Congresswoman Answers Questioning of Her Loyalty

Rep. Judy Chu has fought back against a Republican lawmaker's comments that she may be disloyal to the US and maybe shouldn't have a security clearance. Rep. Lance Gooden's attack involved the Democrat's defense of Dominic Ng, a Biden appointee, NBC News reports; an article in the Daily Caller, a right-wing outlet, suggested that Ng is connected to a Chinese Communist Party front group. The publisher of the Daily Caller defended the article. "I think that Judy Chu needs to be called out," Gooden said Wednesday in an interview on Fox News.

"I question her either loyalty or competence," the Texas congressman said, adding, "I'm really disappointed and shocked that someone like Judy Chu would have a security clearance and entitled to confidential intelligence briefings until this is figured out." The next day, Chu called Gooden's remarks outrageous, saying they were "based on false information spread by an extreme, right-wing website. Furthermore, it is racist. I very much doubt that he would be spreading these lies were I not of Chinese American descent." Chu is the first Chinese American woman elected to Congress.

Gooden also said that Chu, who chairs the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, influenced "the other Chinese American members" of the caucus to support Ng; the other three members are of Taiwanese or Japanese heritage, not Chinese. Democratic lawmakers responded to Gooden's comments, as well, per the Hill. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Gooden's "slanderous accusation of disloyalty against Rep. Chu is dangerous, unconscionable and xenophobic." The Republican answered by saying Jeffries had just made "a sick display of disloyalty to our nation." (More Judy Chu stories.)