House Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-KY) subpoenaed DHS Chief Alejandro Mayorkas for information on Governor Tim Walz’s (D) alleged connections to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
The move follows whistleblowers disclosing that there is “serious concern among Department of Homeland Security (DHS) personnel regarding a longstanding connection between the CCP and Minnesota Governor Timothy James Walz,” Comer’s letter reads.
There is also a “non-classified Microsoft Teams group chat among DHS employees–titled ‘NST NFT Bi-Weekly Sync’–that contains information about Governor Walz that is relevant to the Committee’s investigation,” the letter describes.
Comer emphasized that the Committee’s investigation into the CCP began “long before Governor Walz was elevated to be the vice-presidential candidate.” The investigation “seeks to understand the extent of the CCP’s infiltration and influence campaign and to identify legislative reforms to combat CCP political warfare targeting prominent Americans for elite capture.”
If a governor and vice president nominee “has been a sitting or unwitting participant in the CCP’s efforts to weaken our nation,” then there are likely “alarming weaknesses” in the federal government to defend itself against the CCP.
The letter was released the evening before Walz’s debate with Republican vice presidential pick JD Vance.
The Committee’s ranking member, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), criticized the timing of Comer’s letter.
“What do you know, it’s the eve of the vice-presidential debate, and Chairman Comer has apparently been assigned another flotsam and jetsam errand from the GOP’s political smear barrel,” Raskin said in a statement.
“The tarnished hero of the Biden impeachment investigation has just thrown out one of his classic boomerang ‘bombshell’ accusations, revealing to the world that employees at the Department of Homeland Security were actually chatting about Governor Tim Walz over Microsoft Teams message! This comically trivial last-ditch attempt to smear Governor Walz is one more embarrassing and strained attempt to curry favor with Donald Trump’s collapsing campaign.”
