Will Steinhardt now disclose his clients who invest in Communist China?

By Rubashov

Did you hear… Jack Ciattarelli is a Commie!
 
Yep, the campaign of gubernatorial candidate Doug Steinhardt has followed up the announcement that “I’m not a politician, at all”, with a bigger, stupider lie. 
 
Yesterday, the Steinhardt campaign sent around an email that accused Ciattarelli of investing in “the Chinese Communist Party.”  The email went on to explain:
 
“As recently as 2017, Ciattarelli had ownership in several Chinese business investments all tied to the Communist Party of China (CPC).  It’s outrageous, but true - Ciattarelli actually owned financial interests in China Eastern Airlines, China Lodging Group and China Mobile Ltd.” 
 
The email included an image of Ciattarelli’s 2016 Personal Financial Disclosure Statement, filed with the New Jersey Legislature on May 2, 2017).  Steinhardt’s missive continued:
 
“At least two of his investments have direct connections to the CPC. According to Centre for Aviation, Shanghai-based China Eastern Airlines is one of China's 'big three' state-owned airlines. Moreover, China Mobile is reportedly controlled directly by the Communist Party of China. According to a report from Forbes, the Federal Communications Commission sought to reject China Mobile’s application to provide telecommunications in the United States because of its CPC influences.”
 
While it is true that candidates for public office are responsible for where they place their money and with whom they invest, it is also true that investments are often made without very much detailed geo-political information on the company invested in or the fund doing the investing.  Perhaps there should be federal labeling laws? 
 

True to its tribute band aspirations, the Steinhardt campaign goes on to level this attack against Ciattarelli:

“While Ciattarelli has been profiting from his investments in Communist China, President Trump and Doug Steinhardt have been promoting strategies that put America first, protect our Nation’s interests, promote election integrity, and hold China accountable for the spread of the COVID-19 virus.”

They even have a quote from Steinhardt – one in which he does the full Elvis impersonation…

“New Jersey needs a leader who will stand with President Trump’s ‘America First’ policies and against the Communist Party of China, not invest American dollars in the CPC. It’s time New Jersey leaders start protecting our financial interests instead of only worrying about their own. While conservative leaders who understand the threat the CPC poses seek to distance themselves from Communist China, Jack Ciattarelli has a long history of making money by investing in CPC linked companies. Voters must know that Jack is morally compromised on this important, national issue.”

Morally compromised? Didn’t the Philadelphia Inquirer report that Doug Steinhardt’s law firm wanted to buy a marijuana farm? Isn’t Steinhardt’s partner, the ever-so-conservative Jim Florio, the state’s biggest promoter of edible marijuana? You know, they put the stuff in chocolate bars, peanut butter cups, and gummy bears… and then the kids get hold of it and nobody is the wiser. A teacher or a parent or a cop can see when a kid is smoking a joint – but how do you effectively monitor candy? Guess “morality” must come in assorted flavors too.

But let’s place Doug Steinhardt’s questioning of Jack Ciattarelli's morality to one side for the moment.

We have to ask… Why doesn’t the Steinhardt campaign know that Donald Trump is heavily invested in China and that he does so much business with China, he maintains a bank account there? Given who is running the Steinhardt campaign… WTF!

If anyone missed it, the New York Times did a pretty big story on it at the end of October. Oh, and catch these dates…

“Trump Records Shed New Light on Chinese Business Pursuits... As he raises questions about his opponent’s standing with China, President Trump’s taxes reveal details about his own activities there, including a previously unknown bank account... President Trump at a 2017 meeting with the leader of China, Xi Jinping. Mr. Trump has a long history of chasing licensing deals in the country.”

One story from October 20, 2020, was particularly in-depth:

“Mr. Trump’s own business history is filled with overseas financial deals, and some have involved the Chinese state. He spent a decade unsuccessfully pursuing projects in China, operating an office there during his first run for president and forging a partnership with a major government-controlled company.

And it turns out that China is one of only three foreign nations — the others are Britain and Ireland — where Mr. Trump maintains a bank account, according to an analysis of the president’s tax records, which were obtained by The New York Times.”

The story notes that Trump paid China $188,561 in taxes – which is, by some accounts, more than he paid in the United States. Trump’s attorney would not identify the bank in China where the account is held, but the Times noted that China’s biggest state-controlled bank rented three floors in Trump Tower as late as 2019.

The Times continues:

“Mr. Trump has long sought a licensing deal in China. His efforts go at least as far back as 2006, when he filed trademark applications in Hong Kong and the mainland. Many Chinese government approvals came after he became president. (The president’s daughter Ivanka Trump also won Chinese trademark approvals for her personal business after she joined the White House staff.)”

“In 2008, Mr. Trump pursued an office tower project in Guangzhou that never got off the ground. But his efforts accelerated in 2012 with the opening of a Shanghai office… Mr. Trump found a partner in the State Grid Corporation, one of the nation’s largest government-controlled enterprises. Agence France-Presse reported in 2016 that the partnership would have involved licensing and managing a development in Beijing. Mr. Trump was reportedly still pursuing the deal months into his first presidential campaign, but it was abandoned after State Grid became ensnared in a corruption investigation by Chinese authorities.”

Doug Steinhardt should take a moment and read this and accompanying articles on Donald Trump’s business connections with China. We’re surprised nobody on his staff took the time to do so before issuing an attack that questioned Jack Ciattarelli’s morals – and by implication, those of President Donald Trump as well.

We would like to ask Doug, because he allowed his handlers to place a direct quote from him in their attack, do you now believe that Donald Trump is a Communist too? Does this mean that Jack Ciattarelli is more like Trump than Doug Steinhardt? That’s never good for a cover band, Doug.

But this get’s worse.

Doug Steinhardt allowed his team to put out this quote from him: “While President Trump and I were fighting to hold the CPC accountable, swampy politicians like Jack Ciattarelli were taking financial advice from the likes of Hunter Biden and making a personal profit off of questionable investments. I call on Jack Ciattarelli to immediately disclose all of his Chinese business holdings."

Hunter Biden? Where the hell did that come from?

See Doug, this is why you hire competent people. Sane people. People who don’t throw some name into the mix, simply because they heard it somewhere, regardless of whether it has anything remotely to do with what you are on about.

Can we flesh out this Hunter Biden thing? Does your campaign have any evidence at all that Ciattarelli took “financial advice” from Hunter Biden or, is the former top Republican in New Jersey (now a gubernatorial candidate) simply smearing the entire financial services industry? Shame on you for letting them put your name on that. It wasn’t smart.

Even less smart was them getting you to issue a call for Jack Ciattarelli to “disclose all of his Chinese business holdings.” You know you probably have all that information already. But now you’ve opened the door for him to ask you to disclose the Pandora’s Box of your clients – and all their dealings. And how many of them look at the geo-politics of a stock instead of its bottom line? Donald Trump doesn’t, for one. How about the Mayor of Jersey City? Isn’t he a client? Somebody pissed down their own leg.

See Doug, this is why you hire competent people.

“We have now sunk to a depth at which restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men. If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear. In times of universal deceit, telling the truth will be a revolutionary act.”

George Orwells

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