Leaders of a new House committee on China on Sunday condemned GOP Representative Lance Gooden of Texas for questioning Rep. Judy Chu’s loyalty to the US.
“Unfortunately, a colleague of mine attacked Judy Chu, the first Chinese American Congresswoman in the United States Congress, saying that somehow she is not loyal to the United States. As an Asian American, I find that offensive,” Rep. Raja Krishnamurthy, the panel’s ranking Democrat, said in response to Gooden’s comments during an interview on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
Rep. Mike Gallagher, GOP chairman of the China panel, who appeared with Krishnamurthy on CBS, similarly dismissed Gooden’s comments.
“We shouldn’t be questioning anybody’s loyalty to the United States of America. I think that’s off limits. It’s beyond that,” Gallagher said.
During an interview on Fox News last week, Gooden suggested that Chu should not have a security clearance or access to classified briefings. Chu had defended Dominic Ng, a Biden appointee featured in an article by the conservative Daily Caller that alleged Ng had ties to a Chinese Communist Party front group.
Gooden told Fox News that he thought Chu “needed to be called out” and questioned his “loyalty or competence”.
“If she doesn’t realize what’s happening, she’s completely out of touch with one of her core constituencies,” he said. “I am truly dismayed and appalled that someone like Judy Chu would have a security clearance and be entitled to confidential intelligence briefings until this is known.”
Chu balked at Gooden’s comments, which she said were “absolutely outrageous.”
“It is based on false information spread by an extremist, right-wing website. Besides, it’s racist. Chu, the first Chinese American woman elected to Congress, said, “I highly doubt he would be spreading these lies if I wasn’t Chinese American.”
Gooden, a third-term lawmaker who is a member of the Judiciary Committee, was joined on February 15 by five other House Republicans in asking the FBI to investigate Ng, the CEO of East West Bank in California, whom Biden appointed last year. did. Chairman of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Business Advisory Council.
Chu and other members of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus – Democratic Reps. Grace Meng of New York, Ted Liu of California and Mark Takano of California — rebuked their GOP colleagues days later in a joint statement.
“As with every presidential appointee, Dominic Ng, who is Chinese American, has gone through an extensive vetting process and taken an oath to support and defend the Constitution and serve the American people,” he said. . “No Chinese American – indeed any American – should face suspicion of treason or treason on the basis of their ethnicity, nation of origin or their family members.”
