Sen. Mitch McConnell’s health mystery fiasco has turned him into the very thing he once campaigned against, as one Fox News analyst unearthed a hypocrisy over four decades old in a new piece for The Hill.
Juan Williams is a veteran reporter and news analyst, known as one of the rare left-leaning voices at Fox News, where he has worked since 1997. As such, he is one of the few correspondents at the conservative network unafraid to speak out against President Donald Trump and the broader Republican agenda.
In his latest piece for The Hill on Monday, Williams observed that the “old cliché” of “What Goes Around, Comes Around,” had come for McConnell, whose extended absence from the public eye after a medical episode had turned him into the very thing he once campaigned against when first running for Senate in the mid-1980s.
“In 1984, a young Kentucky county judge named Mitch McConnell defeated incumbent U.S. senator Walter Dee Huddleston,” Williams detailed. “One key to McConnell’s win over Huddleston by less than a percentage point was a television commercial featuring bloodhounds searching for Huddleston. The ad noted that Huddleston was ‘missing big votes on Social Security, the budget, defense and even agriculture.'”
He continued: “Now McConnell is facing serious questions about his voting record. At age 84, McConnell has not placed a vote on any legislation since June 11, a period of over a month and a half. It may grow with the Senate’s month-long August vacation.”
McConnell has been absent from the Senate since being hospitalized in mid-June after being found unresponsive at his home. His office has since claimed that he is on the road to recovery after a bout of pneumonia, but many observers remain unconvinced, given that he has not been seen or heard from in over a month. Two photos purportedly of the senator alongside his wife have done little to quash the conspiracy theories about his true condition.
The theories have largely claimed that McConnell’s true status is being hidden until the deadline past which a special election cannot be called to replace him before the end of his current term.
“McConnell is not running for reelection, but the potential ad is key to an intense competition between the Democratic governor and the Republican majority legislature over who gets to replace McConnell,” Williams explined. “McConnell has missed votes on critical issues and on potentially on important nominees to lead U.S. intelligence and the Justice Department. At the time McConnell attacked Huddleston for missing votes, Huddleston was nonetheless present for 94 percent of U.S. Senate votes. The ad emphasized that he had missed votes on some critical issues of the day.”
He added: “The impact of his absence is amplified with the midterm elections approaching. McConnell is one of the few Republican senators with the stature on Capitol Hill to stand up to 80-year-old President Trump.”