Elaine Chao blocks protesters from Mitch McConnell, shouts: 'Why don't you leave my husband alone?'
While leaving an event at Georgetown University on Monday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and his wife, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, were greeted by students protesting the separation of undocumented children from their parents at the border.
One of the protesters, a Georgetown senior named Roberto, tweeted video of the confrontation on Tuesday. The demonstrators played audio of crying children in a detention center, and approached the couple as they left a building. "Why are you separating families?" one asked. "Why don't you leave my husband alone?" an irritated Chao responded. "Why don't you leave my husband alone?"
"I'm not trying to disrespect you, but why is he separating families?" another protester asked. "He is not," Chao snapped. As she walked to a waiting car, Chao pointed at one protester and said, "You leave him alone." Security kept the protesters away from the vehicle, and Chao climbed into the backseat, ignoring one demonstrator who yelled out, "How do you sleep at night?" Watch the video below. Catherine Garcia
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Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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