Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear demanded an update on the health of Sen. Mitch McConnell on Wednesday.
“Over the last several weeks, Kentuckians have grown increasingly concerned about the current state of your health and well-being,” Beshear wrote in a letter to McConnell. “I request that you update Kentuckians about the current status of your health.”
The high-ranking Republican has been hospitalized for more than three weeks, with his office providing little information on the senator’s condition or the reason for his stay. McConnell’s representatives shared the initial news of his hospitalization on June 14, saying that he was receiving “excellent care.”
Nearly three weeks later, audio of an emergency dispatch call to McConnell’s address in Washington, DC surfaced. In that clip from June 14, the possibility of paramedics performed CPR on an unnamed person experiencing cardiac arrest. While many of McConnell’s fellow Republicans claim to have spoken with the lawmaker in the days since, there’s been nothing from the man himself. Beshear said that McConnell’s office was failing the state by playing his hospitalization close to the vest.
“As public officeholders, we have made a commitment to our consituents to do our best to represent them and to always be transparent,” Beshear wrote. “I believe this requires clear communication about one’s ability to serve.”
Rumors have swirled in the vacuum left by a lack of evidence that McConnell is responsive, with far-right figures like Laura Loomer claiming that McConnell is “brain dead.”
“We spent 4 years calling out the Democrats for covering up Joe Biden’s mental decline, and now Republicans are doing the same for Senator Mitch McConnell,” she wrote on X.
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McConnell’s wife, former Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, released a statement on Wednesday. She offered few clues to McConnell’s current status, instead defending her decision not to cut a June trip to China short.
“The secretary was on a long-planned trip in China to support her family’s philanthropic endeavors. During the trip, she met with a number of people, including the US ambassador,” her office shared. “The Senator’s health did not warrant an immediate return to the US.”
