Mitch McConnell's wife, Elaine Chao, has finally broken her silence after the 84-year-old Kentucky senator was hospitalized nearly a month ago. But, suffice it to say, her new statement hardly cleared things up.
News broke last month that 911 was called to Senator McConnell's D.C. home on June 14th, where paramedics found an individual unconscious and performed CPR. The far-Right Republican lawmaker has remained in the hospital since, as his staff, family, and friends have remained staunchly cagey about his condition.
To make matters all the more muddy, photos from Chinese media began to circulate earlier this week, showing McConnell's wife in China for a sit-down meeting with Chinese Vice President Han Zheng on June 17th, just three short days after her husband's major medical emergency, where she allegedly discussed efforts to strengthen relations between China and the US -- a move that only bolstered suspicions about the true state of McConnell's health and the reasons behind the overall lack of transparency in this bizarre situation.
Now, a full three weeks later, Elaine Chao has finally broken her silence on the matter with a formal statement. However, it only served to add more questions than it did answers when she claimed that she was already in China at the time of her husband's medical event, and the condition of his health at the time "did not warrant an immediate return."
Via a statement attributed to "a spokesperson," Chao stated:
"The secretary was on a long-planned trip in China to support her family’s philanthropic endeavors. During the trip, she met with a number of people, including the US ambassador. The Senator’s health did not warrant an immediate return to the US."
The spokesperson further confirmed that Chao was now back in the United States. No further details regarding her husband's current condition, when she returned to the States, or who discovered her unconscious husband inside their D.C. home were offered.
While Chao, the daughter of a Chinese-American shipping billionaire, previously served as Transportation Secretary during Donald Trump's first presidential term, she no longer holds any official government position and actually found herself on the receiving end of Donald Trump's hatred and vitriol when she quit her position within his administration in protest of and disgust at the infamous January 6th Capitol insurrection.
How and why she secured a meeting with China's leadership remains unclear.
Chao's statement came just hours after CNN MAGA mouthpiece Scott Jennings claimed to have spoken with McConnell for "17 minutes," which seemed to spark a sudden slew of additional friends, government officials, and members of Congress also claiming to have spoken with the Kentucky Senator.
