Pelosi unfazed by Eric's China spy tie
Senator, 87, losing it: report
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday said she had “no concerns” about allegations that Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell, a member of the Intelligence Committee, was targeted by a suspected Chinese spy who slept with US politicians as a tactic to elicit government secrets.
Pelosi (D-Calif.) was asked if background checks were needed on all Capitol Hill staffers after Axios on Wednesday revealed that Swalwell (D-Calif.) had a years-long relationship with suspected Chinese Communist Party operative Fang Fang, aka Christine Fang.
“I don’t have any concerns about Mr. Swalwell,” Pelosi said at her weekly news conference, where only Fox News asked about the potential security threat.
Pelosi said House leaders were briefed on Fang’s alleged plot to infiltrate the US political system in the spring of 2015 and she insisted that was the end of it.
“When that was made known to members of Congress, that was over, you know, that was the end of any communication with those people,” she said.
But The Post on Wednesday revealed that House Intelligence Committee Republicans were never told about Swalwell’s friendship with the honeytrap, who fled back to China in 2015 when her cover was blown.
Swalwell, 40, who represents a California district south of Oakland, was among a group of Bay Area Democrats targeted by Fang, who entered the United States as a college student in 2011 and spent the next four years wooing the lawmakers in a bid to obtain sensitive intelligence.
Intelligence officials said Fang had sex with at least two Midwestern mayors as she tried to get information from them.
Swalwell has refused to comment on whether he was intimate with Fang — with his office claiming such information “might be classified.”
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the oldest member of the Senate at age 87 and the most senior Democrat on the powerful Judiciary Committee, is “seriously struggling” with cognitive decline, a new report says.
People familiar with the California lawmaker’s situation told The New Yorker on Wednesday that Feinstein’s short-term memory has grown so poor that she “often forgets she has been briefed on a topic, accusing her staff of failing to do so just after they have.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has had several “painful” discussions with Feinstein about stepping aside, but she reportedly soon forgets about their talks, forcing Schumer to confront her again, one source said.
“It was like ‘Groundhog Day,’ but with the pain fresh each time,” the source said.
Overtures also have reportedly been made to Feinstein’s billionaire husband, Richard C. Blum.
Grumblings over Feinstein’s performance have grown increasingly loud, leading to her decision last month to step down as ranking member on the Judiciary Committee in the next Congress.
Liberal pundits were unhappy with Feinstein’s handling of the confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett.
Feinstein bungled several questions and then caused a furor when she concluded Barrett’s hearings by hugging Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and praising him for “one of the best set of hearings that I have participated in.”
Schumer was reportedly so concerned about Feinstein’s performance that he “installed a trusted former aide, Max Young, to ‘embed’ in the Judiciary Committee to make sure the hearings didn’t go off the rails,” The New Yorker reported.
He did the same during the 2018 confirmation hearings for Justice Brett Kavanaugh, according to the article.
“The staff is in such a bad position,” one former Senate aide told the publication. “They have to defend her and make her seem normal.”
Some people familiar with the situation blamed Schumer for not talking his longtime associate out of running for reelection in 2018.
Feinstein, who has served in the Senate since 1992, would be 91 if she serves out the remainder of her six-year term.
Schumer’s office declined to comment, while Feintein’s office did not respond to a request for comment.