U.S. Rep. Moulton "Fully Supports" Speaker Pelosi's Taiwan Trip

SALEM, MA — U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton took time out of his tour of the North Shore this week to offer what a spokesman called his "support" of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on social media amid her controversial trip to Taiwan this week.

Moulton, whom Pelosi harshly criticized following his trip to Afghanistan amid the U.S. evacuation last summer, posted a story of Pelosi receiving similarly mixed reviews as she touched down in Taiwan with the declaration: "Sometimes you have to go see it for yourself."

"Congressman Moulton believes members of Congress should go and see some things for themselves," Moulton Communications Director Ron Eckstein told Patch in a clarification early Tuesday afternoon. "He fully supports Speaker Pelosi's trip to Taiwan."

Moulton, a former U.S. Marine and Iraq War veteran, defended his trip to Kabul a year ago in a joint statement with U.S. Peter Meijer: "America has a moral obligation to our citizens and loyal allies, and we must make sure that obligation is being kept.

"Like many veterans, we have spent the last few weeks working without sleep to try to get as many people as we could through the gates to safety."

But Pelosi did not agree with Moulton's mission, issuing a letter to lawmakers that they should not be traveling to the region at that time.

"This is deadly serious," Pelosi told reporters in Washington D.C. on Aug. 25, 2021. "We do not want members to go.

"The point is that we don't want anybody to think this is a good idea and follow suit. We wanted to make sure they were safe for themselves, but also for what consequences would flow, and ramifications if something happened to them while they were there.

"They have to make their own case as to why they went and this and that. But it was not, in my mind, a good idea."

Pelosi has drawn her own criticisms for her trip to the small island off the coast of China that is a U.S. ally, but which China does not like to be recognized as a sovereign nation.

"Our congressional delegation's visit to Taiwan honors America's unwavering commitment to supporting Taiwan's vibrant democracy," said Pelosi said in the statement. "America’s solidarity with the 23 million people of Taiwan is more important today than ever, as the world faces a choice between autocracy and democracy."

China's ministry of foreign affairs called Pelosi's visit a "serious violation" of China's "one-nation" view toward Taiwan and said such visits "like playing with fire, are extremely dangerous."

President Joe Biden said in advance of the Pelosi trip: "The military thinks it's not a good idea right now."

Moulton attended events in Wakefield and Reading on Tuesday and has two public events scheduled in Beverly on Thursday.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)