Pelosi’s Proposed Taiwan Trip Wins Bipartisan Support

U.S. Congress is rallying behind House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s potential trip to Taiwan in seemingly bipartisan unity as lawmakers on both sides urge her to visit the self-governing island democracy despite warnings from China.

The move has seen a rare intraparty rift emerging with President Joe Biden, who is wary about escalating tensions with China’s communist regime. Pelosi, the top congressional Democrat and the third in line to the presidency, would be the highest-ranking U.S. politician since 1997 to travel to the island of Taiwan, which China has claimed as its own in past decades.

Beijing had threatened “serious consequences” last week if the speaker follows through on her reported plan.

The next day, Biden cast doubt on the proposed visit, while Pelosi deflected questions about the trip, citing “a security issue.”

Nevertheless, she said at a news conference that it was “important for us to show support for Taiwan” and she believed Biden could be simply repeating warnings issued by the military.

“It’s important that she goes and it’s important eventually that Biden gets a backbone,” Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), the chairman of the Senate Republican campaign arm, told Breitbart News. “Unfortunately the Biden administration doesn’t know how to have backbones, but we’ve gotta stand up for our allies,” Scott said.

‘Policy Crisis’

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) said “a major foreign policy crisis” would occur if Washington bows down to China’s threat by calling off the visit.

“Imagine what it will signal for the Chinese communists if they think they can threaten us into merely not traveling to Taiwan. It might in fact incite them and tempt them to go for the jugular in Taiwan,” he told Fox News on July 26.

Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, a Republican who visited Taiwan in 1997, also called on Pelosi