SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
elaine chao
Little Ditty, 'Bout Mitch & Elaine
We recently learned about Elaine's lack of concern for the very same taxpayers that Mitch was so interested in protecting from Biden's profligacy.
Mar 29, 2021
Birds of a feather will flock together.
--Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy
The marvelous thing about Mitch McConnell is that he's unaffected by juxtaposition. Of course it was just a coincidence-his comments about the Biden stimulus package that, he said, uses taxpayer dollars that encourage people not to work, and the Inspector General's report about the activities of McConnell's wife, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, who used taxpayer dollars to help her family in a way that could be said to encourage them not to work. Some people would be embarrassed by the timing of the report. Not Mitch. Consider his comments on the floor of the United States Senate and in interviews with Fox News on the effect the Biden stimulus package would have on the country.
On March 3, 2021, Mitch explained to Martha MacCallum on Fox News, that as a result of the Biden package: "There is a concern about making it more advantageous to stay home rather than going back to work. If we could do it all over again, we-meaning Republicans-may offer an alternative that we think fits the situation. And it's considerably less than $1.9 trillion. . . ." At a press briefing before it was voted on, he described the bill as "wildly expensive" and "largely unrelated to the problem."
Led by Mitch, the Republicans in the Senate, to a man and woman, ever mindful of their taxpaying constituents and the need to protect the taxpayers' dollars and make sure they are appropriately used, on March 6, 2021, voted against the stimulus package sent to them by the House. It was hardly Mitch's fault that three days before the vote took place, and on the same day he was being interviewed on Fox News, we learned of Elaine's lack of concern for the very same taxpayers that Mitch was so interested in protecting from Biden's profligacy.
On March 3, 2021, a report was released by the Transportation Department's inspector general. The report disclosed that during Elaine's tenure as transportation secretary under the trump administration, she used her office staff who were paid by taxpayers, to help her family. Her family has a shipping business that has extensive China ties.
The report that was released on March 3 was preceded by an investigation by the Transportation Department's inspector general into Elaine's conduct while acting as Secretary. Following completion of that investigation in December 2020 the inspector general referred the report to the trump justice department for possible criminal investigation. To no one's surprise, the trump justice department did nothing. Nonetheless, the report was not ignored.
On March 3, 2021, a 44-page report that detailed the results of the investigation into Elaine's conduct as Secretary was delivered to the House. In delivering the report, Mike Behm, the Transportation Department's deputy inspector general said in the letter that accompanied the report that: "A formal investigation into potential misuses of position was warranted."
No formal finding that Elaine violated ethical rules was made but, according to the New York Times that reported the story, the investigators "detailed more than a dozen instances where her office, supported by the taxpayers took steps to handle matters related to her father, who built up a New York-based shipping company . . . ." Elaine did not take the adverse publicity that accompanied the delivery of the report lying down.
When the Inspector General's report was delivered to the House, Elaine's public relations firm issued a statement that said in part: "This report exonerates the secretary from baseless accusations and closes the book on an election-year effort to impugn her history-making career as the first Asian American woman appointed to a president's cabinet and her outstanding record as the longest tenured cabinet member since World War II." (Elaine served as Secretary of Labor under the George W. Bush administration for the full eight years of his presidency.)
Among what the public relations firm described as baseless accusations, were the use of Elaine's staff to arrange details for her father's trip to China in October 2017, using her staff to do chores for her father such as promoting his Chinese-language biography and editing his Wikipedia page for him. The report further observes that in 2018 Elaine had her staff promote her father's appearance "at events at Columbia University, SUNY Maritime College, Lloyd's List, and the Massachusetts Maritime Academy."
Elaine did not respond to questions from the Inspector General. Instead she issued a statement that explained why she had helped her father. She said: "Anyone familiar with Asian culture knows it is a core value in Asian communities to express honor and filial respect toward one's parents. Asian audiences welcome and respond positively to action by the secretary that include her father in activities when appropriate." Readers may decide for themselves whether her filial devotion expiates what many would have considered an abuse of her position and misuse of the taxpayers' dollars.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Mitch and Elaine Aren't Bothered By Their Own Hypocrisy
Mitch McConnell pretended to care about the appropriate use of taxpayers' dollars while his wife, former Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, was fleecing the public.
Mar 28, 2021
Birds of a feather will flock together.
-- Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy
The marvelous thing about Mitch McConnell is that he's unaffected by juxtaposition. Of course it was just a coincidence--his comments about the Biden stimulus package that, he said, uses taxpayer dollars that encourage people not to work, and the Inspector General's report about the activities of McConnell's wife, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, who used taxpayer dollars to help her family in a way that could be said to encourage them not to work. Some people would be embarrassed by the timing of the report. Not Mitch. Consider his comments on the floor of the United States Senate and in interviews with Fox News on the effect the Biden stimulus package would have on the country.
On March 3, 2021, Mitch explained to Martha MacCallum on Fox News, that as a result of the Biden package: "There is a concern about making it more advantageous to stay home rather than going back to work. If we could do it all over again, we--meaning Republicans--may offer an alternative that we think fits the situation. And it's considerably less than $1.9 trillion. . . ." At a press briefing before it was voted on, he described the bill as "wildly expensive" and "largely unrelated to the problem."
Led by Mitch, the Republicans in the Senate, to a man and woman, ever mindful of their taxpaying constituents and the need to protect the taxpayers' dollars and make sure they are appropriately used, on March 6, 2021, voted against the stimulus package sent to them by the House. It was hardly Mitch's fault that three days before the vote took place, and on the same day he was being interviewed on Fox News, we learned of Elaine's lack of concern for the very same taxpayers that Mitch was so interested in protecting from Biden's profligacy.
On March 3, 2021, a report was released by the Transportation Department's inspector general. The report disclosed that during Elaine's tenure as transportation secretary under the trump administration, she used her office staff who were paid by taxpayers, to help her family. Her family has a shipping business that has extensive China ties.
The report that was released on March 3 was preceded by an investigation by the Transportation Department's inspector general into Elaine's conduct while acting as Secretary. Following completion of that investigation in December 2020 the inspector general referred the report to the trump justice department for possible criminal investigation. To no one's surprise, the trump justice department did nothing. Nonetheless, the report was not ignored.
On March 3, 2021, a 44-page report that detailed the results of the investigation into Elaine's conduct as Secretary was delivered to the House. In delivering the report, Mike Behm, the Transportation Department's deputy inspector general said in the letter that accompanied the report that: "A formal investigation into potential misuses of position was warranted."
No formal finding that Elaine violated ethical rules was made but, according to the New York Times that reported the story, the investigators "detailed more than a dozen instances where her office, supported by the taxpayers took steps to handle matters related to her father, who built up a New York-based shipping company . . . ." Elaine did not take the adverse publicity that accompanied the delivery of the report lying down.
When the Inspector General's report was delivered to the House, Elaine's public relations firm issued a statement that said in part: "This report exonerates the secretary from baseless accusations and closes the book on an election-year effort to impugn her history-making career as the first Asian American woman appointed to a president's cabinet and her outstanding record as the longest tenured cabinet member since World War II." (Elaine served as Secretary of Labor under the George W. Bush administration for the full eight years of his presidency.)
Among what the public relations firm described as baseless accusations, were the use of Elaine's staff to arrange details for her father's trip to China in October 2017, using her staff to do chores for her father such as promoting his Chinese-language biography and editing his Wikipedia page for him. The report further observes that in 2018 Elaine had her staff promote her father's appearance "at events at Columbia University, SUNY Maritime College, Lloyd's List, and the Massachusetts Maritime Academy."
Elaine did not respond to questions from the Inspector General. Instead she issued a statement that explained why she had helped her father. She said: "Anyone familiar with Asian culture knows it is a core value in Asian communities to express honor and filial respect toward one's parents. Asian audiences welcome and respond positively to action by the secretary that include her father in activities when appropriate." Readers may decide for themselves whether her filial devotion expiates what many would have considered an abuse of her position and misuse of the taxpayers' dollars.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Quitting Trump Cabinet Is 'Not Courageous, It's Cowardly,' Say Supporters of 25th Amendment Ouster
"At this late a stage, resignations help little beyond serving as late attempts at self-preservation," argued Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Jan 06, 2021
Progressive lawmakers and advocacy groups on Thursday urged members of President Donald Trump's Cabinet considering resignation following Wednesday's insurrectionist attack on the U.S. Capitol to remain in the administration and invoke the 25th Amendment to remove the president from office.
"The vice president and Cabinet members must invoke the 25th Amendment NOW and remove Trump from office before he incites more violence and chaos."
--Sen. Bernie Sanders
"A number of administration officials are resigning to protest Trump's horrific acts of sedition yesterday," noted Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Twitter. "Not good enough! The vice president and Cabinet members must invoke the 25th Amendment NOW and remove Trump from office before he incites more violence and chaos."
Sanders' remarks came hours after Elaine Chao, Trump's transportation secretary, cited Wednesday's "traumatic and entirely avoidable" attack as she tendered her resignation, explaining the incident "has deeply troubled me in a way that I simply cannot set aside."
Chao, who is also the wife of soon-to-be Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), was the highest-ranking Trump administration official to resign in the wake of what many observers called a domestic terror attack. But she wasn't the only one.
NPRreports Stephanie Grisham, chief of staff to first lady Melania Trump; Sarah Matthews, a deputy press secretary; Mick Mulvaney, the special envoy to Northern Ireland; and Matt Pottinger, the deputy national security adviser, are among those who are quitting over Wednesday's insurrection.
While such resignations may be dressed in a veneer of principle, many progressives say that if they want to make good, Trump officials should remain in his Cabinet and use the 25th Amendment--which allows for the dismissal of a president who is incapacitated, or unable or unwilling to perform their duties--to remove him from office. A group of nearly 100 Democratic lawmakers on Wednesday sent a letter to Vice President Mike Pence to "emphatically urge" him to invoke the constitutional remedy.
\u201cTrump cabinet secretaries resigning 14 days before the next president is inaugurated does not address these individuals\u2019 complicity, aiding & abetting Trump over the past four years and does nothing to get Trump out of office. That is most important before more destruction.\u201d— Rep. Pramila Jayapal (@Rep. Pramila Jayapal) 1610045829
\u201cRather than taking the easy resign route, @VP Pence and the Trump cabinet should invoke the 25th amendment to save our country from this dangerous president.\u201d— Senator Mazie Hirono (@Senator Mazie Hirono) 1610026856
"At this late a stage, resignations help little beyond serving as late attempts at self-preservation," argued Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.). "If Sec. Chao objects to yesterday's events this deeply, she should be working the Cabinet to invoke the 25th amendment--not abdicating the seat that allows her to do so."
The advocacy group Public Citizen was even more blunt, calling Chao's resignation "the definition of cowardice."
"Chao could have stayed and pushed for the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office," the group tweeted. "Instead, she enabled Trump for four years and jumped ship when her husband's workplace was ransacked. Pathetic."
\u201cATTENTION TRUMP'S CABINET: Resigning is not courageous, it's cowardly. Stay and invoke the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office.\u201d— Public Citizen (@Public Citizen) 1610046704
To those members of Trump's Cabinet who haven't left but are thinking about doing so, Robert Weissman and Lisa Gilbert, respectively Public Citizen president and vice president, sounded a gentler tone:
I am sure you all are profoundly and appropriately disturbed by what occurred yesterday at the Capitol... Many of you may now be considering resigning... While principled resignations would have been appropriate at any other moment in the administration's tenure, that is no longer this case.
Invoking the 25th Amendment in this way is without precedent and should only be done in the most extreme circumstances. But we are now living in those most extreme circumstances. Your country is relying on you to honor your duty to the Constitution and protect us all.
Pence, however, is reportedly unwilling to use his power to invoke the 25th Amendment, according to sources who spoke with Business Insider on Thursday. New York Times correspondent Maggie Haberman confirmed the report.
Another option for holding Trump accountable for the riot he incited--impeachment--appears off the table for now. Despite Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) introducting articles of impeachment against Trump on Thursday for his "attempted coup against our country," Democratic leaders in the House of Representatives--which just 24 hours earlier had been under occupation by a Trumpist mob--saw fit to adjourn until the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden on January 20.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular