New CIA Head Vows To Get To The Bottom Of COVID Origins, Confront China Threat

In his first exclusive interview after being confirmed as CIA Director, John Ratcliffe made it clear that addressing the origins of COVID-19 will be a top priority under his leadership. The former Director of National Intelligence (DNI), confirmed by the U.S. Senate and sworn in by Vice President JD Vance, laid out his plans for transforming the CIA, refocusing its mission, and confronting the growing threats posed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

For Ratcliffe, the question of whether COVID-19 leaked from a Chinese laboratory is not just a matter of public health but national security. In a candid conversation with Breitbart News, Ratcliffe expressed frustration with the agency’s lack of progress on this issue, despite mounting evidence supporting the lab leak theory.

One of Ratcliffe’s first actions as CIA Director is to push for a definitive assessment of COVID-19’s origins, with a particular focus on the Wuhan Institute of Virology. For years, the theory that the virus accidentally leaked from a Chinese lab was dismissed by many in the intelligence community, despite early reports from credible sources pointing in that direction. Ratcliffe, however, has long been an advocate for the lab leak hypothesis.

“I think our intelligence, our science, and our common sense all really dictate that the origins of COVID were a leak at the Wuhan Institute of Virology,” Ratcliffe said. “But the CIA has not made that assessment or at least not made that assessment publicly. So, I’m going to focus on that and look at the intelligence and make sure that the public is aware that the agency is going to get off the sidelines.”

Whistleblowers have alleged that Agency analysts tasked with investigating the virus’s origins were pressured or bribed to downplay the lab leak theory in favor of the natural zoonotic spillover narrative. Ratcliffe, determined to resolve the issue, is promising to lead the CIA toward a clear and transparent assessment, ensuring that the agency confronts the question head-on.

Ratcliffe’s broader focus is to address the growing national security threat posed by China. In his interview, he emphasized that President Trump has made it clear that countering Chinese aggression will be a top priority. As he takes the helm of the CIA, Ratcliffe’s goal is to ensure that the United States is armed with the best possible intelligence on China’s activities, especially in light of the pandemic and its far-reaching consequences.

“As President Trump deals with President Xi, he needs to be armed with the very best intelligence,” Ratcliffe said. “If they caused or contributed to the death of a million Americans, the president needs to be armed with that.”

Under previous leadership, particularly during the Obama years, the CIA and other intelligence agencies were seen as being slow to recognize the true scope of the CCP’s ambitions, especially in relation to its influence over American institutions and its increasingly aggressive global posture. Ratcliffe has made it clear that his priority will be to adapt the CIA to the challenges of the 21st century, with a primary focus on China—not Russia.

For decades, the U.S. intelligence apparatus was shaped by the Cold War rivalry with the Soviet Union, and while Russia remains a significant threat—particularly with its nuclear arsenal—Ratcliffe argued that China represents a far more substantial and complex challenge.

“The Intelligence Community has been slow to adjust to the fact that China is the primary geopolitical threat we face,” Ratcliffe remarked. “It’s the second-largest economy, and they compete with us across the board on a peer-to-peer basis in a way that Russia can’t.”

Ratcliffe’s perspective on China is rooted in his previous work as DNI, where he consistently warned about Beijing’s growing global influence and its attempts to undermine U.S. interests. He also noted that financial entanglements between U.S. institutions—from Washington, D.C., to Wall Street and Hollywood—and China have hampered a full reckoning with the CCP’s nefarious activities.

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