by - A growing number of conservatives are condemning Donald Trump’s latest social discrimination.
- Trump referred to former Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao by a racist nickname.
- Rep. Liz Cheney and several former Trump White House aides and advisers denounced the post.
Several prominent conservatives this week denounced former President Donald Trump’s racist comments toward Elaine Chao, a former Trump cabinet member and wife of Sen. Mitch McConnell.
Senator Liz Cheney, however, remains the only Republican member of Congress so far to explicitly condemn the former president for his xenophobic comments.
Trump on Friday unleashed a barrage of insults against Senate Minority Leader McConnell in a Truth Social tirade, accusing the Kentucky lawmaker of approving “trillions of dollars worth of bills funded by Democrats” because he “hates Donald J. Trump ».
“He has a DEATH WISH,” Trump wrote in a remarkable escalation of his usual political rhetoric.
But the former president didn’t stop there: He went on to insult McConnell’s wife, former Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, who served in the Trump administration, hurling a racist epithet at the Asian American woman.
McConnell, he suggested, “must immediately seek help and advise (sic) from his beloved wife in China, Coco Chow!”
Representatives for McConnell, Chao and Trump did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.
Trump’s distinction immediately drew a firestorm of condemnation — mostly from Democratic lawmakers and liberal pundits, but Republican Rep. Liz Cheney on Monday joined the chorus of dissent.
“When you see former President Trump just in the last 24 hours suggesting in a pretty subtle way, using words that could very well incite violence against the Republican leader of the Senate, saying that he has a death wish and then, you know, starting a absolutely despicable, racist attack on Secretary Chao, the wife of Chief McConnell, and then you watch the fact that no one in my party will say this is unacceptable,” Cheney said during an event at Syracuse University, according to the The Hill.
The Wyoming representative said Trump’s comments were “unacceptable” and suggested every member of her party should be “required” to agree, the report said.
Cheney has long been an outspoken critic of Trump and will leave Congress next year after losing her August primary to a Trump-backed candidate.
Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., left, and his wife Elaine Chao during a news conference in Louisville, Ky., Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2020.
AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley
By accusing Trump on Monday, Cheney became the only Republican member of Congress to publicly denounce the former president’s remarks. McConnell himself has yet to address the situation.
Senator Rick Scott waded into the fray over the weekend on CNN, saying it’s “never okay to be racist.” But the Florida lawmaker did not directly rebuke Trump.
“I think you always have to be careful, you know, if you’re in the public eye, how you say things,” Scott said. “You want to make sure you’re inclusive.”
But while many other Republican lawmakers have remained silent on the issue, a growing number of conservative figures have since voiced their own disapproval of Trump’s attack.
Right-wing pundit Scott Jennings, a former aide to McConnell, told CNN that “every Republican” should be able to repudiate what he called Trump’s “killing orders” against McConnell.
“This is outrageous, it’s beyond the pale, every Republican should be saying this,” Jennings said.
Meanwhile, Alyssa Farah Griffin, who served as White House communications director during the Trump administration and is now a co-host on “The View,” blasted Trump in a Saturday tweet.
“Not even trying to hide the racism at this point,” he wrote.
And on CBS News Monday, Marc Short, a senior adviser to former Vice President Mike Pence who previously served as director of legislative affairs in the Trump administration, said the former president’s “racial slur” against Chao was “obviously wrong.
