If Donald Trump had listened to Tom Cotton in January of 2020, he would likely still be president today. But while the rest of the Hill obsessed over the (first) impeachment proceedings against Trump, the Arkansas senator was trying to sound the alarm about the novel coronavirus. Cotton was right when he repeatedly warned the White House that China was actively concealing the extent and nature of the virus, and he was right when he questioned its origins.

Neither Trump nor the media took the virus seriously when Cotton tried to warn the world. Key Trump allies encouraged him to ignore the pandemic, fearing a strong response’s potential impact on the next phases of his trade deal with Beijing and his electoral odds. Less responsible news outlets such as the Washington Post and BuzzFeed mocked that we ought to worry more about the flu.