Following President Trump’s controversial news conference on Tuesday regarding the deadly Charlottesville violence perpetrated by white supremacists, on MSNBC on Wednesday, anchor Stephanie Ruhle and political contributor Steve Schmidt hurled a nasty smear against Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, who was present at the event for an announcement about the nation’s infrastructure.
Ruhle ranted: “We heard nothing from Mitch McConnell, whose own Asian-American wife had to stand there, humiliated by her own president. Why won’t these Republican leaders call the President out?” Schimdt replied: “Elaine Chao is a good person. She has served the country in public service for a long time. But now she will be indelibly marked by this, standing behind as a prop while the President gives sucker to white supremacist groups.”
He continued with his tirade:
She’s complicit in this, an enabler of it, and really now a fellow traveler with these groups if she doesn’t resign her office. She’s not in the national command authority. She’s not there just in case there’s an escalation with North Korea....But for people like [White House economic adviser] Gary Cohn, the decision that they’ve made obviously, if they don’t resign and resign soon, is they crave the power more than doing the right thing. You cannot serve honorably and morally a president who holds these positions. You simply can’t.
A short time later, Senate Leader Mitch McConnell did release a statement unequivocally condemning white supremacist hate groups: “The white supremacist, KKK, and neo-nazi groups who brought hatred and violence to Charlottesville are now planning a rally in Lexington. Their messages of hate and bigotry are not welcome in Kentucky and should not be welcome anywhere in America.”
In July, left-wing attorney Tamara Holder appeared on MSNBC to toss out vicious personal insults at a women who worked in the administration, including Secretary Chao: “I think that the women in Donald Trump's life probably have smaller minds than his small hands....He has continued to surround himself – Donald Trump – with very, very weak-minded women who are afraid of him.”
Back in 2014, as husband Senator McConnell was up for reelection, Chao endured racist attacks from liberals.
The exchange between Ruhle and Schmidt was brought to viewers by Volkswagen and TripAdvisor.
Here is a transcript of the August 16 segment:
9:32 AM ET
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STEPHANIE RUHLE: We heard nothing from Mitch McConnell, whose own Asian-American wife had to stand there, humiliated by her own president. Why won’t these Republican leaders call the President out? I cannot imagine those young white males wielding torches are going to get them elected.
STEVE SCHMIDT: Elaine Chao is a good person. She has served the country in public service for a long time. But now she will be indelibly marked by this, standing behind as a prop while the President gives sucker to white supremacist groups. And she has a decision to make this morning. She’s complicit in this, an enabler of it, and really now a fellow traveler with these groups if she doesn’t resign her office.
She’s not in the national command authority. She’s not there just in case there’s an escalation with North Korea like you hope Generals McMaster and Mattis and Kelly will be. But for people like Gary Cohn, the decision that they’ve made obviously, if they don’t resign and resign soon, is they crave the power more than doing the right thing. You cannot serve honorably and morally a president who holds these positions. You simply can’t. And so now everybody will decide what side of the bridge to cross on.
RUHLE: What if they made the argument to us, what if they said, “Listen, if you go back to the holocaust and you say those who stood idly by, they’re to blame while horrible things happened.” But what if they want to make an argument that says, “Behind the scenes, it could be so much worse. We’re trying to help.” I mean I certainly can’t imagine someone looking at the president of Goldman Sachs and say he’s martyring himself inside the White House, but is there any credibility to that argument?
SCHMIDT: No. There is some credibility with the national security team because the world is a dangerous place and we have somebody with no moral rectitude as commander-in-chief in the West Wing of the White House. But when it comes to people outside the national command authority, outside the decision-making process and the deployment of American troops, this is rather easy.
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