McConnell invokes spouse Elaine Chao in response to Trump claiming immigrants ‘poisoning’ U.S.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell responded Tuesday to latest anti-immigrant feedback made by Donald Trump, saying the previous president didn’t appear to thoughts having a migrant in his Cabinet.

Elaine Chao, who got here to the U.S. from Taiwan when she was eight years outdated and is the spouse of Mr. McConnell, served as Mr. Trump’s Transportation secretary.

Mr. Trump stated over the weekend at a presidential marketing campaign rally that immigrants who enter the U.S. illegally are “poisoning the blood of our country,” harking back to a Nazi-era phrase utilized by Adolf Hitler that Jews have been “poisoning” the blood of Germans.

“It strikes me that didn’t bother him when he appointed Elaine Chao secretary of Transportation,” Mr. McConnell, Kentucky Republican, instructed reporters.

Ms. Chao was the primary Trump Cabinet member to resign within the speedy aftermath of the 2021 U.S. Capitol riot, prompting a number of racist assaults towards her since then by Mr. Trump, together with the nickname “Coco Chow” and referring to Mr. McConnell’s “China-loving wife.”

Mr. Trump obtained bipartisan rebuke for his latest anti-immigrant rhetoric, with Democrats and the White House labeling him a “fascist.”

“They’re poisoning the blood of our country. That’s what they’ve done,” Mr. Trump instructed a crowd of supporters in New Hampshire on Saturday. “They’ve poisoned mental institutions, prisons all over the world. Not just in South America, not just in three or four countries that we think about, but all over the world. From Africa, from Asia, from all over the world they’re pouring into our country. Nobody is even looking at them, they’re just coming in. The crime [and terrorism] is going to be tremendous.”