Elaine Chao has learned to keep her comments off when posting on social media amid her husband’s continued absence from Congress.
The former transportation secretary, 73, has limited who can respond to her posts on X as Sen. Mitch McConnell remains missing from the public eye more than six weeks after he took a fall and was rushed to the hospital.
Chao returned to X on Thursday to tout an award she received from the Aero Club of Washington.
“Honored to attend @AeroclubDC lunch yesterday to accept the Donald D. Engen Trophy for Aviation Excellence,” she wrote. “Grateful for a career in public service that enabled me to advance the safety and future of American aviation. Congratulations to this year’s scholarship recipients! #Aviation”
Chao followed up on the post with photos of her smiling for the camera in an all-purple outfit and a perfectly coiffed hairstyle, which is noticeably lighter and bigger than in her previous photos with the senator.
There were no comments under her post because she has restricted who can interact with her on X. A notice reads, “Only some accounts can reply.”
Her posts on July 3 and July 15 similarly had no comments. The last time her comments were open to the public appears to be June 21, exactly a week after McConnell was hospitalized.
At the time, Chao honored her dad, the Chinese-American businessman James Chao, for Father’s Day.
“Happy Father’s Day to my father! His many challenges in life give inspiration to so many others in braving their own lives,” she wrote.
But the comments had little interest in the actual content of her post.
“No updates on ole hubby????” the most-liked comment under Chao’s post read.
“Why the f--- are you in China and your husband’s half alive what are you? You need to be investigated!!!” another user exclaimed, in an apparent reference to Chao’s eyebrow-raising trip to China just three days after McConnell was rushed to the hospital.
Chao met with Chinese Vice President Han Zheng in Beijing on June 17 “to strengthen China-U.S. relations” in what her team described as a “long-planned trip.” McConnell’s health “did not warrant an immediate return to the U.S.,” her spokesperson said after she drew backlash.
Another user commented, “Why are you in China when your husband is brain dead and on life support? Time to tell the public that he is finished as a Senator to replace the traitor.”
A fourth one asked simply, “What is the medical status of your husband?”
On Monday, McConnell’s office released a statement from his unnamed physician, who said the ailing senator has “maintained a strenuous course of physical therapy and rehabilitation, including multiple sessions a day designed to rebuild strength and reduce the risk of future falls” since being moved from hospital care to rehab. It added that he was “not yet medically cleared to leave the rehab facility and return to the office.”
McConnell did not accompany his wife to the award ceremony in Washington, D.C. Neither did Chao reference her husband in her lengthy acceptance speech urging Congress to act on air traffic modernization.
