As Republicans were fighting to take control of the U.S. Senate during the 2022 midterm cycle, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell gave the cold shoulder to candidates backed by former President Donald Trump. The Kentucky Republican later blamed Trump for poor "candidate quality" as a reason the GOP fell short in the Senate.
On Wednesday, the 81-year-old McConnell was taken to a D.C. area hospital to be treated after he fell at a hotel. The extent of his injuries, if any, were not immediately known. The full statement from McConnell's camp read as follows: "This evening, Leader McConnell tripped at a local hotel during a private dinner. He has been admitted to the hospital where he is receiving treatment."
The senator suffered a fractured shoulder during a fall in August 2019. Popp at the time said McConnell tripped and fell while he was outside on a patio at his Louisville home.
For decades, McConnell and his wife "have maintained a glaring conflict of interest, conducting extensive government business despite the Chao family’s deep ties to China through a maritime shipping company," Jordan Boyd noted in an Aug. 2022 analysis for The Federalist.
For years, the McConnell and Chao families have crafted a close relationship that grants opportunities to the shipping company Foremost Group, which was founded by Chao's father James Chao and largely operates in and on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Yes, the McConnell-Chao Swamp power couple have done quite well in Washington, DC with some help from the communist China.
How well? The Washington Post reported that McConnell's wealth had increased seven-fold in 10 years, from $3.1 million in 2004 to $22.8 million in 2014.
In his book "Secret Empires," Peter Schweizer argues that McConnell and Chao have been lenient on China because that's where most of their wealth is coming from.
Schweizer writes in the book that it was a 1994 trip arranged by James Chao, McConnell’s father-in-law, and sponsored by China State Shipbuilding Corp. (CSSP), one of the CCP’s largest military contractors and reportedly an unofficial arm of the CCP navy, to meet the Chinese president that pushed McConnell to “increasingly avoid public criticism of China.”
The Chao family have benefited from loans estimated to be between $350,000 and $1 million from the U.S. government and loans from Chinese banks known by the Trump administration as threats.
"Again, this is a company owned by the father-in-law of America’s top congressional Republican and the father of the former transportation secretary," Boyd wrote for The Federalist. "Not only do Chao’s father and sister Angela Chao still share leadership over Foremost, but the pair also once sat on the board of an offshoot of the CSSP together."
Just one year after James Chao joined CSSC Holdings, in addition to running Foremost, McConnell received a “gift” of $5 to $25 million from his father-in-law. As Politico reported, that payment significantly bumped McConnell’s net worth.
Several members of Chao’s family, including Angela and James, also contributed more than $1 million to McConnell’s re-election campaigns.
In other words, the founder of an unofficial arm of our top adversary’s navy is helping keep McConnell in U.S. leadership. According to Schweizer, these kinds of payments could have been money designed to keep a favorable relationship between McConnell and the Chao family.
“Foreign governments and oligarchs like this form of corruption because it gives them private and unfettered gateways to the corridors of Washington power,” Schweizer wrote in his book “Empires.” “Foreign entities cannot legally make campaign contributions, so using this approach creates an alternative way to curry favor and influence America’s political leaders. Simply camouflaging these transactions as business agreements provides another shield of plausible deniability.”
In 2021, months after she resigned from the Trump administration, the Office of Inspector General for the Department of Transportation released a report confirming that Chao “used her official position and taxpayer resources for the benefit of herself and her family.”
Evidence of wrongdoing in the OIG report was communicated in a criminal referral to the Department of Justice U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia and the DOJ Public Integrity Section.
None of the agencies decided to open an investigation.
President Trump, in an Aug. 20, 2022 Truth Social post, blasted McConnell:
"Why do Republicans Senators allow a broken down hack politician, Mitch McConnell, to openly disparage hard working Republican candidates for the United States Senate. This is such an affront to honor and to leadership. He should spend more time (and money!) helping them get elected, and less time helping his crazy wife and family get rich on China!"
Once again, Trump had zeroed in on another example of turpitude that long-time residents of The Swamp prefer to keep on the down low.
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