Sen. Mitch McConnell’s (R-Kentucky) last public appearance in the U.S. Senate was on June 11, when he took part in a roll call vote. And according to the Daily Beast, Wednesday, September 2 marks a “disturbing new milestone” for the 84-year-old GOP senator: “80 days since he was rushed to the hospital on June 14” and “nearly a month since the Republican’s team last provided an update on his recovery.”
A long list of political figures, from conservatives to Democratic Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, have been sounding the alarm about McConnell’s extended absence from the Senate — arguing that his office needs to be much more transparent about his health. Daily Beast reporters Sarah Ewall-Wice and Farrah Tomazin note that McConnell’s “prolonged vanishing act fueled rampant speculation and sparked outrage among critics.”
“The extraordinary cover-up has become the talk of Congress, with confusion growing over why the veteran lawmaker has insisted on keeping his Kentucky constituents and his party in the dark,” Ewall-Wice and Tomazin explain. “He’s been missing roughly the same number of days the House has been in session for the entire year. And this is at a time when Republicans are holding onto a narrow majority in the Senate, where every vote counts.”
The Daily Beast reporters add, “The former Republican Senate leader has already missed 60 votes in Congress since his hospitalization, on everything from a war powers resolution on Iran and policies on housing affordability, to the confirmation of new Attorney General Todd Blanche.”
According to a statement from McConnell’s office, the 84-year-old senator was released from a rehabilitation center on August 6. But Ewall-Wice and Tomazin stress that “his team has offered no new information about how the senator is doing since then.”
“While the Senate has been in recess since August 8,” the Beast reporters explain, “McConnell’s office has not said if he will return with his colleagues when they arrive back in Washington in just under two weeks. Ahead of the 80-day mark of his disappearance from public view, his office also did not respond to the Daily Beast’s questions about his recovery or how he’s been spending his days. However, the Daily Beast visited his Washington, D.C., residence this week and observed a security detail — three unmarked SUVs with tinted windows — parked outside his home, along with two marked Capitol Police cars and officers at each end of his street.”
Ewall-Wice and Tomazin continue, “Most of the curtains in the house were drawn, although a first-floor window was open — and there was no mail piled up outside, as there had been when McConnell was in hospital prior to his release. The last image of McConnell was released by his team more than a month ago on July 27. It remains one of just two similar images released by his office since he vanished from public view more than two months ago.”