Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has been absent from the United States Senate since June, with many observers questioning his story that he simply had a fall and relatively minor post-fall complications. From Kentucky crowds chanting “Where’s Mitch?” to fellow GOP lawmakers questioning his absence (including Sens. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and John Cornyn of Texas), it has become commonplace for American political observers to wonder aloud why McConnell has not confirmed that he is alive and capable of serving.
Now the attacks are coming figuratively from inside the house — that is, his own Kentucky Republican Party. And the attacks preceded his June hospitalization.
President Donald Trump’s choice for Ambassador to Colombia, Kentucky Republican politician and businessman Nate Morris, slammed McConnell as “decrepit” and even compared him to former President Joe Biden, who infamously blundered during his 2024 debate seemingly as a result of his advanced age.
“Who here can honestly tell me that it’s a good thing to have a senior citizen who freezes on national television during his press conferences as our U.S. senator?” Morris told the Fancy Farms picnic in 2025, referring to an incident in which McConnell froze and was unable to answer questions during a press conference.
“It seems to me, maybe just maybe, Mitch’s time to leave the Senate was a long time ago,” Morris continued in the speech. “I mean, for goodness sakes, a lot of us here at this picnic talked a lot of smack about Joe Biden and how old he was and how out of touch he was with the American people.”
He continued, “So why is it that you all get so defensive when I talk about a man who’s older than Biden, just as mentally compromised and holds the same positions as Biden on amnesty, Ukraine funding, and his hatred for Trump?”
Despite being a fellow Kentucky Republican, Morris has long been an adversary of McConnell’s. In February Morris, a friend of Vice President JD Vance, described the future of the Republican Party by saying that “certainly, if you’re with Mitch McConnell, you’re not part of that future.” Morris had been endorsed in his campaign to replace McConnell as Kentucky’s senator by two beloved figures from the American right, Tesla CEO Elon Musk and the late Charlie Kirk.
In that same interview, Morris referred to McConnell as a “relic.”