After being called out by former President Donald Trump, his former Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, the wife of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., shot back Thursday.
"I think it is very helpful if the media does not repeat that racist tweet," Chao told "CNN This Morning" about Trump's Truth Social post denouncing McConnell and Chao for potentially being compromised by China.
"If it were the N-word, or any other word, the media would not repeat it," Chao, 69, who was born in Taiwan, continued. "But the media continuously repeats his racist taunt. And so, he's trying to get a rise out of us. He says all sorts of outrageous things, and I don't make a point of answering any one of them."
Also, in the interview, Chao denounced the "nightmare" before President Joe Biden's Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg amid Southwest Airlines' Christmas cancellations.
"What a nightmare, what a complete mess," Chao told CNN. "They obviously would wish that this would have never have happened, as everyone would.
"It is a complete nightmare," she continued. "It is a perfect storm of all the things that have been going on with the company, but the saddest thing is this company used to be a paragon in the airline industry."
The trust in the airline has been severely damaged now, Chao concluded.
"They need to get those reimbursements processed and repaid quickly," she said. "If they don't do that quickly, that's another burden and another barrier they're going to have to face in rebuilding that trust."
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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