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Mitch McConnell still not cleared to resume Senate duties, office says
Kentucky senator has been absent and not seen in public since mid-June after he was hospitalized due to a fallUS politics live – latest updatesUS senator Mitch McConnell is still not cleared to return to work, his office confirmed on Monday, six weeks after he was hospitalized after a fall at his home.An update released alongside a new photograph of the Republican lawmaker – one of the highest-profile figures in Congress, as a former Senate majority leader – said he was undergoing “intense physical therapy” and is “working hard” to get back to his duties. Continue reading...
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McConnell Extends Senate Leave, Will Miss State Picnic
A new statement said the senator was not “medically cleared” to leave a rehabilitation facility and would miss a Kentucky political event.
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Mitch McConnell releases health update, saying he’s not ready to return to work yet
Sen. Mitch McConnell’s office released a health update Monday, saying he’s still not ready to return to in-person work after his June 14 hospitalization.
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John Oliver is back and he wants to know if Mitch McConnell is still alive
Late-night host John Oliver returned on Sunday night and his most crucial issue was to discuss the mortality of Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who has been in the hospital for over a month. While he rattled off the top headlines over the summer that he'd missed while on vacation, he said, "We are back, and we missed a lot over the last few weeks. A parasitic infection has caused explosive diarrhea across the country. Lindsey Graham died, and Mitch McConnell ...maybe didn’t?"The governor of Kentucky asked that there be some kind of proof of life as questions swirled about whether McConnell was still alive. McConnell's office released a photo two weeks ago of the former GOP Senate leader sitting in a hospital room chair next to his wife, pointing to the sports section of the Washington Post. In June, A 911 call was confirmed to be for McConnell, saying that he was in “cardiac arrest” and that CPR was being administered until EMS arrived. It also sparked a series of bizarre incidents that left folks scratching their heads. In the wake of the incident, McConnell's wife, former Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, flew to China mere days after McConnell was hospitalized. Upon her return, she was photographed by individuals outside the hospital wearing a long trench coat and a mask in 95-degree heat. Further, McConnell's staff claimed that he was physically fine, but after his month in the hospital, he was being moved to rehabilitation, which generally helps the elderly come back from such incidents when they can't return home right away. “My doctors have confirmed that I didn’t break any bones or suffer a concussion,” McConnell said in a statement from his office. “I didn’t have a heart attack or a stroke. I don’t have any tumors or hemorrhages. But I was briefly unconscious and was taken to the hospital. While receiving excellent care over the past several weeks, I’ve also had to deal with a mild case of pneumonia.”“I’ll keep working hard to get back on the Senate floor as soon as possible,” McConnell promised.The McConnell spokesperson told the Washington Post that he “continues to improve in rehab.”Meanwhile, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) passed away, and McConnell's office didn't respond to questions from Forbes about whether McConnell would be attending the funeral set to take place this week at Washington National Cathedral.Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear told SiriusXM last week that he hasn't heard a thing from McConnell since the June incident. "I haven’t heard a thing. Not an email, not a letter, not a call, not a video ... absolutely nothing,” he said. Earlier in July, Beshear said, “when you've been in a hospital for a month and you've missed all the votes, which is your job—I mean, basically, you're not able to show up for work, you owe your boss, like anybody else out there who works, an explanation of what's been going on.” Beshear requested that McConnell “call into a news station for five minutes, put out a short video” about his health to silence “rampant speculation” about his condition. - YouTube www.youtube.com
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Mitch McConnell Shares Second Photo, Says He’s Skipping Picnic
Senator Mitch McConnell’s office has finally addressed the lawmaker’s ongoing absence—insofar as it relates to his ability to chow down on some red meat at Kentucky’s annual Fancy Farm picnic.“There’s no place I’d rather be on the first Saturday in August than with the good people of western Kentucky, feasting on pork and mutton,” his office wrote in a statement Monday to the Bluegrass State’s Hellbender Newsroom. “When I first attended forty-two years ago, Fancy Farm was a pretty lonely place to be a Republican. But, my, how times have changed. Today, western Kentucky is a conservative Republican sea of red.“So I hate that I’ll miss the fun this year, but I’m sending my best wishes to the St. Jerome community for a successful picnic,” the message ended.His team also released a new photo of McConnell and his wife, Elaine Chao.The Kentucky senator has been missing in action for more than a month after he was found unconscious in his Washington residence and rushed to the hospital on June 14. For weeks, McConnell’s office has refused to explain his extended hospitalization or elaborate on his eventual return to Capitol Hill. The media blackout briefly ended on July 12, when the senator’s office shared a photo of McConnell sitting upright in a chair beside his wife, holding a copy of that day’s Washington Post sports section in his lap.A statement released by his office alongside the image, written in the first person so as to suggest it was penned by McConnell himself, specified that while the 84-year-old had not broken bones, suffered a concussion, or had a heart attack or stroke, he had dealt with a “mild case of pneumonia” during his time in the hospital.He did not offer a projection for when he might return to work, noting that he moved to a rehabilitation facility and is still “working closely” with legislative staff.McConnell’s team has not provided any further explanation or evidence supporting McConnell’s improving health condition in the weeks since, despite demands from his constituents and local lawmakers.On Saturday, West Virginia Senator Shelley Moore Capito told independent journalist Nicholas Ballasy that she had spoken to someone the day before who visited McConnell and said that “he’s clear-minded, and he just needs to get stronger.”
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