Navarro says Chinese government led ‘calculated’ effort to censor VP debate

White House Trade Adviser Peter Navarro on Thursday night said the Chinese government censored Wednesday night’s vice presidential debate in a “calculated” effort to deceive people.

Navarro made the claim in a Fox News interview when asked by host Martha MacCallum to comment on reports that feeds of debate stopped working in China.

“What China does is they regularly monitor international broadcast,” Navarro said. “You got your seven or 10 second delay. And this was quite calculated on their part.”

Navarro also alleged that the Democratic Party was working in tandem with the Chinese government against President Trump.

“What we have is the Democrat Party and the Chinese Communist Party effectively making common cause in the defeat of Donald J. Trump,” he said.

n one instance of China’s debate outage, documented on Twitter by Beijing-based reporter Nathan VanderKlippe, the feed cut out when Pence criticized China. The debate was televised in the country on CNN.

Mediate reported the disruption lasted for about three minutes, beginning when Pence blamed China for the coronavirus.

During the interruption, the screen for viewers in China with access to CNN read “No Signal Please Stand By.”

The debate kicked back on when Harris claimed the Trump administration’s foreign relations with China has “resulted in the loss of American lives, American jobs, and America’s standing,” Mediate reported.