Democrats seek briefing on whether House ‘dysfunction’ is helping China

Democrats on the House Select Committee on China sent a letter Monday to intelligence officials asking for a classified briefing on the harmful effects the “current political dysfunction” in the House is having on the world stage. 

In the letter, addressed to Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Avril Haines and CIA Director William Burns, the 11 House Democrats wrote that they were “deeply concerned” the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and other foreign adversaries were taking advantage of the fraught political moment. 

“We are deeply concerned that the CCP and other foreign adversaries of the United States are working to capitalize on our vacant Speaker position in the U.S. House of Representatives and constant threat of government shutdowns to discredit democracy globally and promote authoritarian governance models abroad,” they wrote in the letter, obtained by NBC News.

“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,” they wrote. 

They outlined a list of concerns they would like addressed in the briefing and pointed to several examples of what they described as CCP’s media messaging tactics “to sow doubt about the strength of the United States and our democratic values.”

They requested that the briefing take place before Oct. 31.

The request comes as the Speaker of the House position has remained vacant since Oct. 3, nearly three weeks ago, when eight Republicans voted with Democrats to oust former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) from his post. 

Since then, Republicans, who have a slim majority in the chamber, have failed to find a candidate that could manage to get the 217 votes necessary to win the gavel. House Republicans will meet Monday evening again to try to narrow down the list of candidates and find someone who can rally the full conference behind them.

Until a Speaker is in place, the House is at a standstill, unable to pass legislation to provide more aid to allies abroad or to fund the government before the Nov. 17 deadline.