Consultant Jim Banks (R-IN) has known as on Secretary of Protection Lloyd Austin to launch a right away investigation into Minnesota Governor Tim Walz’s repeated visits to China throughout his tenure with the Nebraska and Minnesota Nationwide Guards.
Banks’ letter to the Pentagon raises critical issues about whether or not Walz, a former senior enlisted service member, correctly reported his frequent international travels, probably placing nationwide safety in danger.
Walz, who served within the Nationwide Guard for practically 24 years, reportedly made practically 30 journeys to China between 1989 and 2005, lots of which happened whereas he held a safety clearance as a part of his duties.
“He and his spouse additionally organized journeys to China from 1994 to 2003 not less than yearly. Throughout this entire interval, Walz remained a service member in both the Nebraska or Minnesota Nationwide Guards and presumably held a clearance for a lot or all of this time. Walz claimed in 2016 that he had traveled to China practically 30 instances; it’s probably that not less than a dozen of those journeys occurred whereas he was a guardsman,” in line with the letter.
“The CCP can use this optimism to take advantage of naïve international guests, significantly guests who’re navy servicemembers. Walz bragged after one journey to China that “they gave me extra items than I might convey residence” and that “I’ll by no means be handled that effectively once more.””
Banks asserts that the Governor’s travels to China, an adversary nation, ought to have been topic to strict scrutiny and prior approval from safety places of work, as is normal process for any clearance holder.
But, there may be rising concern that Walz could have circumvented these protocols, failing to reveal his journeys and the character of his interactions with Chinese language officers.
“Clearance holders usually require prior approval and risk briefings for international journey to organize them for the dangers of hostile international intelligence exercise,” mentioned Banks.
“These intelligence risk issues are far larger when a safety clearance holder travels to an adversary nation just like the Folks’s Republic of China, particularly when that clearance holder travels there on dozens of events. Clearance holders who return from international journey are additionally required to finish debriefing questionnaires for his or her safety workplace, detailing their journey and reporting any probably suspicious interactions that occurred throughout their travels.”
Banks additionally criticized Walz for his dismissive angle towards the U.S.-China relationship, quoting the governor’s 2016 assertion wherein he claimed that the U.S. and China didn’t have an “adversarial relationship” and that there have been “many areas of cooperation” between the 2 international locations.
The congressman highlighted the absurdity of Walz selecting China as his honeymoon vacation spot and scheduling his marriage ceremony to coincide with the anniversary of the Tiananmen Sq. bloodbath.
In his letter, Rep. Banks demanded solutions to a number of urgent questions concerning Walz’s safety clearance and his compliance with international journey protocols. Banks needs to know whether or not Walz reported his travels to the suitable safety workplace, whether or not he obtained prior approval for his journeys, and whether or not he was ever warned in regards to the potential safety dangers posed by his frequent journey to China.
“Given Walz’s historical past of pro-China positions and his already irresponsible private determination to repeatedly journey to an adversary nation whereas holding a clearance, probably the most believable rationalization for this lapse in safety is that Waltz could have failed or refused to adjust to Division of Protection international journey reporting necessities,” Banks wrote within the letter.
“If Walz did fail or refuse to report international journey to an adversary nation to his superiors, the Division of Protection should examine this reckless disregard for our nationwide safety and set the general public document straight about this safety failure.”
Requested an in depth response from Secretary Austin by August 20, 2024, urging the Pentagon to take this matter severely and to offer the American individuals with the transparency they deserve.
New: @Jim_Banks sends letter to Protection Sec. Lloyd Austin questioning how @Tim_Walz, “a senior enlisted guardsman, presumably with a Secret safety clearance,” travelled “to China commonly on unofficial enterprise with out elevating purple flags?”
Letter: pic.twitter.com/WEW5RMF9lP
— Philip Melanchthon Wegmann (@PhilipWegmann) August 13, 2024
