Democrats seek a classified briefing on whether House chaos helps China

WASHINGTON — A group of House Democrats is asking top U.S. intelligence officials to arrange a classified briefing for Congress on how China is taking advantage of dysfunction in Washington as Republicans struggle to elect a speaker and the government inches closer to shutting down.

In a letter Monday to National Intelligence Director Avril Haines and CIA Director William Burns that was shared first with NBC News, Democrats on the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party wrote that Beijing is using chaos in the Capitol as a propaganda tool. They cited reports in Chinese media outlets as evidence.

“Therefore, we respectfully request a classified briefing from the U.S. Intelligence Community (‘IC’) on how the CCP and our foreign adversaries are leveraging current political dysfunction in the U.S. House of Representatives to discredit democracy globally in their efforts to promote an alternative authoritarian model of governance internationally, enhance their ability to form economic and national security alliances, and harm our standing with strategic partners,” the lawmakers wrote.

The letter was signed by all 11 minority-party members on the committee. It was not immediately clear whether the Biden administration, which has recently conducted classified sessions for lawmakers about the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, would schedule a briefing on China.

Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois, the top Democrat on the panel, said the need for a briefing would not be obviated if Republicans are able to settle on a new speaker of the House this week.

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"We have no assurances that the Republican-led majority in the House will work in a bipartisan fashion to avoid a government shutdown on Nov. 17," he said. "We need this briefing to show members of this body how the current political dysfunction harms our national security interests."

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It has been nearly three weeks since the House, prodded by a handful of breakaway Republicans, voted to oust Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., as speaker. In succession, Reps. Steve Scalise, R-La., and Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, failed to collect the votes needed to succeed him. House Republicans are meeting Monday to hear from a new roster of candidates.

The Democratic lawmakers asked Haines and Burns to address a 10-point series of questions that boil down to what the intelligence community knows about China's messaging, whether it represents a threat to U.S. interests and whether foreign adversaries have altered their thinking about American national security because of recent events in Congress.

“We already know the Chinese Communist Party is working to capitalize on our chaos and that [Russian leader Vladimir] Putin and [Chinese President] Xi [Jinping] had lengthy meetings this past week," Krishnamoorthi said, "so Congress needs to understand how our leadership vacuum is hurting us on the world stage.”