A pair of conservative Maryland lawmakers are not backing down from their offensive remarks about a colleague who is an immigrant from China, rebuffing calls to apologize and remove a video from social media.
Del. Brian Chisholm and Del. Mark Fisher, Republicans and members of the conservative House of Delegates Freedom Caucus, posted a 13-minute video on April 30 in which they use racist stereotypes and question the allegiances of Del. Chao Wu, a Democrat representing parts of Howard and Montgomery counties.
House Speaker Joseline Peña-Melnyk has urged the delegates to remove the video and apologize, and many politicians have blasted the video as racist and xenophobic.
Chisholm and Fisher disagree.
In a statement to The Banner on Tuesday, Chisholm defended the video as asking “basic questions” about the motivation behind a lawmaker’s legislation. He said that asking questions should not be off-limits.
“This is not about race. This is not about ethnicity. This is not about someone’s background,” Chisholm wrote in the statement. “This is about accountability, transparency, and whether Maryland lawmakers are allowed to ask basic questions when legislation touches issues that matter to our state and our country.”
Chisholm, who represents a district in northern Anne Arundel County, has declined interview requests from The Banner. So has Fisher, who represents Calvert County.
Their video was still online as of midday Tuesday.
The video highlights one of Wu’s bills from 2025 as “the Dumbest Bill in America.” The proposed bill — which did not pass — would have required companies that develop generative artificial intelligence systems to disclose information about the data used to train them.
Chisholm, in a mocking Chinese accent, invokes a proverb: “Only catch fish in muddy water.”
They call Wu a “chicom,” a derogatory term for a Chinese communist, citing a 2025 Washington Examiner article that said Wu, while attending the University of Maryland, College Park, was a member of student groups with ties to the Chinese Communist Party. Chisholm and Fisher suggested he might be a spy for China.
Wu, who earned a doctoral degree in electrical and computer engineering, has dismissed those claims as untrue. He said the Republicans have struggled to pass legislation and are looking for someone to blame.
“They can’t find a solution, they can’t find consensus,” Wu told The Banner Monday. “They are angry and they want to find a scapegoat and blame others for their failures.”
Wu, a Democrat, represents parts of Howard and Montgomery counties. He served on the Howard County Board of Education before being elected to the House of Delegates in 2022.
Maryland’s Legislative Asian American and Pacific Islander Caucus, Legislative Black Caucus, Legislative LGBTQ+ Caucus and others have denounced the video.
Montgomery County Council President Natali Fani-González said during a public meeting Tuesday that Wu is an “outstanding leader” who shouldn’t be subject to such divisive comments.
“Those comments were disgraceful and shameful, and it’s a reminder that policy disagreements should never lead to involving messages of hate and ethnic bigotry,” said Fani-González, a Democrat who was born in Venezuela.
Chisholm claimed others are misinterpreting the video, saying he and Fisher were asking “legitimate questions about foreign influence, intellectual property, and economic security.” He cited former Arcadia, California, Mayor Eileen Wang, who reached a plea deal Monday with federal investigators over charges that she worked as an illegal agent for China.
Fisher, in response to requests from The Banner, pointed to a statement from the seven-member House Freedom Caucus accusing Peña-Melnyk of engaging in “heavy-handed speech policing.”
Fellow House Freedom Caucus member Del. Lauren Arikan defended her colleagues’ video as “factual” and not racist.
“It is another election-year gimmick,” Arikan, who represents Harford County, said in a social media video. The Republican suggested Democrats are trying to distract from what she perceives as their failures.
“Whenever a Democrat feels uncomfortable, they like to point at a Republican and say, ‘But Republicans are racist,’” Arikan said.
Banner reporter Ginny Bixby contributed to this story.
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