Institute of Virology has dismissed rumors both that it synthesized the virus or allowed it to escape.

Trump has raised the prospect that China deliberately caused the Covid-19 outbreak that’s killed more than 39,000 Americans and said there should be consequences if the country is found to be “knowingly responsible.”

“Let’s see what happens with their investigation. But we’re doing investigations also,” Trump said at a White House news conference on Saturday. “If it was a mistake, a mistake is a mistake. But if they were knowingly responsible, yeah, then there should be consequences.”

Photo by HECTOR RETAMAL/AFP via Getty Images

Vice President Mike Pence said Sunday that the U.S. would “make proper inquiries into this at the proper time.”

“It is clear to us that not only was there a failure by the WorldHealthOrganization to communicate to America and the world what was happening in China, but also that China was not as forthcoming as they should have been,” Pence said on “Fox News Sunday.”

As scrutiny of Trump’s response to the outbreak has intensified, congressional Republicans have sought to blame China for the coronavirus outbreak, which emerged from the country’s Hubei province in late 2019.

Some GOP lawmakers have suggested the virus was released from a lab during Chinese experiments, and have floated a bill that would allow Americans to sue China for damages.