McConnell’s wife criticized: Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell blasted a liberal group for criticizing the heritage of his wife, former Labor Secretary Elaine Chao.
Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell’s wife was criticized this weekend, prompting the Republican Senate Minority Leader to fire back. A liberal group mocked her Asian ethnicity.
The group criticized the heritage of his wife, former Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, which McConnell described as “racial slurs” and “the ultimate outrage,” reported The Associated Press.
“They will not get away with attacking my wife in this campaign,” McConnell said, according to the news agency. “Elaine Chao is just as much an American as any of the rest of them,” McConnell added. “In fact, she had to go through a lot more to become an American.”
He was responding to a tweet sent out by Progress Kentucky that read: “This woman has the ear of @McConnellPress — she’s his #wife,” before adding: “May explain why your job moved to #China!”
Chao was born in Taiwan and moved to the United States when she was 8 years old.
“Secretary Chao and her family are shining examples of the American dream: salt-of-the-earth folks who escaped oppression, came here with nothing, joined our great melting pot, worked exceptionally hard to build a thriving business, and then dedicated so much of their lives to giving back,” Jesse Benton, the head of McConnell’s re-election campaign, told AP.
He added: “It is unconscionable that anyone would use blatant race-baiting for political gain.”
On Sunday, McConnell told CNN that it wasn’t the first time this has happened.
“It’s happened before. The chairman of the Democratic Party a few years back engaged in the same kind of thing,” he said, without elaborating. “My wife is a proud Chinese-American. She was secretary of labor during the Bush administration. Her family escaped from the Communists in mainland China, made their way to America and have lived the American dream.”
“And for that,” he added, “racial slurs by the Democrats in Kentucky—it sort of goes with the turf at home.”
Ashley Judd, the actress, who is considering running for McConnel’s seat as a Democrat, also blasted Progress Kentucky.
“Whatever the intention, whatever the venue, whomever the person, attacks or comments on anyone’s ethnicity are wrong & patently unacceptable,” she tweeted Wednesday, according to the network.
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