OAN reporter who attacked media at Trump presser previously peddled insane coronavirus conspiracy theory

Chanel Rion, the reporter from the right-wing One America News who attacked journalists at President Donald Trump's Thursday coronavirus press conference, has previously peddled an insane conspiracy theory about the coronavirus that claims it was created in a lab in North Carolina.

As Media Matters documented earlier this week, Rion reported on "information" she had received about the virus's origins from conspiracy theorist Greg Rubini, who has said COVID-19 was "genetically engineered as a Bio-Weapon at the Univ. of North Carolina BSL-3 Lab."

Rubini believes that the virus was produced as part of a "deep state" conspiracy to destroy the economy ahead of Trump's reelection, and he even implicated the Trump administration's Dr. Anthony Fauci in the plot.

"Fauci... funded the production of the Corona Virus at the North Carolina BSL-3 Lab," he wrote in one tweet. "Yes that Little Tony Fauci that liddle snake."

While Rion made no mention of Fauci's purported role in the conspiracy theory during her segment, she did cite Rubini in reporting that there were some "interesting clues" that the virus was created in a lab in North Carolina.

Rion was also the OAN reporter who accompanied Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani to Ukraine as part of his failed quest to retrieve dirt on former Vice President Joe Biden.