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The Editorial Board - NYTimes: Elaine Chao, Mitch McConnell and Questions of Conflict
Congress wants answers from the transportation secretary, wife of the Senate majority leader, about the apparent mixing of public and family business.Self-dealing, nepotism, conflicts of interest: Donald Trump campaigned on ending that kind of corruption in Washington, then, once in office, threw open the doors of his administration to it.
Beyond appointing his own family to high office, retaining and promoting his businesses and profiting from foreign officials and corporate leaders who developed a sudden zest for his hotels and resorts, Mr. Trump chose to appoint top officials who traveled expensively on the taxpayer dime; who sent an aide to buy skin cream and tried to arrange a Chick-fil-A franchise for his wife; who rode into office on a horse and was driven out under a cloud of multiple ethics investigations.
In recent months, yet another top official has drawn scrutiny over allegations of old-style conflicts of interest: Elaine Chao, the secretary of transportation and the wife of the Republican Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell.
On Friday, Representative Peter DeFazio, the Oregon Democrat who heads the House Transportation Committee, asked the Transportation Department’s in-house watchdog to look into whether Ms. Chao has been showing inappropriate favoritism to her husband’s Kentucky constituents.
Beyond appointing his own family to high office, retaining and promoting his businesses and profiting from foreign officials and corporate leaders who developed a sudden zest for his hotels and resorts, Mr. Trump chose to appoint top officials who traveled expensively on the taxpayer dime; who sent an aide to buy skin cream and tried to arrange a Chick-fil-A franchise for his wife; who rode into office on a horse and was driven out under a cloud of multiple ethics investigations.
In recent months, yet another top official has drawn scrutiny over allegations of old-style conflicts of interest: Elaine Chao, the secretary of transportation and the wife of the Republican Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell.
On Friday, Representative Peter DeFazio, the Oregon Democrat who heads the House Transportation Committee, asked the Transportation Department’s in-house watchdog to look into whether Ms. Chao has been showing inappropriate favoritism to her husband’s Kentucky constituents.
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https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/16/opinion/elaine-chao-mitch-mcconnell.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage
