GOP Sen. Tom Cotton should be at the top of the media’s to-apologize-to list after the media are finally starting to acknowledge that it’s, in fact, possible that COVID19 was accidentally released by a Wuhan lab.

“scientists don’t rule out that an accident at a research laboratory in Wuhan might have spread a deadly bat virus that had been collected for scientific study,” writes @IgnatiusPost https://t.co/Sormfr4PXy — Josh Rogin (@joshrogin) April 3, 2020

I think some people owe @SenTomCotton an apology. https://t.co/0bhPtJYcWW — Jay Caruso (@JayCaruso) April 3, 2020

Cotton’s remarks were repeatedly mischaracterized as him spreading a “debunked conspiracy theory” about COVID19 being a bio-weapon, despite the fact that all Cotton did was point out that the lab was near the wet market in Wuhan where patient zero reportedly contracted COVID19 and suggest that the Chinese government may not be trustworthy.

But Tom Nichols isn’t ready to make nice quite yet:

Or, here's another idea: Maybe Tom Cotton will take the lesson that sounding like an conspiracy crank undermines a valid possibility and a reasonable point that he could have made by sounding more like a senator and less like a caller to the Alex Jones show. https://t.co/odPc9IubFI — Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) April 3, 2020

Come on, Tom.

So "I don't like Tom Cotton" is a valid reason to ignore anything he says. Got it. — Michael Brennan (@MikeBrennan330) April 3, 2020

"Tom Cotton may have been right but I don't like him" https://t.co/xZAvux26go — Ben McDonald (@Bmac0507) April 3, 2020

Translation: Cotton was right, but that doesn't matter because The Experts™ were saying something different at the time. https://t.co/Od2Pr47JBT — Beard and Circus (@Shooter_ptpx01) April 3, 2020

That’s basically what this boils down to.

This is literally what he said on Fox, Tom.. pic.twitter.com/psRoAZ9LYP — neontaster (@neontaster) April 3, 2020

What about any of that makes Cotton sound like a “conspiracy crank”?

You’re wrong here @RadioFreeTom. I get where you’re coming from, but your natural instinct to reject any R who sides with Trump made you lose sight of this. @TomCottonAR tried to get ahead of this and partisanship blinded the country’s response. — Todd Wiesel (@ToddWiesel) April 3, 2020

Take the L Expert — John (@JohnboyND7) April 3, 2020

Or maybe just say "Sorry, Senator" and move on to your next round of orange-man-so-very-bad performance art? — Essential Dildo (@totter777) April 3, 2020

Or, you could just apologize, assclown. — Apo-Crapplefratz (@Crapplefratz) April 3, 2020

Never.

I can think of a few more people who might benefit from some self-reflection on sounding less like an obsessive crank…. https://t.co/WgRTopYtNz — Dodd (@Amuk3) April 3, 2020