Ted Lieu Calls for Bob Beckel to Resign

The Los Angeles Times reports that Fox News host Bob Beckel, who co-hosts The Five and has been associated with the Democratic Party for decades, is under fire from a Democratic state senator for making an allegedly racist comment about Chinese people. 

Democratic state Sen. Ted Lieu of Torrance released a statement on Saturday calling for Fox to drop Beckel after Beckel said during a Thursday episode of The Five, “As usual, we bring them over here and teach a bunch of Chinamen–Chinese people–how to do computers and then they go back to China and hack into us.”

Beckel’s comment was in reference to a New York Times article about Chinese hackers, who breached the computer networks of a U.S. government agency that stores the personal information of everyone who works for the government.

Lieu noted that Beckel’s comment was the second time he had made ill-considered remarks about Chinese people; in 2013, Beckel said on The Five that one time he had gone swimming, and afterward his “eyes blew up” and “it made me look Oriental.”

Lieu stated:

I am one of those ‘Chinamen’ with ‘Oriental’ eyes that immigrated to America and majored in computer science. I also served on active duty in the United States Air Force and continue to serve my country in the Reserves. And today, as an American and as a California state senator, I call on Mr. Beckel to resign … We should all be alarmed by the racist, xenophobic comments by Fox News host Bob Beckel. His comments have no place in America, and this is at least the second time he has used racial slurs. He must resign immediately.

Beckel was the youngest deputy assistant secretary of state under Jimmy Carter in 1977 and was the campaign manager for Walter Mondale’s presidential campaign in 1984.