Republicans are out with two new ads on Thursday lighting up vulnerable Democrat Rep. Vicente Gonzalez (D-TX) over a Chinese bank account first revealed by a Breitbart News investigation a few weeks ago.
Gonzalez, whose financial disclosure forms showed a significant holding in the Bank of China, is now the subject of two new ads—one digital and one radio—from the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) over the controversial account.
“How can we trust Congressman Vicente Gonzalez to stand up to China?” a narrator asks in the digital ad as a photo of Gonzalez and text appears on screen. “Gonzalez stashed up to $250,000 in a Chinese bank and reports revealed Chinese Communists were paying Gonzalez thousands. Gonzalez even voted against banning U.S. loans supporting Communist China.”
The report the NRCC ad is referring to is a Breitbart News investigation published earlier in March which uncovered, based off his financial disclosure documents filed with the U.S. House of Representatives, a years-long investment in the Bank of China. The account, worth between $100,001 and $250,000, was particularly lucrative as it paid between $2,501 and $5,000 a year in interest according to Gonzalez’s disclosure forms.
As Breitbart News reported at the time:
On the second page of his calendar year 2017, 2018, and 2019 disclosure documents, Gonzalez reported the holdings valued at between $100,001 and $250,000 in the Bank of China. Each report includes a disclosure that Gonzalez earned between $2,501 and $5,000 in interest each year from the Bank of China account.
The congressman has, according to the disclosures, other holdings worth more that paid less in interest. His 2017 report, filed in 2018, for instance revealed he had between $250,001 and $500,000 in an “Everbank” account that he reported collected no interest. His 2018 disclosure report revealed an account with TIAA Bank worth between $250,001 and $500,000 that collected only between $201 and $1,000 in interest. There are others similar to these in all three reports, but the Bank of China holding seems to pay out the best for the congressman according to the financial disclosure forms. On all three reports—2017, 2018, and 2019—no other holding or account paid out as high a level of interest, or unearned income, for the congressman according to these disclosures—meaning his investment in a state-run bank in a nation that is hostile to the United States is particularly lucrative for him.
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The financial disclosure documents are reported by members of Congress in ranges in terms of the value of assets and the income earned from them. That means that this Bank of China account that Gonzalez has reported for his last three disclosure reports yields at least 1 percent annual interest—if the actual amount of unearned income, or interest, is at the lower end of the reported range at $2,501 and the actual account value is at the higher end of the reported range at $250,000. But if the inverse were true, that the account value is at the lower end of the reported range at $100,000 and the interest income were at the higher end of the reported range at $5,000 then that means the interest could be as high as close to 5 percent. Either way, between 1 and 5 percent in unearned annual interest income on any holding is unusually high for any account.
While Gonzalez did not answer questions for the Breitbart News story, and his office did not respond to requests for comment, his office did answer a local news channel follow-up report on the matter by claiming he has since closed the Bank of China account.
The radio ad from the NRCC, which cites that local reporter’s account, airing in the 15th district in Texas, is even more brutal than the digital ad.
The radio ad plays audio of local news reporter April Molina explaining how the Bank of China has publicly pledged its loyalty and allegiance to Chinese dictator Xi Jinping’s socialist vision for the world. “So your Congressman Vicente Gonzalez stockpiled cash in a Chinese Communist bank focused on promoting socialism and got paid to do it? Gonzalez even voted to let the Chinese government get American-backed loans, money that could be spent on Chinese spying operations,” a narrator intones after the local reporter’s clips are played in the ad.
The ad campaign comes as part of a broader push from the House GOP campaign arm to put Democrats on defense a year and a half out from the midterm elections. The NRCC has on Thursday put forward what it is calling its “2022 Democrat Exit List” where it is putting paid media behind an effort to highlight vulnerable Democrats retiring or choosing to run for a different office than reelection as Democrat hopes of retaining control of the lower chamber of Congress dim.
“The NRCC today announced its exit list of Democrats likely to retire or run for a different office in 2022. These 27 Democrats see the writing on the wall and know they will lose the House majority or lose their election,” the NRCC announced in a press release. “Some of the Democrats on this list represent the highest echelons of Democrat leadership whose retirements would be a blow to the morale of the Party. Others are on the NRCC’s initial target list and know they face a very tough reelection in 2022.”
Gonzalez is on this list, as well as other target lists from the NRCC, as GOP candidate Monica de la Cruz nearly defeated him in a surprisingly strong performance in November 2020. De la Cruz is running again already in 2022, and out publicly hammering Gonzalez over the Chinese bank account. She will appear on Breitbart News Saturday on SiriusXM 125 the Patriot Channel this weekend to discuss that story and the broader race for the 15th district in Texas.
But the broader list from the NRCC foreshadows potential looming retirements or decisions to run for a different office than reelection from several top House Democrats, including possibly House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY). In addition to those two, and Gonzalez, the rest of the list of those to watch who may retire and run for something else includes:
- Tom O’Halleran (AZ-01)
- Greg Stanton (AZ-09)
- John Garamendi (CA-03)
- Eric Swalwell (CA-15)
- Jim Costa (CA-16)
- Adam Schiff (CA-28)
- Karen Bass (CA-37)
- Katie Porter (CA-45)
- Stephanie Murphy (FL-07)
- Val Demmings (FL-10)
- Charlie Crist (FL-13)
- Cindy Axne (IA-03)
- Cheri Bustos (IL-17)
- John Yarmuth (KY-03)
- Chris Pappas (NH-01)
- Tom Malinowski (NJ-07)
- Tim Ryan (OH-13)
- Peter DeFazio (OR-04)
- Brendan Boyle (PA-02)
- Madeline Dean (PA-04)
- Chrissy Houlahan (PA-06)
- Conor Lamb (PA-17)
- Bobby Scott (VA-03)
- Ron Kind (WI-03)
At least two vulnerable House Democrats—both from border states, on the front lines of President Joe Biden’s border crisis—have already announced their retirement plans. Reps. Filemon Vela (D-TX) and Ann Kirkpatrick (D-AZ) both announced they will not run for reelection.
“House Democrats are running for the exits because they know they’re in for a bruising election cycle which will cost them their jobs and their House majority,” NRCC chairman Tom Emmer said. “They’d rather move on than have to spend another election defending their socialist agenda that will strip Americans of their private health insurance, defund the police, open our borders and raise taxes. While Democrats are scrambling to replace their members, House Republicans are picking up where we left off last cycle, recruiting a diverse class of talented candidates who are going to help us take back the House majority.”
The NRCC, in addition to the Gonzalez ads in Texas’s 15th district, is also putting paid media out attacking Reps. Ron Kind (D-WI) and Conor Lamb (D-PA)—two of the most vulnerable incumbent House Democrats.
The Kind ad attacks the Wisconsin Democrat for being a career politician:
The Lamb ad attacks the Pennsylvania Democrat for voting with Pelosi to push Biden’s anti-energy agenda:
It remains to be seen how this all will shake out, but for Republicans to retake the House majority they only need to flip a net five seats. Traditionally, the party out of power in the White House flips an average of 26 seats in the first midterm elections of a new administration, a trend that does not bode well for Biden and the Democrats.
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