House Republicans are pushing President Joe Biden to investigate the Chinese Communist Party’s ties to the collapsed Silicon Valley Bank – and demanding that he reveal any Biden family connections with Chinese companies set to benefit from the federal government’s bailout.
Silicon Valley Bank and a Shanghai-based subsidiary “played an indispensable role in financing China’s innovation economy,” Rep. Rich McCormick (R-Georgia) wrote to Biden Friday in a letter signed by 19 of his GOP colleagues, Fox News reported.
The letter listed four Chinese tech and pharmaceutical companies with deposits at SVB totaling $289 million — assets that have been protected by the Biden administration’s intervention.
“The Department of the Treasury, Federal Reserve, and FDIC cannot afford to be asleep at the wheel while the CCP finances its companies with the support of U.S. venture capitalists at the expense of American taxpayers,” the lawmakers wrote.
House Republicans want President Biden to reveal if any family connections with Chinese companies are set to benefit from the federal government’s bailout.REUTERS Republicans claim “recent revelations that members of the Biden family have received payments from Chinese companies” make this investigation “a matter of vital national interest.”AP
The Republicans also pointed to “recent revelations that members of the Biden family have received payments from Chinese companies” — calling it “a matter of vital national interest” to find out “what influence they may have on Executive Branch policymaking.”
The Post reported last week that $1,065,000 from a Chinese energy company was doled out to Biden family members — including first son Hunter Biden and his sister-in-law-turned-former lover Hallie Biden — over three months in 2017.
“The American people deserve to know whether their government is bailing out companies connected to the Chinese Communist Party,” McCormick told Fox News.
“Joe Biden should answer whether his family has received large payments from companies in China, and whether his judgment was influenced as a result.”
WASHINGTON – Self-described “woke” Defense Department schools official Kelisa Wing, whose anti-white social media comments garnered national attention last fall, has been reassigned to an unrelated role, The Post has learned.
The Defense Dept. in October launched a 30-day review of Wing – the now-former Education Activity chief diversity equity and inclusion officer – after her Twitter posts with disparaging comments about white people resurfaced.
“I’m so exhausted at these white folx in these [professional development] sessions this lady actually had the CAUdacity to say black people can be racist too,” she wrote in one post from June 2020, using a portmanteau for “Caucasian audacity.”
While Wing’s job change came after the DoD completed its review, Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Gilbert Cisneros Jr. said it took place not as a “disciplinary action,” but instead “as part of a headquarters restructuring.”
But at a House Military Personnel Subcommittee hearing on the impacts of “diversity, equity, and inclusion” in the DoD and military, Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) said she was skeptical that the job change was made purely for reorganizational reasons.
Kelisa Wing, whose anti-white social media comments garnered national attention last fall, has been reassigned to an unrelated role.DODEA
“I have a feeling that has to do with the fact that we [Republicans] have shined light on this,” she said.
While she and other lawmakers had requested updates on Wing’s review months earlier, Stefanik said she received a letter just three hours before the hearing where the matter would be discussed.
“I wrote a letter to the department in September of last year and did not receive a response. It was only when I wrote a follow-up letter in November of last year [that] we did finally get a response in December stating the department was conducting an inquiry into this matter,” she said.
Rep. Elise Stefanik said she was skeptical that the change was made purely for reorganizational reasons.Getty Images
“Today – six months after that initial inquiry – you responded three hours prior to this hearing, which is a trend for Biden administration officials at the last minute scrambling before these hearings,” she added.
The Pentagon also repeatedly ignored The Post’s requests for updates on the review since early this year.
A congressional source close to the matter called the delayed reply “an attempt to subvert full Congressional oversight of DoDEA’s politicized activities that inhibit the ability of service member parents to participate in their children’s education.”
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It’s a matter close to Stefanik’s heart as she continues her push for a “service member parents bill of rights” bill that would ensure guardians of children attending DoD schools “have the right to be involved in their children’s education, while increasing transparency and accountability in DoDEA schools,” according to her office.
In the six months since her racially charged tweets drew GOP criticism, the number of her far-left children’s books lining the shelves of the DOD elementary, middle and high schools under her authority increased tenfold.
In October, about 45 copies of books Wing coauthored – including titles such as “What is White Privilege?” and “What Does it Mean to Defund the Police?” – were available in 11 DOD school libraries, according to a Substack report by OpenTheBooks, a right-leaning nonprofit that tracks government spending.
As of this month, that number had grown to more than 600 books in 49 DOD schools from Quantico, Va., to Yokosuka, Japan, according to online library databases and the report.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy announced Tuesday that Democratic Reps. Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell will no longer be members of the House Intelligence Committee, rejecting Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries’ weekend appeal for their reappointment to the prestigious panel.
The move had been long-anticipated, as McCarthy (R-Calif.) pledged to remove Schiff (D-Calif.) and Swalwell (D-Calif.) prior to the 2022 midterm elections if Republicans took control of the House. Earlier this month, McCarthy also signaled that he would make good on the pre-election promise.
Jeffries (D-NY) on Saturday called the pair of California Democrats “eminently qualified” to serve on the committee and claimed there was no “precedent or justification” for McCarthy to reject his request to seat them.
“I appreciate the loyalty you have to your Democrat colleagues, and I acknowledge your efforts to have two Members of Congress reinstated to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence,” McCarthy wrote in a letter to Jeffries on Tuesday.
Rep. Adam Schiff was already in the plans to be removed from the committee as McCarthy pledged to do so in 2022. ZUMAPRESS.com
“But I cannot put partisan loyalty ahead of the national security, and I cannot simply recognize years of service as the sole criteria for membership to this essential committee. Integrity matters more,” he added, arguing that “the misuse of this panel during the 116th and 117th Congresses severely undermined its primary national security and oversight missions – ultimately leaving our nation less safe.”
“In order to maintain a standard worthy of this committee’s responsibilities, I am hereby rejecting the appointments of Representative Adam Schiff and Representative Eric Swalwell to serve on the Intelligence Committee,” McCarthy declared.
McCarthy denied on Tuesday that kicking Schiff and Swalwell off the committee was retaliation for Democrats stripping committee assignments from Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) in 2021.
Rep. Eric Swalwell’s removal was in no intention motivated by the Democrats stripping committee assignments from Rep. Greene and Gosar in 2021, McCarthy said.AP
“This is not anything political. This is not similar to what the Democrats did,” McCarthy told reporters at the Capitol Building, according to the Hill.
Schiff, the former chairman of the Intel Committee, was not convinced that the decision was apolitical.
“His objection seems to be that I was the lead impeachment manager in Donald Trump’s first impeachment and that we held him accountable for withholding hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid from Ukraine in order to try to extort that country into helping his political campaign,” Schiff told reporters Tuesday, according to the Hill.
“I think it’s just another body blow to the institution of Congress, that he’s behaving this way, but it shows just how weak he is as a Speaker that he has to give in to the most extreme elements of his conference, in this case the Marjorie Taylor Greenes and Paul Gosars,” he added.
In November, McCarthy accused Schiff of lying “to the American public time and again” and said Republicans “will not allow him to be on the Intel Committee.”
McCarthy’s reasoning for removing Swalwell dates back to reports that emerged in 2020 that a suspected Chinese spy infiltrated his campaign and got close to the congressman.
“Eric Swalwell cannot get a security clearance in the public sector. Why would we ever give him a security clearance in the secrets to America? So, I will not allow him to be on Intel,” McCarthy told Fox News in November.
Former top Trump White House adviser Kellyanne Conway met with the House select committee investigating last year’s Capitol riot Monday as the panel prepares its final report on the events of Jan. 6, 2021.
Conway, who served as White House counselor under former President Donald Trump, reportedly was interviewed for five hours and was asked about her conversations with Trump after his 2020 election loss.
Specifically, the committee was interested in reports that Conway told acquaintances the now-76-year-old Trump admitted to her that he knew he had lost his re-election bid fair and square, according to CNN.
The anecdote first appeared in Jonathan Lemire’s recent book “The Big Lie,” in which the Politico reporter writes that the former president wondered “aloud to Kellyanne Conway how he could ‘lose to f—ing Joe Biden.’”
“I’m here voluntarily,” Conway told reporters during a break in her testimony, adding after her interview ended that she did not invoke her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.
Former top Trump White House adviser Kellyanne Conway met with the House select committee investigating last year’s Capitol riot.SHAWN THEW/EPA-EFE/ShutterstockConway served as White House counselor under former President Donald Trump.SHAWN THEW/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
Conway, 55, resigned her White House post at the end of August 2020, more than four months before Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally and the subsequent violence at the Capitol.
However, the Washington Post reported days after the riot that Conway remained an aide to the former president and urged him to call off his supporters attempting to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s election victory.
When quizzed by reporters Monday, Conway — now a Fox News contributor — said that she is not working on Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign, and refused to give any details on conversations she’s had with Trump about the 2020 election.
The House select committee is expected to release its final report on the Jan. 6 riot before the end of the year, detailing the findings of its extensive investigation.
The upcoming report is expected to focus primarily on Trump and his actions leading up to and during the storming of the Capitol.
The panel is expected to be disbanded early next year, with Republicans regaining a majority in the House.
The Issue: Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s decision not to run for a Democratic leadership position with in the House.
Someone should tell Rep. Nancy Pelosi, and all politicians in her age bracket, regardless of party affiliation, that it’s time to retire (“Nancy: I’m done leading Dems,” Nov. 18).
I’m a long-time retired 85-year-old executive and consider myself quite smart. However, age takes its toll. I don’t care who you are.
Your memory is not as good as it used to be, nor is the up-and-go energy still there. It’s time to pass the reins to our younger, brighter and more energetic young men and women who love this country and are ready and willing to take on the challenge.
P. Fletcher
Massapequa Park
Farewell, Madame Speaker. I cannot think of a better person than Pelosi to have been a counterpoint during the years of the Make America Great Again movement, and I’m glad she took a moment to praise President George W. Bush in her leadership retirement speech.
For all her progressivism and partisanship, she turned out to be one of the increasingly rare political leaders who put statesmanship and the appearance of patriotism ahead of political brawling. I will miss her.
Jorge Sierra
The Bronx
The fawning mainstream media reports that Pelosi “decided” to step down from House leadership. Not true. The voters decided.
Pelosi waited until after Republicans had officially secured the House majority, costing her the speaker’s gavel, before she “decided” to go.
Had the Dems held the House, she no doubt would have “decided” differently — despite her pledge that this term would be her last.
The media’s fawning over Pelosi would be embarrassing if they were real journalists. But as idolaters, they’re spot-on.
Mark Godburn
Norfolk, Conn.
When he closed the book on Watergate, President Gerald Ford declared, “My fellow Americans, our long national nightmare is over.”
Now that Pelosi is surrendering her leadership role in Congress, cannot the same be said?
Michael J. DiStefano
Jamestown, RI
Pelosi not seeking leadership re-election? Thank, God! Hey, Pelosi: Why not just quit now?
Thomas Sarc
Central Islip
The Issue: Democrats’ call for Tickermaster to be investigated after chaos around Taylor Swift ticket sales.
I always wondered why the Justice Department allowed the merger between Ticketmaster and Live Nation, an obvious monopoly that did not benefit the customers.
Howard Mostovy
Whitestone
Poor Ocasio-Cortez is all in a dither about Ticketmaster’s monopoly and the fiasco about Taylor Swift’s concerts.
This requires all her energy — not the homeless, soaring crime and inflation that is affecting not just her district, but all of New York.
She’s dedicating her time to making sure Ticketmaster is fair and equitable. What a social-justice warrior.
Jacob Levine
Long Beach
Apparently, the Taylor Swift concert ticket snafu is a major issue for some of our representatives.
Ocasio-Cortez called to have the Ticketmaster/Live Nation union broken up. Rep. David Cicilline went even further, and demanded an investigation by the feds.
Are these the same feds who have been sitting on Hunter Biden’s laptop for three years? Now we know why the country is in such a mess.
Tom Vespo
Bethpage
Want to weigh in on today’s stories? Send your thoughts (along with your full name and city of residence) to letters@nypost.com. Letters are subject to editing for clarity, length, accuracy and style.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) told reporters Thursday that he skipped House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) leadership retirement speech because he “had meetings.”
McCarthy, who is in line to replace Pelosi as House speaker, wasn’t the only Republican to miss the address. The Republican side of the lower chamber was largely empty during her farewell, according to reports.
“I had meetings, but normally, the others would do it during votes — I wish she could have done that, I could have been there,” McCarthy told reporters after Pelosi finished her speech.
McCarthy added that he didn’t watch any of it, and wished that Pelosi would have announced the end of her run in leadership like her predecessors did.
McCarthy was hoping that Pelosi would have announced her retirement during the vote so he and other members of the GOP could have been in attendance.AFP via Getty Images
“Normally, when the speakers do that, like Paul Ryan and John Boehner did it during the vote, I would have liked that,” McCarthy said.
McCarthy later marveled at how long Pelosi and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), who also announced that he will step down from his leadership post, have steered Democrats in the House.
“It’s not just her, it’s Steny too — I mean, think about it. They’ve both had quite a career of how many decades they’ve been here, working through — so, it’s a whole new generation for the Democrats,” McCarthy said.
House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) was reportedly the only member of the GOP’s leadership team to attend Pelosi’s speech.
McCarthy faces a full House vote in January on his nomination to be speaker of the House. He needs 218 votes to be appointed speaker.
Scalise was the only member of the GOP’s leadership to be in attendance when Pelosi announced her retirement as Speaker.AP
Pelosi, 82, led House Democrats for nearly two decades and developed a reputation for enforcing strict party unity in key votes.
“I will not seek re-election to Democratic leadership in the next Congress,” Pelosi told House members on Thursday. “For me, the hour has come for a new generation to lead the Democratic caucus.”
House Democrats are expected to select their next leader on Nov. 30. New York Rep. Hakeem Jeffries is the heavy favorite to become the next Democratic leader in the House.
WASHINGTON — Seven of New York’s Republican members of Congress ripped Gov. Kathy Hochul Friday for attempting to take away the “right to choose” by banning the sale of new gas-powered cars by 2035.
A letter organized by upstate Rep. Elise Stefanik and signed by gubernatorial candidate Rep. Lee Zeldin demands that Hochul abandon the plan, citing the prospect of higher costs and fewer consumer options if it takes effect.
“In addition to the fact that this policy will drive up prices each New Yorker must pay for their vehicles, you are also taking away their right to choose what vehicle they want to drive,” the letter says.
“Instead of picking winners and losers from Albany, you should be working to enhance consumer choice and empower New Yorkers to decide how they want to spend their hard-earned money. We urge you reverse this decision and put the needs of all New Yorkers first.”
Hochul’s office did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
Stefanik told The Post “electric vehicles will not serve our communities well, especially because families in my district often have to commute over an hour each way to work” and suggested that the regulation was part of a broader agenda that “shamelessly prioritizes the needs of New York’s urban cities over our hardworking rural communities.”
Zeldin previously accused Gov. Hochul of hypocrisy for seeking to ban gas-powered cars while using state helicopters and planes. Dennis A. Clark
Hochul faces a tighter-than-expected contest against Zeldin going into the Nov. 8 election. The RealClearPolitics average of recent polls shows Hochul beating the Long Island congressman by just 6.1%, despite President Biden carrying the state by more than 23 percentage points in 2020.
Zeldin previously accused Hochul of hypocrisy for seeking to ban gas-powered cars while using state helicopters and planes 140 times in seven months.
Biden on Thursday visited Syracuse to boost Hochul ahead of Election Day with an event touting plans by the company Micron to build a $100 billion factory generating 9,000 jobs in Syracuse.
At the event, Hochul described herself as “the first upstate governor in 100 years” and said she understood the region’s economic woes as globalization caused high unemployment and stagnation in former industrial areas.
Gov. Hochul is facing a tighter-than-expected contest against Zeldin going into the Nov. 8 election. Don Pollard
But the Stefanik-led letter says Hochul’s electric vehicle mandate, announced on Sept. 29 to align New York with California’s policies, is more representative of concerns in New York City, where fewer people need to drive.
“Forcing New Yorkers to purchase EVs in 2035 will cause significant financial hardship to the average consumer. Over the last year, electric vehicle prices have skyrocketed approximately 56.7[%], while hybrid and plug-in hybrid cars rose 30.5[%],” the letter says.
“The New York Independent System Operator predicts that approximately 7.7 million EVs will be on the road in New York by 2040, with 160,000 vehicles registered in the state by the end of 2022.
“These EVs are primarily located in the greater New York City area, and it is clear your proposed EV mandate panders to downstate priorities instead of working for all New Yorkers,” the letter to Hochul read. “Rural communities in Upstate New York and the North Country rely on vehicles at much high rates than the urban areas in and around New York City.”
The letter points to a February audit from the New York State Comptroller of the New York Power Authority (NYPA) that found the authority had put EV charging stations in just 32 of 62 counties.
“This out-of-touch mandate will further inhibit New York rural communities’ ability to prosper and maintain stable economies,” the letter says.
Republican Reps. Claudia Tenney, John Katko, Chris Jacobs, Andrew Garbarino, and Joe Sempolinski signed the letter. Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, who represents Staten Island and southern Brooklyn, was the lone New York House Republican not to sign.
The Biden administration is pushing federal policies to lower the cost and improve the ease of using electric vehicles. Last year’s $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure law included $7.5 billion to build a national network of electric vehicle charging stations and the administration is beginning to disburse funds to install charging stations every 50 miles along major highways.
Stefanik told The Post “electric vehicles will not serve our communities well, especially because families in my district often have to commute over an hour each way to work.”Michael Brochstein/SOPA Images/S
Biden’s $437 billion environmental and healthcare spending bill signed in August included $7,500 in tax credits for buyers of new electric cars.
Hochul cited the threat of global warming when announcing the state’s plan to ban the sale of new gas-powered cars, pickup trucks, and SUVs within 13 years.
“Governor Kathy Hochul today commemorated National Drive Electric Week by directing the State Department of Environmental Conservation to take major regulatory action that will require all new passenger cars, pickup trucks, and SUVs sold in New York State to be zero emissions by 2035,” a press release from her office said.
“This is a crucial regulatory step to achieving significant greenhouse gas emission reductions from the transportation sector and is complemented by new and ongoing investments also announced today, including electric vehicle infrastructure progress, zero-emission vehicle incentives, and ensuring New York’s communities benefit from historic federal climate change investments,” Hochul’s release said.
A celebrated barber who cut hair for members of Congress for more than half a century is officially laying down his scissors.
Joe Quattrone, 88, trimmed and shaved on the ground floor of the House Rayburn Building for 51 years for myriad elected officials, including former presidents Gerald R. Ford and George H.W. Bush during their time in Congress. Ford even continued to visit after he became vice president, and his family invited “Joe Q” to his funeral.
House Barber Joe Quattrone had many famous clients, including Sen. Ted Kennedy.Melina Mara/The Washington Post via Getty Images
Quattrone, originally from Calabria, Italy, is planning to pack it in to spend more time with his family in North Carolina. Quattrone has lately been in ill health and Rita, his wife of 65 years, died last year.
“What can I say? I’m going to miss it,” he told Roll Call wistfully. “But it’s time for me to go after 51-and-a-half years.”
When Quattrone began barbering in 1971, a cut cost 75 cents and the Capitol was reeling after the far left terrorist organization Weather Underground exploded a bomb in the Senate bathroom.
House members from both parties agreed that visiting Quattrone’s shop means entering one of the last bipartisan spaces on Capitol Hill.
“It’s a warm, embracing place where you put the politics aside and you just enjoy some good company with a friend who’s been around for a long time,” GOP Minority Whip Steve Scalise told the paper of Quattrone’s barber’s chair. “You can always run down there and count on Joe to be there with a friendly smile,”
House Barber Joe Quattrone cuts lobbyist Jeff Myers’ hair on January 31, 2012.Melina Mara/The Washington Post via Getty ImagesHouse Barber Joe Quattrone has a wall full of Washington insiders, including former President Bill Clinton.Melina Mara/The Washington Post via Getty Images
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