House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Thursday that she is backing Rep. Eric Swalwell, a California Democrat tied to a Chinese national who was targeting important politicians and is suspected of spying for her country.
“I don’t have any concerns about Mr. Swalwell,” Pelosi told reporters.
Republican leaders this week questioned Swalwell’s membership on the exclusive House Intelligence Committee, which has access to top-secret national security information.
Pelosi dismissed GOP calls to remove Swalwell from the panel.
Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, a California Republican, has been the most vocal critic of Swalwell and has even suggested he should resign his seat in Congress.
“Did Nancy Pelosi know this had transpired when she put him on the committee?” McCarthy said on Fox News this week.
But Pelosi dismissed McCarthy’s concern.
“He’s trying to deflect from the fact that he has QAnon in his delegation over there,” Pelosi said.
Pelosi made the case Thursday that the Chinese spy information was revealed at the same time to leadership in both parties.
“And at the time, it was the end of it,” Pelosi said.
Two incoming GOP House members, Marjorie Taylor Green of Georgia and Lauren Boebert of Colorado, have, in the past, expressed support for the QAnon conspiracy theory that suggests President Trump has been undermined by Satan-worshiping pedophiles.
