Recent Press Releases

ICYMI: Thune Joins PBS and Fox News

“Obviously [China] lied, they understand that they underreported what was going on there. There’s no transparency in that country. This is a communist country. We need to remember that when dealing with them.”

May 7, 2020

Washington — 

U.S. Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) joined PBS’ “Newshour” last night to discuss additional funding for the Paycheck Protection Program and the need for business liability protections in any potential future COVID-19 legislation. Today, Thune joined Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom” to discuss the need to hold China accountable for the spread and misinformation of the coronavirus pandemic.

 

PBS’ “Newshour”

Click here to watch the video. 

On business liability protections:

“I think that there is an argument to be made, because we’re already seeing reporting about lawyers lining up and filing lawsuits. There’s a tremendous amount of vulnerability out there. You’ve got health care providers, you’ve got grocers, people who are in some of these critical industries that could be subject to lawsuits, and as we start to climb out of this and recovery gets going, we want to make sure that we don’t step on that recovery by having this cycle of endless litigation that makes it almost impossible for businesses to keep up with the cost – in many cases having to declare bankruptcy. We don’t want to see that outcome. So some sort of liability protection, if people are doing things the right way, if they’re following the CDC protocols, they shouldn’t be subject to all of these frivolous lawsuits. I think that kind of protection makes sense.”

 

Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom”

Click here to watch the video. 

On China and the World Health Organization:

“I think that we have a lot of ways – a lot of levers that we can pull. One obviously is funding for the World Health Organization, which is something that as you pointed out, that Senator Scott is raising. I think accountability there. I think further – more than that, is accountability from China. Obviously they lied. They understand that they underreported what was going on there. There’s no transparency in that country. This is a communist country. We need to remember that when dealing with them.

“I think one of the things the world could do, the international community could do, is ban Huawei equipment from their 5G networks. I mean we’ve got countries in Europe, like the UK and the Germans, who are entertaining the idea of having that equipment embedded in their networks. I think that gives the Chinese an opportunity to surveil and spy on people around the world. We should stop. At a minimum we ought to do that. But there are other ways that I think the world community could step up, and it’s going to take the leadership of the United States to do that, and I know the president and the leadership up here in Congress is prepared to do that, at least on the Republican side. Hopefully the Democrats will join in.”