Overview
- House Speaker Joseline Peña-Melnyk, in a letter Monday, demanded two Republican delegates delete their video and apologize to Del. Chao Wu.
- The 13-minute episode mocked Wu’s accent and implied he was a Chinese spy while attacking his 2025 bill to make AI developers disclose where they got training data.
- Delegates Mark Fisher and Brian Chisholm framed Wu’s bill as a push to expose trade secrets and suggested it would help China.
- The Maryland Freedom Caucus defended the podcast as protected speech and criticized the speaker for trying to police members’ comments.
- House Minority Leader Jason Buckel said he has no evidence for the spy claim, and the AAPI and Black caucuses and Lt. Gov. Aruna Miller called the video racist.