Republican Congressman Slams White House For ‘Blaming The Trump Administration’ Over Chinese Spy Base That Was ‘Upgraded’ During Trump’s Watch
Republican Rep. Mike Waltz (R-FL) seized on a recent statement from the White House confirming the presence of a Chinese spy base in Cuba to argue that the Biden administration was “blaming the Trump administration” by claiming the base was “upgraded” in 2019 when Donald Trump was president.
On Monday’s America Reports, Fox rolled the tape of a White House official denying the presence of a Chinese spy base on the Caribbean island, then Fox produced a statement from the Biden administration stating that the Peoples’ Republic of China “conducted an upgrade of its intelligence collection facilities in Cuba in 2019. This is well-documented in the intelligence record. This is an issue that this Administration inherited.”
“Now the White House is saying oh, no, no, that’s been there a while, in fact it was upgraded back in 2019… they stonewalled and denied it until they came up with a rationale for it,” said host John Roberts.
“Deny, deny, ’til you can’t anymore, and then blame the Trump administration,” replied Waltz.
However, if the 2019 timeline is correct, Donald Trump was in office while the spy base was in operation and Biden did “inherit” the problem, although Trump’s former director of national intelligence John Ratcliffe denied he knew anything about the “well-documented” Chinese spy base.
“Look, we took an incredible inventory of China and its capabilities during the Trump administration, and the idea that this kind of surveillance platform was present and being allowed is just, you know, it’s just absurd,” Ratcliffe said in a previously recorded interview with Maria Bartiromo. “And just like with the spy balloon situation, you’ll see Trump administration officials coming out and saying, it’s simply not true.”
“My question is, Ok, let’s just take that at face value, which I don’t, but let’s take that at face value,” Waltz argued following the Ratcliffe clip. “Then if it was clear, apparently, in the reporting, why then if this spy base existed and they inherited the problem, did they go soft on Cuba, did they relax sanctions? When they saw the uprisings, if you remember, the popular uprisings in Cuba, the Chinese moved in to help the Cuban regime squash them, and the administration did nothing, zilch.”
“And the date on that was May 16, 2022, when they relaxed some sanctions,” Roberts interjected. “So, you would think, if Cuba is cozying up to China, allowing China a space to spy on the United States, the last thing the administration would do is say, you know what, we’re going to dial back some sanctions.”
Watch the Fox News clip above.
