U.S. Rep. Gary Palmer (R-Hoover) believes too many of his Democratic colleagues are more focused on hurting former President Donald Trump than they are about handling real national security threats.

During a Congressional Oversight and Accountability Hearing about China on Wednesday, Palmer started his time by implying that some of the Democratic members in the hearing were too focused on Trump instead of Chinese Communist Party.

“Is this a hearing about China or is it about Donald Trump?” Palmer asked.

U.S. Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), who chairs the Oversight Committee, responded to Palmer saying, “It’s a hearing about China and we have passed along a number for Trump derangement syndrome to our colleagues,” Comer said. “So apparently they haven’t started taking classes yet, but it is about China, a very important issue and the government’s failure to respond to the CTP threat.”

Palmer then explained why China is such a danger to America’s national security.

“I think that China is a serious enough threat that we need to focus on China,” he said. “And I will encourage my colleagues to do that. I have watched as China has has become the dominant influence at least economically and through their debt diplomacy and in our own backyard in the Western Hemisphere. And we’ve done little to nothing to address it.”

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The congressman concluded that Congress needs to “wake up” to the real threats from our adversaries.

“I think we need to take a long hard look at what’s happening in our own hemisphere,” he said. “And that’s something that I’m working on as a Western Hemisphere Alliance, because China, contrary to what some of my colleagues think about other issues, China is the existential threat. And I think businesses are waking up to that. We also need to wake up the fact that that, that there are other countries around the world need us to engage and engage intelligently in this and I appreciate every member of the panel here.”

We have put the United States in a dangerous position by turning a blind eye towards China's gains in the Western Hemisphere.

By not addressing their increasing presence, we have allowed China to become a major economic influence in our own backyard. pic.twitter.com/KV1VtBb15f

— Gary Palmer (@USRepGaryPalmer) June 26, 2024

Yaffee is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts “The Yaffee Program” weekdays 9-11 a.m. on WVNN. You can follow him on X @Yaffee