Rep. Eric Swalwell turned to personal attacks on Republicans as he faces intense scrutiny for his China spy scandal.
The Democratic congressman took jabs at Sen. Ted Cruz and Jason Miller, a top strategist for President Trump’s reelection campaign, in a flurry of tweets that began late Thursday. Swalwell did so as he avoids questions about his relationship with Christine Fang, a Chinese national believed to be working with China’s Ministry of State Security.
“Ted will fully defend this lawsuit…until it attacks his wife,” Swalwell said in one tweet responding to a CNN report about Trump asking Cruz to argue the Texas election lawsuit if it reached the Supreme Court. “ALT: Ted will fully defend this lawsuit…until it attacks his dad,” he said in another.
He was drawing attention to personal attacks Trump made on Cruz’s family during the 2016 campaign when the two vied for the GOP presidential nomination. The two are now close allies.
Swalwell also tweeted a barb at Miller, referencing the Trump adviser’s child support battle in court.
“Just a reminder: pay your child support @JasonMillerinDC. Kids shouldn’t go hungry because Dad is a deadbeat. Feed them for the holidays,” Swalwell tweeted in response to Miller sharing a Daily Caller report on how Swalwell spoke at the same 2013 event as an alleged Chinese spy who worked for Sen. Dianne Feinstein.
Swalwell’s association with Fang, which he has refused to describe in detail, lasted from 2011 to 2015. Swalwell was elected to the House in 2012.
Federal agents carrying out a counterintelligence investigation into Fang “alerted Swalwell to their concerns” in 2015 and provided him a defensive briefing, according to Axios, and Swalwell “immediately cut off all ties to Fang” and “has not been accused of any wrongdoing,” the report said, citing intelligence sources. Fang suddenly left the United States in the summer of 2015. That same Axios report that broke the story also had sources who said Fang carried out romantic relationships with at least two Midwestern mayors, who were not named.
Swalwell became a member of the House Intelligence Committee in early 2015, and unsuccessfully ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2019. “Rep. Swalwell, long ago, provided information about this person — whom he met more than eight years ago, and whom he hasn’t seen in nearly six years — to the FBI,” Swalwell’s office told Axios. “To protect information that might be classified, he will not participate in your story.”
Calling Swalwell a “national security liability,” House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said the congressman should be disqualified from the intelligence panel. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters on Thursday she does not have “any concern” about Swalwell.
Editor’s note: This report has been updated to clarify that Eric Swalwell was elected to the House in 2012.
