Secretary of State Mike Pompeo pushed back Monday against Chinese attempts to blame the United States for the coronavirus outbreak during a phone call with a communist party official in China, the State Department said. CORONAVIRUS: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOWPompeo made the comments to People’s Republic of China Politburo member Yang Jiechi, with the State Department saying the secretary condemned the spreading of "disinformation and outlandish rumors." "Secretary Pompeo conveyed strong U.S. objections to PRC efforts to shift blame for COVID-19 to the United States," State Department spokesperson Morgan Ortagus said in a Monday statement. CLICK HERE FOR THE FOX NEWS APPThe State Department on Friday summoned the Chinese ambassador to the U.S. after Zhao's comments. In the United States, Democrats such as Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., have claimed that referring to the virus as the "Chinese coronavirus" is "racist" in nature, but they have not claimed that it came from anywhere else.

Source: Fox News March 16, 2020 18:33 UTC