Mitch McConnell's Wife Criticized: Minority Leader Shoots Back At Super PAC Accusing Elaine Chao Of Hating American Workers [VIDEO]

Mitch McConnell shot back at the Democratic super PAC that criticized his Taiwanese-born wife Elaine Chao of hating American workers Sunday.

In an interview with CNN, McConnell accused the super PAC Progress Kentucky of a "racial slur" for a Valentine's Day tweet about his wife that wasn't so sweet.

"This woman has the ear of [Mitch McConnell]--she's his wife," reads the February 14 tweet. "May explain why your job moved to China!"

Chao, whose family moved to the United States when she was 8, became the first Asian-American to serve in a cabinet-level position, when George W. Bush appointed her to the position of Secretary of Labor in 2001.

McConnell claims it's not the first time his wife Elaine Chao has been criticized

"It's happened before. The chairman of the Democratic Party a few years back engaged in the same kind of thing," said the Senate minority leader. "My wife is a proud Chinese-American. She was secretary of labor during the Bush administration. Her family escaped from the Communists in mainland China, made their way to America and have lived the American dream."

McConnell failed to specify exactly how or when Elaine Chao had been criticized.

Adding fuel to the fire, on February 20, Progress Kentucky retweeted a message from Twitter follower Beth Ann Davidson implying that McConnell made Elaine Chao's father rich and got his wife a Green card through favoritism, according to the Washington Post.

"[Progress Kentucky] yeah, how did his Chinese father-in-law get so much richer and how did his wife become a citizen?" Davidson tweeted. "And no Immigration reform? Hypocrite."

Although both tweets have since been taken down, Progress Kentucky has retweeted other posts by Davidson several times since.

"They will not get away with attacking my wife in this campaign," McConnell said to a Republican dinner crowd of 100 on Saturday. He added, "Elaine Chao is just as much an American as any of the rest of them," In fact, she had to go through a lot more to become an American."

Progress Kentucky Executive Director Shawn Reilly initially called the McConnell campaign's outrage at the tweets "an attempt to divert attention from the fact that Mitch McConnell has engaged in the selling of the American middle class overseas for decades," according to WPFL.

However, Reilly later apologized for criticizing McConnell's wife.

"In an effort to educate KY voters as to the varied interests of Sen. McConnell, we provided information about connections between the senator and business and government interests in China," he said in a statement released to CNN. "This information included an inappropriate comment on the ethnicity of the former Secretary of Labor, Elaine Chao, the senator's wife."

"We apologize to the secretary for that unnecessary comment and have deleted the tweets in question. In addition, we have put a review process in place to ensure tweets and other social media communications from Progress KY are reviewed and approved prior to posting."

The minority leader is up for reelection for his sixth Senate term in 2014.

"The race will take care of itself in 2014, but I must say it has kind of started early," McConnell said.

See the CNN video where Mitch McConnell defends his wife Elaine Chao HERE