BALTIMORE — Rep. Judy Chu (D-Calif.) on Thursday said Rep. Lance Gooden (R-Texas) questioning her loyalty to the U.S. “lays the groundwork” for more hate to be directed at members of the Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) community.
“It’s outrageous, it’s racist, it’s disgusting,” said Chu, the first Chinese American congresswoman. “And it just lays the groundwork for questioning AAPIs in this country, and it lays the groundwork for more anti-AAPI hate.”
She emphasized the importance of pushing back on comments like Gooden’s to prevent the sentiment from being applied in other settings.
“It was shocking and outrageous that Congressmember Gooden would question my loyalty based on falsehoods that were spread by an extreme right-wing website,” Chu told The Hill. “And that’s why it was so important for us to push back because sometimes if you don’t push back, these rumors take a life of their own, and then people like Gooden would go after even other people.”
Chu offered her rebuke during a press conference alongside other members of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC) at the House Democrats’ issues conference, which is taking place in Baltimore this week. Members of the group discussed the newly created select committee on China and President Biden’s appointment of Julie Su as the next Labor Secretary, among other topics.
Gooden, during an interview on Fox News last week, suggested Chu should not receive access to sensitive classified materials because she defended Dominic Ng, President Biden’s pick to lead U.S. trade interests in Asia. A group of House Republicans has asked the FBI to investigate allegations that Ng has ties to the Chinese Communist Party.
“I question her either loyalty or competence,” Gooden said about Chu. “If she doesn’t realize what’s going on then she’s totally out of touch with one of her core constituencies.”
Days later, after receiving bipartisan pushback on the…
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