Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), the former Senate Minority Leader, has been missing for weeks after being carted out of his home on a stretcher. Despite two photographs purporting to provide proof of life, many skeptics believe McConnell has either passed away or is incapable of performing his Senate duties.
Now a former Republican presidential aide is claiming that McConnell (if he is legally incompetent) and McConnell’s aides may be well-advised to contact their attorneys, since any concealment of McConnell’s state could be considered fraud.
“Here’s my advice to the Mitch McConnell team: get lawyers,” Schmidt told The Daily Beast host Joanna Coles. Schmidt was an adviser to a Republican president, George W. Bush. “I think this is a fraud that’s being perpetrated upon the taxpayer and whatever statute is applicable. I think there’s a high likelihood that what they’re doing here is illegal. I don’t think that Mitch McConnell is alive… I don’t think he’s sentient.”
He added that he doubts that the recent photograph furnished as proof of life for McConnell is “real.” Quite to the contrary, Schmidt told Coles that “I don’t think Mitch McConnell’s walking out of the hospital.”
Dr. John Paul Garrison, a licensed clinical and forensic psychologist whose expertise is body language, recently argued that there are a number of “red flags” in the recent McConnell picture. He said that McConnell’s hands are out of frame, which could hide “edemas” or other signs of ill health. The pictures released of McConnell prove nothing that he is alive and capable of smiling, saying that “they don’t want you to ask any other questions; they don’t want to give any other information.” Also McConnell and his wife, Elaine Chao, both appear to be looking in slightly different directions.
“Once again, this is the best that they could do,” Garrison argued. “It doesn’t seem that they’re able to get him to be with it enough to take a decent photo.”
Garrison similarly pointed out that Chao seems to be pressuring McConnell’s arm to either keep him still or propped up while sitting.
“The amount of pressure that she has on his arm right there is not affection,” Garrison speculated. “This is not demonstrating closeness. This is demonstrating that she is providing stability.”
Finally he added that McConnell has the top button of his shirt undone which could indicate that doctors want that area of his body to be accessible, which is unusual for a professional photograph. This could be for McConnell’s comfort or because doctors want easy access to his chest.
“I think that tells you just how precarious this situation is,” Garrison speculated. “And to use the word I used last time, just how fragile he actually is. I think that McConnell is so fragile and so frail that they did some very, very subtle trickery to try to show some degree of liveliness. I do think that this is a very, very carefully positioned picture, and it doesn’t show robustness or strength. It just shows that he is alive, basically.”