Just before midnight on Monday night, Rep. Eric Swalwell, who has come under public scrutiny over his alleged relationship with a Chinese spy, tweeted Monday, “Hate to ask … but if a Member of Congress tries to overthrow the 2020 election are they a traitor?”
Hate to ask…but if a Member of Congress tries to overthrow the 2020 election are they a traitor?
— Rep. Eric Swalwell (@RepSwalwell) December 22, 2020
Swalwell’s question about traitorous actions follows a series of reports about his alleged relationship with Chinese spy Christine Yang. The Daily Wire reported on December 8:
A suspected Chinese spy operating in the Bay Area during the Obama administration reportedly got so close to Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) that the FBI had to intervene and provide him with a defensive briefing.
The alleged spy, Chinese national Christine Fang, “targeted up-and-coming local politicians in the Bay Area and across the country who had the potential to make it big on the national stage” through “campaign fundraising, extensive networking, personal charisma, and romantic or sexual relationships,” Axios reported. “Even though U.S. officials do not believe Fang received or passed on classified information, the case ‘was a big deal, because there were some really, really sensitive people that were caught up’ in the intelligence network, a current senior U.S. intelligence official said.”
The report said that the type of information that officials believe that Fang was collecting, while not necessarily classified, constituted valuable political intelligence that foreign intelligence agencies seek on U.S. officials.
That same week, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) called for Swalwell, who sits on the House Intelligence Committee, to be “removed from Congress,” asking why Swalwell was attacking Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe, who had repeatedly warned that China is the largest threat to the United States. “The only person attacking him is Swalwell,” McCarthy continued. “Now we learn why. Why is this person still there?”
Days later, a spokesperson for Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) said that if Rubio was named Chairman of the Senate Committee on Intelligence that he “plans to hold a public hearing on Fang Fang and Chinese espionage as soon as possible in the new year.”
Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI) urged the House Ethics Committee to open an investigation into the allegations against Swalwell, writing:
I respectfully request the House Committee on Ethics immediately open an investigation into the allegations recently made public by an article in Axios regarding the compromising of Representative Eric Swalwell, a member of Congress and a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. The story indicates that the FBI was so concerned with his close relationship with Fang that they had to warn Swalwell about his connections to a known spy in 2015, including Rep. Swalwell’s decision to place an intern in his Congressional office on Fang’s recommendations.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) urged Swalwell to resign from Congress, saying, “I think, to be careful and to [be] cautious, he should actually resign from the intelligence committee. If he’s not willing to do that, he should be removed from the intelligence committee. But I also think that — what hypocrisy! This is a guy who was hurling stones and accusations, all kinds of false accusations at President Trump. ‘Oh, he’s controlled by spies,’ and this and that. He was the most over-the-top critic of President Trump on Russia collusion, and it turns out he’s sleeping with a Chinese spy.”
Social media had a field day with Swalwell’s tweet about traitors:
Why do you ask, does that make you want to sleep with them? https://t.co/zrxRmxo5PB
— Reverend Doctor Jill Biden Derek Hunter (@derekahunter) December 22, 2020
those who live in glass houses with a CHINESE SPY should not throw around the traitor accusation. https://t.co/aVrtc9fJ0I
— Greg Pollowitz (@GPollowitz) December 22, 2020
You might want to consider sitting this traitor talk out, dude. https://t.co/i2TGYxqK06
— Mo Mo (@MollyRatty) December 22, 2020
Hate to ask…but if a Member of Congress, on the Intel Committee, is banging a Chinese spy, is he also then a foreign asset? https://t.co/JHkpjNgPLs
— Jennifer Van Laar (@jenvanlaar) December 22, 2020