WATCH: House Oversight Chairman James Comer Says It's Possible Communist China Is 'Grooming' Gov. Tim Walz - 'China Thinks Long-Term'

During the third night of the Democratic National Convention ahead of Gov. Tim Walz's (D-MN) official acceptance of the vice presidential nomination, House Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-KY) asserted that the Minnesota Democrat, who took dozens of trips to Communist China while he was a teacher in the 1990s, could have been groomed to be used as a foothold in the American government. Comer's claims come after he launched an investigation into Walz's extensive connections with the Chinese Communist Party entities and officials.

“You know about China, congressman. You did this when you looked into Hunter. When you go to China, they surveil you. If an American goes to China 30 times in the ’90s, they have surveillance footage of him,” Fox News host Jesse Watters said. “They have surveillance footage, probably of his honeymoon night. What kind of compromise is that? They were worried about Trump in a pee tape situation, but that was all made up. This is serious business.”

“It’s very serious. China thinks long-term. It’s very possible that China would be grooming an up-and-coming, rising star in the political process to try to have a foothold in our government," Chairman Comer responded. "I mean, they’ve done this in the military. We’ve caught them with spy rings in our universities. This is how China operates.

"They think long-term. And again, I can’t say this enough. When you look at Hunter Biden’s ties with Communist China, it was for money. It looks like Walz’s ties may be for ideology, and this is something that we should be concerned about, and we’re trying to gather as much information as we can, as quick as we can, to present to the American people," he said.

Last week, Chairman Comer launched an investigation into Walz's ties with the Chinese Communist Party, citing the fact that Walz served as a fellow at a Chinese institution devoted to the CCP and spoke alongside the president of a Chinese organization that was exposed to have been used by the CCP to co-opt local leaders. 

In a press release, Rep. Comer explained that Gov. Walz organized annual trips to China for his high school students from 1993 to 2003 with costs covered by the Chinese government. "Mr. Walz organized a trip to the PRC with Alliance High School students, where costs were paid by the Chinese government. In 1994, Mr. Walz set up a private company named “Educational Travel Adventures, Inc.,” which coordinated annual student trips to the PRC until 2003 and was led by Mr. Walz himself," the press release explains. "The corporation was reportedly dissolved four days after he took congressional office in 2007. Since his first trip to China, Governor Walz has visited the PRC an estimated 30 times."

"While serving in Congress, Mr. Walz also served as a fellow at the Macau Polytechnic University, a Chinese institution that characterizes itself as having a 'long held devotion to and love for the motherland,'" Comer's office explained. "Governor Walz spoke alongside the President of the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, which, a year later, the Department of State exposed as 'a Beijing-based organization tasked with co-opting subnational governments,' including efforts 'to directly and malignly influence state and local leaders to promote the PRC’s global agenda.'"

James Comer is on Fox News pushing the latest hot MAGA conspiracy theory -- that China groomed Tim Walz to be a CCP sleeper agent pic.twitter.com/JBbAmm8RrB

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 20, 2024