Thread by @AGHamilton29

These people can admit to being wrong or that people they don't like were right so instead they dig deeper and have embarrassing double downs like this.

Tom Cotton asked the right questions. Tom attacked him for it & now is desperately spinning to justify being wrong.

https://twitter.com/RadioFreeTom/status/1397629522611163143

Tom accused Cotton of being a "conspiracy theorist" for merely asking the same questions that now everyone agrees are legitimate.

Then when called out for it back then, he kept falsely accusing Cotton of suggesting it was a bioweapon.

can't*

Cotton didn't claim it was a bioweapon (someone else brought it up in an interview). He even emphasized while listing all the theories that intentional release was "unlikely".

But Tom kept accusing him of promoting "a crazy thing without evidence"

This is important bc it shows the same trap many actual reporters fell into. They don't like Tom Cotto and they didn't want anyone else (inc China) blamed so they just dismissed the questions he was asking. They wrongly attacked and jumped to claims it was a denunked conspiracy.

They never walked those back and often ignored the evidence. Now that Trump is gone and Biden admin is considering the same questions, they have to admit it is possible but don't want to admit how partisan/wrong they were to dismiss it. So you get this embarrassing spin.

"Yes, it's possible it leaked from a lab, but Cotton was wrong to mention the possibility in Feb 2020 and it's his own fault we kept calling it a conspiracy theory!"

0 sense. Cotton pointed out the possibilities, noted the evidence, and said we should investigate. He was right.

This also emphasizes a big problem with Twitter. Someone with a ton of partisan followers will get far more RT's and likes by spinning to justify attacks on Cotton than admitting they were wrong. It creates a bubble, which is how you end up w false narratives becoming dominant.