Dem Lawmaker Takes Aim At Trump Over Former President's 'History Of Working With China

3 months ago

During a House Oversight Committee hearing prior to the Congressional recess, Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA) questioned witnesses about threats from China and efforts to counteract foreign influence.

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00:00Very good. Thank you.

00:02Gentleman yields back. Chair recognizes Mr. Garcia from California.

00:05Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you to our witnesses that are here.

00:08Obviously, we've talked a lot about the Chinese threat, which we all know is real here in this country.

00:12I also think it's important that if you're talking about Chinese political warfare,

00:16that one of the prime threats that we have, as far as I'm concerned, is Donald Trump,

00:20who we know has a history of working with China on a variety of different,

00:25in my opinion, unethical and illegal matters.

00:28Now, briefly, Mr. Malinowski, has China funneled bribes and payments to leaders and heads of state

00:34as part of their foreign influence operation, just briefly?

00:37Yes.

00:38And thank you. And these are exactly the kinds of threats that our founders had in mind

00:42when they wrote the Emoluments Foreign Interference Clause of our Constitution.

00:45Isn't that correct, Mr. Malinowski?

00:47Absolutely, yes.

00:48And let's be clear about the facts.

00:49The former president spent his time in office collecting payments from China

00:53and many other countries through his businesses.

00:56He refused to divest from his businesses and broke decades of precedent.

01:00Now, we all know that the Constitution has a specific prohibition

01:02from receiving payments from foreign governments.

01:05Our committee, this committee, actually had an investigation that documented cash flowing

01:09directly from the Chinese government's state-owned businesses

01:12into the businesses and pockets of the Trump family.

01:15Here is just some of that.

01:17We know that the People's Republic of China, including state-owned enterprises,

01:21sent more than $5.5 million to the Trump organization.

01:25And just to be clear, it's a minimum of $5.5 million

01:29because we only have data and a few of the Trump locations.

01:33It is likely much, much higher a number that China actually spent money

01:39and drove money into the Trump organization, of course,

01:42while Donald Trump was the president.

01:44This is unconstitutional and threatens our national security.

01:47Now, these, of course, aren't the only favors that the Trump family got from China.

01:51Just months after he took office,

01:53the Chinese government suddenly reversed longstanding policies

01:56and awarded Trump 38 new trademarks in China

01:59for industries related to restaurants and advertising.

02:02And, of course, this went beyond just Donald Trump himself.

02:05In April of 2017, with Trump's White House in chaos,

02:08many people, including the Chinese government,

02:11were all trying to gain influence during this time.

02:14Ivanka Trump, who was working in the White House,

02:17got preliminary approval for three Chinese trademarks

02:20on the same day that Donald Trump had dinner with Xi Jinping at Mar-a-Lago.

02:25And remember, Ivanka never divested her company

02:28while she was working in the White House.

02:30Now, President Trump also overruled our own security officials

02:34in our own government and publicly promised to save jobs

02:38at a Chinese government telecom company which was facing sanctions.

02:41And the list goes on and on and on.

02:44I think we should all be very concerned that the president of the United States,

02:47at the time, Donald Trump,

02:49decided to actually let corporate criminals off the hook

02:52while he was claiming to fight for Chinese jobs.

02:54And you also don't have to take my word for it.

02:57John Bolton, who was Donald Trump's right-wing national security advisor,

03:02a strict conservative, wrote about Trump, and I'll quote,

03:06that he co-mingled the personal and the national,

03:09not just on trade questions,

03:11but across the whole field of national security.

03:14This is actually from the Washington Post.

03:17John Bolton even reported,

03:19John Bolton, the extreme right-wing former member of the administration,

03:23that Donald Trump told President Xi, and I quote,

03:26make sure I win during a dinner at the G20 conference in Osaka, Japan.

03:32Now, Mr. Malinowski, if John Bolton's story is true,

03:35as reported by the Washington Post,

03:38Donald Trump is literally inviting Chinese political warfare.

03:42Isn't that right?

03:43Yes, and I have no reason to believe that John Bolton

03:47would be making any of this up.

03:49He would have no reason to do that.

03:51Thank you, sir. I completely agree with you.

03:52The fact that John Bolton is essentially laying out

03:56that Donald Trump was inviting Chinese political warfare

04:00is shameful, and that should be investigated here

04:03as part of this committee.

04:04But we know the conflicts go on and on.

04:06Jared Kushner was paid $2 billion by Saudi Arabia

04:11just a few months after leaving office,

04:13after he and Trump pursued radical pro-Saudi policies

04:17during their time in the White House.

04:18And we know that the attacks on our democracy continue

04:22not just in Trump's actions around China,

04:25but in the numerous other payments to other foreign governments

04:28that happened while Trump was in office,

04:30and that is happening now to the Kushner family post-White House.

04:34Now, we've all been working to investigate this conflict of interest for months,

04:37but the majority hasn't moved or joined us.

04:40This is unacceptable, and we should continue to demand answers.

04:43And with that, I yield back.

Dem Lawmaker Takes Aim At Trump Over Former President's 'History Of Working With China

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