Scott Morrison reveals he still meets with Trump, spills his theory on COVID origins
The CIA report, which was completed at the behest of the Biden administration and former CIA Director William Burns, was not the result of new intelligence but was declassified after order from Trump’s pick to lead the agency, John Ratcliffe, who was sworn in as director.
The nuanced finding suggested the agency believed the totality of evidence makes a lab origin more likely than a natural origin. However, the agency’s assessment assigned a low degree of confidence to this conclusion, suggesting the evidence is deficient, inconclusive or contradictory.
Intelligence officials say it may never be resolved due to a lack of cooperation from Chinese authorities.
The CIA “continues to assess that both research-related and natural origin scenarios of the COVID-19 pandemic remain plausible”, the agency wrote in a statement.
Scott Morrison and his wife Jenny spent New Year’s Eve with the then president elect Donald Trump and his wife Melania at their Florida resort Mar-a-Lago. Credit: Instagram
The former prime minister also reflected in the interview on his relationship with Trump, as Morrison said the pair worked well together when they were leaders.
“We have a good relationship, I’m not overstating it but yes, we work together very well and in a friendly way when he was president and I was prime minister,” Morrison said.
“We continue to meet now … and I share his outlook for you know, what he’s trying to do, and I think there are great benefits and we’re already seeing it in places like the Middle East and what I hope to see in Ukraine and other places.
“[Trump is] a steadying hand that brings peace through strength, which the world dearly needs, after the chaos of the last number of years, where the world has basically burst into flames, we don’t need more of that.”
Morrison and his wife Jenny spent New Year’s Eve with Trump and his wife Melania at a big party at the president’s exclusive Florida resort Mar-a-Lago.
On Friday, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said no when asked if Morrison had broken a promise to Trump to rein in aluminium exports to the US, as was alleged this week by Trump’s trade advisor Peter Navarro.
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with AP
