SCOTT MOREFIELD
REPORTER
Republican South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham criticized wet markets that sell exotic animals for human consumption in China and other countries.
Appearing on Friday night’s “The Story with Martha MacCallum,” Graham reacted to the fact that such markets have been reopened in some parts of China despite the fact that they have been linked to the novel coronavirus and other pandemics.
Lindsey Graham:
“Bats carry this stuff and they literally eat bats. Stop eating bats.” pic.twitter.com/gIKim5tp3U
— Caleb Hull (@CalebJHull) April 3, 2020
“These wet markets in China, people eat bats and they eat monkeys, and bats and monkeys — at least bats for sure — carry this kind of virus,” Graham said. “This is where ebola came from, this is where SARS came from, and this lab may be 300 yards away from the wet market in China where they test bats for coronavirus infection, but people literally eating bats 300 yards down the road. And for this to continue is an outrage and Dr. Fauci said the world should ostracize every country that allows exotic animals like monkeys and bats to be intermingled with the food supply and near humans.”
Graham added that wet markets aren’t just in China, but also southeast Asia and Africa.
“Some guy in China started all of this, and it most likely came from a wet market,” he said. “Just remember what I said. Some guy in China started this and we’ve got to stop this stuff in China.”
MacCallum asked about China reopening some of its wet markets: “How many times are we going to go through this routine?” (RELATED: Tucker Carlson: ‘China Continues To Threaten The Rest Of Us With Wet Markets’)
“Well, 16% of all deaths in the world are infectious diseases and about 60% of them come from animal to human transmission,” said the South Carolina senator. “So what Lara Trump is trying to do is bring attention to the fact that people eat cats and dogs throughout the world as part of their diet. We need to stop that. It’s the 21st century.”
Graham called on China’s president to “crack down on bringing exotic and wild animals into these wet markets where they contaminate the food supply and human beings.”
“Bats carry this stuff and they literally eat bats,” he concluded. “Stop eating bats!”
