The leaders of a new House select committee on China defended Democratic Rep. Judy Chu on Sunday, saying it was abhorrent and unacceptable for a GOP lawmaker to question her loyalty to the United States based on her Chinese heritage.
“One of my colleagues, unfortunately, attacked Judy Chu, the first Chinese American congresswoman in the United States Congress, saying that somehow she’s not loyal to the United States. I find that offensive as an Asian American myself,” said Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, the ranking Democrat on the panel, about the comments last week from Rep. Lance Gooden, R-Texas.
Wisconsin Rep. Mike Gallagher, the Republican chair of the China panel who appeared Sunday with Krishnamoorthi on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” said Gooden was out of line.
“We should not question anybody’s loyalty to the United States,” Gallagher said. “That is out of bounds. It’s beyond the pale.”
In a Fox News interview last week, Gooden criticized Chu for her defense of Biden economic appointee Dominic Ng, who the president named to the business advisory council of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation. Gooden questioned either Chu’s “loyalty or competence.” He also suggested that Chu, a California Democrat, should not have a security clearance or access to classified briefings.
Chu, the chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus who was born in Los Angeles, called Gooden’s comments “racist,” saying the attacks on her and Ng relied on false information from right-wing media.
On Sunday, Gallagher said his bipartisan committee, which is officially called the “Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party” was named as such to “to constantly make that distinction between the party and the people.”
“We must constantly be aware of going overboard as we try and win this competition with China,” he said.
(AP)
2 Responses
“We should not question anybody’s loyalty to the United States,” Gallagher said. “That is out of bounds. It’s beyond the pale.”
That’s ridiculous. Of course we should question people’s loyalty, when they give us cause to do so. There are may traitors; why would there not be any in the Democrat Party, long the party of treason? Does any reasonable person consider Swalwell a loyal American?! Omar?! Barbara Lee, Castro’s favorite congresswoman?!
Remember when the Democrats used to act all hurt when we questioned their patriotism, and were all “how dare you”? Now they openly renounce and denounce patriotism and deny ever having been patriotic. So now it’s “how dare you question our loyalty”. I dare for the same reason I questioned your patriotism, that’s why.
saying it was abhorrent and unacceptable for a GOP lawmaker to question her loyalty to the United States based on her Chinese heritage.
Well, it would be unacceptable to base such a question on her ancestry, but that’s a filthy lie. The article itself explains why he is raising the question: Her otherwise inexplicable defense of a Chinese agent.
To Milhouse: The quote from Republican Congressman Mike Gallagher is overly broad, and there is probably some other information that Gallagher had in mind, or stated, to narrow the scope of his comment.
Baseless doubts about loyalty to the United States has been a problem for Asian Americans since the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. The worst example is probably the round-up of Japanese Americans in 1942, who were then sent to American concentration camps for the duration of World War II. The round-up and imprisonment was upheld by the US Supreme Court. And probably no ethnic minority is subject to suspicions of disloyalty more than us Jews. I assume you are one of us; you should know better.