During an appearance on CSPAN Tuesday, Rep. Judy Chu (D-Calif.) said that there has been a spike in hate crimes against Asian Americans in the last month – but claimed former president Donald Trump was to blame.
“It started with President Trump continuously calling this virus (COVID-19) the China virus, Wuhan virus and Kung flu. So this has been happening all throughout the year, but there has been a spike in these kinds of hate crimes and incidents within the last month,” Chu said.
“You define these as a hate crime. So legally they rise to the level of hate crime according to what the law says?” Chu was asked.
“No, not in all cases,” she replied.
Later in the interview Chu attempted to link hate crime incidents to Trump again and she was asked, “So are you saying then - that's directly the statements of the previous president - you can draw a direct line between those statements and those incidents that you describe?”
Chu’s answer was more than just a little unclear.
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“Well, let's say this, there has been racism and discrimination that has occurred against Asian Americans over the past century. We know this because of incidents like that of Vincent Chin, who was murdered because these out of work and employers, employees, auto workers - were mad at him, thought he was Japanese and killed him straight out because they wanted to blame him for them being out of work. And the judge let them off with just a three thousand dollar fine and no jail time. Those kind of cases kind of burn in Asian-American memories. So those kinds of things have been occurring for a long time. But there are times when those kinds of feelings are under the surface. Right now, what we see is those kind of feelings are becoming - above the surface.”
Chin was murdered in 1982. Joe Biden was a Senator in 1982. Surely, this must somehow be connected. Right, Judy?