AUDIO: Michelle Steel’s Campaign Criticizes Vietnamese Community “It Would Be Great If They Were All Korean Like Michelle, But They’re Not.”

Jul

2024

PRESS RELEASE

AUDIO: Michelle Steel’s Campaign Criticizes Vietnamese Community “It Would Be Great If They Were All Korean Like Michelle, But They’re Not.”

Garden Grove, CA — Explosive audio leaked today from the Orange County Republican Assembly Picnic, catches Michelle Steel’s Campaign Chairman making shockingly racist comments about the size of the Vietnamese community in California’s 45th Congressional District. While speaking on behalf of Steel in the recording, he complains, “It would be great if they were all Korean like Michelle, but they’re not,” during a public campaign strategy update.

The 45th District is home to the largest Vietnamese community in the United States, many of whom are refugees after fleeing the Communist regime after the Vietnam war in 1975. Steel, who has represented the 45th since it was redrawn to create a Vietnamese empowerment district in 2022, is one of Congress’ most vulnerable incumbents, with recent polling showing her in a statistical dead heat with Derek Tran, a U.S. Army Veteran who is the son of Vietnamese refugees, and who recently outraised Steel in the last campaign fundraising quarter.

“It is deeply offensive for Michelle Steel’s campaign to belittle the strength of the Vietnamese community and the opportunity for us to finally have a voice in Congress,” said Derek Tran. “Many of us have family members who fled Vietnam, and these disgusting remarks reopen generational wounds and traumas that still haunt us.” Steel has come under intense pushback from the Vietnamese community with the Wall Street Journal and Orange County Register breaking that the Congresswoman’s husband and former business partner was caught trying to sell political access to Chinese Communist Party officials.