Kentucky Democrats are at it again. They're attacking Republican Senator Mitch McConnell's wife and former Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao for her Asian heritage. You'll recall last year when Progress Kentucky sent out a series of tweets vilifying Chao and McConnell's "very close ties to China."
Progress Kentucky, a Democratic super PAC with its sights on toppling Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), has drawn backlash for a persistent effort to suggest that the senator's wife's Chinese roots have led him to embrace anti-American policies."This woman has the ear of @mcconnellpress -- she's his #wife.May explain why your job moved to #China!" the tweet read.
In a Feb. 14 tweet, the group made a particularly blunt jab suggesting that Elaine Chao, former labor secretary under President George W. Bush and McConnell's second wife, was encouraging him to support outsourcing jobs to China.
Now Kathy Groob, who claims to be an advocate for women in politics, has attacked Chao as Asian and claimed because she is Asian, that she isn't from Kentucky. Groob made the statements in a series of tweets over the weekend. WFPL reporter Phillip Bailey has the details:
Groob's Twitter account has since been deleted. The good news is this time Democrats quickly condemned Groob (last time around, it took them awhile to do so).
As the controversy grew on social media, a statement was released on the Kentucky Democratic Party's Twitter account, denouncing the comments.
"These comments are abhorrent and have no place in Kentucky politics. We strongly denounce them," the statement read.
For the record, here is a short bio showing Chao's incredible accomplishments.
Elaine Chao, the 24th U. S. Secretary of Labor who served from 2001-2009, is the first American woman of Asian descent to be appointed to a President’s Cabinet in our nation’s history. She is the longest tenured Secretary of Labor since World War II, and the only member of President Bush’s original cabinet to have served the entire eight years of his Administration.
An immigrant who arrived in America at the age of eight speaking no English, Secretary Chao’s experience transitioning to a new country has motivated her to dedicate most of her professional life to ensuring that all people have the opportunity to build better lives.
As the first U. S. Secretary of Labor in the 21st century, Elaine L. Chao focused on improving the competitiveness of America’s workforce by restructuring department programs to empower workers and modernizing regulations to respond to the realities of the 21st century workplace. Under her leadership, the U.S. Department of Labor achieved record results in protecting the health, safety, wages, and retirement security of the nation’s workforce.
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