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\n Photo: Chip Somodevilla\/Bloomberg via Getty Images\n <\/p>\n
It\u2019s clear that Mitch McConnell<\/a>\u2019s allies would really like to shut down the wild rumors about his health \u2014 especially Laura Loomer\u2019s claim that he is \u201cbrain dead\u201d and will never return to the Senate. On Tuesday, a day after the MAGA influencer made this morbid claim on X, three of McConnell\u2019s pals \u2014 Senator Majority Leader John Thune, Senator John Barrasso, and CNN pundit Scott Jennings \u2014 claimed they\u2019d just had lengthy phone chats with the Kentuckian.<\/p>\n Then Elaine Chao<\/a>, McConnell\u2019s wife of 33 years, issued her own statement and made the whole saga even stranger.<\/p>\n The 84-year-old former Republican majority leader has been in the hospital for three weeks. His spokesperson announced that he was \u201cadmitted to the hospital\u201d on June 14 and later said he \u201ccontinues to improve.\u201d There\u2019s been no official word on why McConnell was hospitalized or what his condition is. But an EMS dispatch call revealed that on the morning of June 14, an ambulance was called to McConnell\u2019s Washington, D.C., home because an \u201cunconscious person\u201d was in possible \u201ccardiac arrest,\u201d and medics performed CPR.<\/p>\n So, where was Elaine Chao amid all this health drama? Initially, it seemed like she headed off to China days after McConnell\u2019s hospitalization. A photo released<\/a> by the Chinese Embassy showed her meeting with Chinese vice-president Han Zheng on June 17 in Beijing.<\/p>\n However, in her first statement on McConnell\u2019s health, Chao said she was already overseas when he was hospitalized and saw no reason to cut her trip short.<\/p>\n Chao\u2019s spokesperson released<\/a> the statement to WLKY on Tuesday.<\/p>\n \u201cThe secretary was on a long-planned trip in China to support her family\u2019s philanthropic endeavors,\u201d it said. \u201cDuring the trip, she met with a number of people, including the US ambassador. The Senator\u2019s health did not warrant an immediate return to the US.\u201d<\/p>\n Press releases seem to confirm that Chao was in China before McConnell\u2019s hospitalization. Shanghai Jiao Tong University released a photo<\/a> of the former Trump administration Transportation secretary meeting with school officials on June 12. Chao also appeared<\/a> with Chinese People\u2019s Institute of Foreign Affairs president Wu Ken on June 16.<\/p>\n Chao\u2019s spokesperson said she\u2019s now back in the U.S., per WLKY:<\/p>\n They added that Chao has since returned from her trip to China and is back in the U.S. Her staff did not say if she\u2019s been in contact with McConnell since returning home.<\/p>\n It seems Chao\u2019s statement was meant to downplay the seriousness of McConnell\u2019s condition. Cardiac arrest? Brain dead? His health issues weren\u2019t even bad enough to derail her trip! But even if the most extreme health rumors are untrue, we know that McConnell has been in the hospital for three weeks. Isn\u2019t that fact enough reason for Chao to fly home early? She is not a government official, and it doesn\u2019t sound like she was dealing with an urgent national-security matter.<\/p>\n Even the governor of Kentucky is now asking<\/a> for more information on McConnell\u2019s health status. If it\u2019s really not that serious, why can\u2019t anyone in the senator\u2019s circle give us a clear answer?<\/p>\n