McConnell is selling out the middle class of America
Media Release – February 26, 2013
McConnell is selling out the middle class of America
Mitch McConnell’s campaign manager, Jesse Benton, has accused Progress Kentucky of race-baiting by retweeting a Twitter message that mentioned McConnell’s wife’s nationality.1
“Progress Kentucky strongly denies that the organization has engaged in any such thing,” said Shawn Reilly, executive director of Progress Kentucky. “Benton’s statements are an attempt to divert attention from the fact that Mitch McConnell has engaged in the selling of the American middle class overseas for decades.”
Here are the facts:
In 1997, McConnell pushed for trade relations favorable to China resulting in American jobs going overseas. McConnell and his father-in-law James S.C. Chao, who is president of Foremost Maritime Corporation, met “privately with Chinese officials, including Jiang Zemin, then general secretary of the Communist Party of China. (Chao’s father and Jiang were schoolmates in China.),” according to the Herald-Leader. 2
On November 9, 2006, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao formally thanked Chao in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, for his role in developing the Chinese shipbuilding industry "at a rapid pace."3
In January 2013, the Courier-Journal reported that eight members of the Chao’s family each gave $10,000 to the Kentucky Republican Party in the final weeks of 2012. 4
“When the Premier of China publicly thanks an industrialist for his role in developing Chinese industry, then that industrialist and his family contribute $80,000 to the Kentucky Republican Party,. it is fair to question whether McConnell is selling out the middle class of America,” said Reilly
Personally, James S. C. Chao has contributed $15,500 to Mitch McConnell's campaigns, $30,000 to the Kentucky Republican Party, and $17,500 to the Republican National Committee.5
Senator Mitch McConnell has a conflict of interest that many are afraid to talk about, and Progress Kentucky is not.
Progress Kentucky - The Campaign to Defeat Mitch McConnell.
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Citations:
1. http://wfpl.org/post/liberal-super-pac-goes-after-mitch-mcconnells-chinese-wife
2. http://www.kentucky.com/2006/10/20/197756/wedded-to-free-trade-in-china.html
3. http://www.cssc.net.cn/en/component_news/news_detail.php?id=7052
4.http://blogs.courier-journal.com/politics/2013/01/31/chao-family-gives-very-big-to-ky-republican-party/
5. http://www.opensecrets.org
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