Maura Moynihan
© InstagramMaura Moynihan was caught on video berating an Asian American couple in the wake of increasing attacks on the Asian community in NYC and across the country.
A woman accused of telling an Asian American couple in Manhattan to "go back to China" has been identified as the daughter of late New York Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, a new report said.

Maura Moynihan admitted to WABC that she was the woman captured on camera arguing with Dan Lee, 31, during a confrontation at First Avenue and East 22nd Street last Sunday.

Lee's wife, 25-year-old Maria Ha, told the news station that the heated exchanged kicked off when Moynihan randomly told her to "go back to China."


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Ha ran home to get her husband, who showed up as Moynihan was getting into a cab.

In a confrontation that Lee recorded from outside the cab, Moynihan, who is seated inside, repeatedly claims that he is "assaulting" her.

"She said go back to f — king china," Lee can be heard on video. "Say that racist s — t again. You said Communist China?"

"Well, isn't that where you're from," Moynihan replies, the video shows.

The couple told the news outlet they left soon afterward.

But after they crossed the street, they said Moynihan opened the cab window and again barked, "Go back to Communist China!"

Police said they are investigating the incident.

Moynihan, while admitting being the woman in the video, denied to WABC that she made racist remarks.

"It had nothing whatsoever to do with any bias or racism or anti-Asian American prejudice, as has been wrongly suggested," she said in a statement.

"I have devoted most of my life to working with and for Asian people, most particularly in the cause of securing basic human rights for the Tibetan people in their continuing struggle against Communist China," Moynihan said.

Moynihan's father, who died in 2003, is the eponym for the new Moynihan Train Hall, which opened earlier this year at the historic Farley Post Office Building at Penn Station.