Mitch McConnell with his wife Elaine Chao, former Secretary of Transportation Photo: EPA
Mitch McConnell urged his wife to take a rare criticism of Donald Trump for his controversial comments that migrants are “poisoning the blood” of the United States.
The Senate Minority Leader, who has a rocky relationship with the former president, was asked about Trump's language, which drew comparisons to rhetoric used in Nazi Germany.< /p>
During a speech in New Hampshire on Saturday, Mr. Trump said: “They let – I think the real number is 15, 16 million people into our country. …. They poison the blood of our country. That's what they did.”
On Tuesday, Mr. McConnell was questioned about whether he was “comfortable” with his party's “leading presidential candidate calling illegal immigrants 'the blood poison of our country.'”
Earlier this year, Mr. McConnell adopted a policy of not commenting on any of the Republican candidates running for president, largely to avoid answering questions about Trump.
But on Tuesday he broke his pact , saying, “I don't think he was concerned when he appointed Elaine Chao as Secretary of Transportation.”
Ms. Chao, a Taiwanese-American, is Mr. McConnell's wife and was appointed to Mr. McConnell's Cabinet. -on Trump in 2017.
She resigned following the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, saying the “traumatic and completely avoidable event” “disturbed me deeply and I simply cannot ignore it.”
Trump has previously been accused of making racist comments towards Chao, calling her a “China lover” and “Coco Chow” on “Truth Social” last year .
Marc Short, a former Trump administration official and senior adviser to former Vice President Mike Pence, called his comments a “racial slur” and “obviously wrong.”
Stephen Chung, Trump's spokesman, said at the time that the criticism the former president's address to Ms. Chao focused on her family's potential financial conflicts rather than on race.
In early 2023, Ms. Chao responded: “When I was young, some people deliberately spelled or mispronounced my name. Asian Americans have worked hard to change that experience for the next generation.
“He doesn't seem to get it, and that says a lot more about him than it will ever say about Asian Americans.”< br />Trump's remarks about “blood poisoning” provoked a backlash from several other GOP lawmakers.
“My grandfather was an immigrant, so I don't agree with that sentiment,” said Senate Republican John Thune. .
Meanwhile, Thom Tillis, who is part of McConnell's leadership team, called Trump's comments “unhelpful rhetoric.”
Shelley Moore Capito, another member of the Senate GOP leadership, told The Hill: “Obviously, I don't agree with that.”
“We are all children of immigrants,” she said. “I think it's just part of his campaign rhetoric. I don’t know, I can’t explain it.”
But some Republicans have doubled down on their support for the former president.
Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville said he was “pissed” that Mr Trump “wasn’t tougher.”
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“Because you saw what was happening at the border? They are ahead of us,” he said. “So I'm a little disappointed that it wasn't tougher.”
Meanwhile, Democrats rushed to condemn Mr. Trump.
“Donald Trump demonstrated his role models by emulating Adolf Hitler. , praised Kim Jong Un and quoted Vladimir Putin, who is running for president, promising to rule like a dictator and threaten American democracy,” a Biden-Harris campaign spokesman said.
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