Hero background image

NEWS & PRESS UPDATES

Oct
21
2024
PRESS RELEASE

Steel Claims to be More Vietnamese than Derek Tran

Local Vietnamese-American Community Protests Steel’s Disgusting Lies

Picture of Michelle Steel saying that she is more Vietnamese than Derek Tran

(Click here to watch the video of Michelle Steel.)

Garden Grove, CA - In a shocking display of arrogance, MAGA Michelle Steel stooped to a new this weekend, claiming to be more Vietnamese than her opponent Derek Tran, a first-generation Vietnamese-American and son of Vietnamese refugees. While Steel’s offensive remarks were made behind closed doors, hundreds of outraged local Vietnamese-Americans gathered outside to protest her outrageous lies yesterday.

This is not the first time Steel has attempted to appropriate the Vietnamese experience. Steel also was recently caught trying to mislead her Vietnamese constituents about her own immigration story, claiming that her family “fled communism too”. In reality, records show that Steel, who was born after the Korean War, was the daughter of diplomats posted overseas for most of her upbringing, far from the struggles endured by true refugees.

“Michelle Steel has taken our Vietnamese community for granted her entire time in public office, and now that she is about to lose her seat at their hands, she decides to insult their intelligence,” said Derek Tran. “Her red-baiting attacks against me have only backfired, so she is resorting to this racist attack line — questioning my ethnic heritage and upbringing while inventing one for herself. My father lost his first wife and four of my half-siblings on his first attempt to flee the communist regime in Vietnam. Michelle Steel knows nothing about that experience or what my people have been through. She's insulted my family and their legacy with her lies. It’s deplorable to try to steal someone else’s culture for your political benefit.”

Earlier this month, the Vietnamese-American community in Little Saigon condemned Steel for red-baiting with mailers that accused Derek Tran, a U.S. Army veteran whose family fled communist Vietnam, lost loved ones in the war and its aftermath and proudly identify as Boat People —of being sympathetic to the very regime they escaped.

During her comments, Steel also claimed to have more support from elected Vietnamese-American officials than Tran. Perhaps she is referring to her good friend, political ally, and endorser, Andrew Do, who stands accused of stealing public money meant to feed the elderly in Little Saigon and directing it to his daughter's non-profit for lavish personal purchases.

Local Vietnamese-language media widely covered the community’s response following Steel’s Outrageous statement [translated]:

###

Army Veteran Derek Tran is a DCCC Red To Blue candidate running in California’s 45th Congressional District which encompasses portions of Orange and Los Angeles Counties in Southern California. A majority-minority district, the District has the second largest AAPI population (36.97%) of any Congressional District, and the largest Vietnamese community in the country.  President Biden won the current district lines by +6 points and it has a +6 point Democratic registration advantage. It includes all or part of the Cities of Garden Grove, Westminster, Cerritos, Buena Park, Placentia, Hawaiian Gardens, Cypress, Fountain Valley, Artesia, Los Alamitos, La Palma, Brea, Lakewood, and Fullerton, as well as the unincorporated community of Rossmoor.

Use of Derek Tran's military rank, job titles, and photographs in uniform does not imply endorsement by the Dept. of Defense or U.S. Army.