Cunningham wants to investigate China’s involvement in pandemic. Is it a campaign move?
South Carolina Rep. Joe Cunningham wants to get tough on China, a move that comes as the Charleston Democrat faces one of the toughest re-election challenges in the country.
Cunningham, along with 10 other members of the House Blue Dog Coalition — self-described “fiscally-responsible” Democrats who are regarded as moderates — introduced legislation late last week that would require the director of National Intelligence to investigate whether the Chinese government is trying to exploit the COVID-19 pandemic to advance its “national security and foreign policy interests.”
China is South Carolina’s largest export market, according to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. In 2018, the Palmetto State exported $5.6 billion in goods to China, with many of those goods making their way overseas via the Port of Charleston.
The bill is expected to be well received by the House Intelligence Committee, and if that panel approves the legislation it would go to the House floor.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., did not reply for comment about whether he would support the measure.
Cunnigham said he and other members of the Blue Dog Coalition will work to build support for the bill “to apply pressure to leadership” to move the measure forward in “the comings days and weeks.”
“The bottom line ... is no one should be allowed to exploit this global public health and economic crisis,” Cunningham told The State on Tuesday, adding that China should be condemned for not releasing information that he says could have helped slow the spread of coronavirus, as well as spreading misinformation about the deadly disease online.
The freshman congressman faces state Rep. Nancy Mace, R-Daniel Island, in November. Both the Cook Political Report and Sabato’s Crystal Ball, nonpartisan political analysts, list the race as a “toss up.”
Cunningham’s 2018 victory was the first time a Democrat has been elected to represent South Carolina’s 1st congressional district since 1978.
Mace said Thursday that she “100%” backs an investigation into whether the Chinese government is trying to exploit the pandemic to advance its own interests.
“You’ve got to hold bad actors accountable and not reward them,” Mace told The State during a phone interview, adding that this bill is a way for Cunningham, who advocated for suspending tariffs in the U.S.-China trade war at the beginning of the pandemic, “to cover his tracks.”
It will be a tight race. “SC-01 ... is one of the most Republican districts that any Democrat holds,” Kyle Kondik, managing editor of Sabato’s Crystal Ball, told The State. Kondik added that if Cunningham wants to hold onto his seat, the Democrat will need people to vote for both President Donald Trump and him in November.
“It’s possible that if Trump wins his district by enough, Cunningham ... would be in a really tough position,” Kondik said.
Trump carried the district by 13 points in 2016.
The bill Cunningham is backing would require the director of National Intelligence, in coordination with the secretaries of State, Defense and Homeland Security, to complete a wide-reaching investigation in just 90 days.
The bill would require an investigation to examine how and why the Chinese government blocked efforts from other countries to gain insights into the nation’s role “in the emergence and spread of COVID-19” and how China is seeking to advance its own agenda by providing aid and supplies to countries affected by the pandemic.
It would identify the way China is using or might use the pandemic to pursue long-standing issues like the territorial disputes in Hong Kong and Taiwan, among other things.
The investigation would also assess “the means and methods by which China disseminates misinformation” about COVID-19, including on American social media platforms, according to the bill.
The COVID-19 virus appeared to have first surfaced in China late last year when government officials confirmed that they were treating dozens of cases of pneumonia with an unknown cause, according to The New York Times.
In May, Trump released an attack ad against his presumptive opponent, former Vice President Joe Biden, on the subject, charging that he’s been too friendly toward China.
Kondik said that if this bill was designed to be “messaging legislation” used by Cunningham in an ad to show he’ll stand up to China, that it “wouldn’t be the first time something like that happened.”
When asked how he is feeling about his re-election race, Cunningham said he’s “focused on the legislation that’s before us. We’re in the middle of a pandemic.”
His campaign reported Monday that it raised more than $862,000 during the second quarter of 2020, bringing Cunningham’s total fundraising to nearly $4.4 million for this election cycle and his cash on hand to $3 million. Mace’s campaign has not reported second quarter fundraising totals.