Rep. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., answers questions during an interview at the Associated Press bureau in Washington, Thursday, Dec. 7, 2017. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

When it comes to China’s government and their handling of the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) has become one of their staunchest Republican critics.

Like Sens. Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio , Cotton knows that China has not been forthright about their statistics, including on the number of cases and deaths, and instead have engaged in despicable propaganda games that the American media have shamefully gone along with.

Over the weekend, Cotton appeared on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” program to talk to Maria Bartiromo about exactly how we know that China is still lying about the details of the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak in their country (transcribed):

Bartiromo: “Are they still lying?”

Cotton: “Yes, Maria, the Chinese communist party are still lying.

Back in January, I knew that this virus had the potential to become a worldwide pandemic for two reasons. Not because I’m a scientist or an epidemiologist, but because I could see 1) how the Chinese communist party was lying and 2) the dramatic, extreme measures they were taking like locking in 75 million people into their homes and apartment buildings. Those two things simply did not line up.

You see it again today. So, for instance, China says they have no more new cases, no more new deaths. Yet they just closed all movie theaters nationwide only a few days after having opened them up.

Or look at some of the mortuaries in Wuhan itself. They say they’ve only had 2,500 cases that resulted in deaths or so, yet a single mortuary has ordered more than 5,000 urns. You can look at these basic facts to know that the Chinese Communist Party is still lying today, as they were in December and January, and that’s why what could have been a local health problem in Wuhan turned into a global pandemic from which more than 2,000 Americans have now died.”

Watch Cotton speak on this issue below, via MRC TV:

Cotton also appeared on Fox News Monday morning and said “there will have to be a reckoning [with China] once we’re through this pandemic.”

Indeed.