Democrats want classified briefing on how House GOP 'dysfunction' is helping China

A group of House Democrats is calling for a classified intelligence briefing investigating how the chaos and infighting among House Republicans is helping China.

On Monday, NBC News reported that 11 Democrats on the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) have sent a letter to Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines and CIA Director William Burns requesting the hearing amid the ongoing tension among their Republican colleagues. Committee Democrats cited reports of Chinese propaganda to register their concern that the House being out of regular order in the weeks following former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy's (R-California) ouster has aided China's long-term goal of destabilizing American democracy.

"[W]e 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 to discredit democracy globally in their efforts to promote an alternative authoritarian model of governance internationally, enhance their ability to form economic and national security alliances, and harm our standing with strategic partners," the letter read.

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Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Illinois), who is the ranking member on the committee, told NBC News that the hearing would only be necessary if Republicans once again failed to elect a Speaker of the House this week.

"We have no assurances that the Republican-led majority in the House will work in a bipartisan fashion to avoid a government shutdown on Nov. 17," Rep. Krishnamoorthi said. "We need this briefing to show members of this body how the current political dysfunction harms our national security interests."

There are currently nine Republicans running to become the next speaker. both House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-Louisiana) and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) failed to garner 217 votes from their party in each of their respective bids. The House Republican Conference is planning to vote on its speaker designee on Tuesday via secret ballot.

As of this writing, the House of Representatives has been without a speaker for 19 days.

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