COMMENTARY: We deserve the truth about Mitch McConnell
Seriously, this is getting weird. Is the Kentucky senator alive?
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By Christopher Flowers
Arwa Mahdawi of the Guardian, a British newspaper, said the answer to the question of whether or not Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) is alive should not be difficult: “The response is either ‘yes,’ ‘no,’ or something along the lines of ‘he’s on life-support but appears to be brain dead.’” Mahdawi continues:
However, while it may be a straightforward question, nobody close to the Kentucky senator seems keen on delivering a clear answer. On 14 June, the 84-year-old senator was hospitalized for a medical event. Almost a month later, McConnell’s condition is shrouded in mystery and the source of much speculation.
The mystery deepened this week when Trump ally and far-right influencer Laura Loomer made the explosive claim on Twiter/X that McConnell is “officially brain dead”. Desiree Townsend, an independent journalist who first reported that emergency services had been called to a house linked to McConnell, said she had “heard the same thing from my sources for days”. Townsend added that she was camped out at the hospital waiting for McConnell to be taken off life support.
Why do people think McConnell has expired? Let’s take a look at…
The CNN report
CNN pulled a journalism 101 and began knocking on doorbells. They spoke to neighbors of the senator.
From their report:
A neighbor of McConnell told CNN that they opened their door to find commotion outside their home at around 8:30 a.m. on June 14, with two ambulances, a fire truck and Capitol Police officers blocking the entire street.
Videos taken by the neighbor show emergency responders wheeling a person on a stretcher toward an ambulance. The videos are shot from some distance, and the face of the person is not visible. Once in the ambulance, the person’s lower legs appear to be covered by an orange blanket, but feet are visible.
Per the report, emergency responders brought the person out “about 30 minutes” after emergency vehicles blocked the street, and “the neighbor said they were taken aback by the person’s feet being uncovered in the video.”
More from CNN:
“He’s in a stretcher, and he’s in some sort like orange foam looking blanket type thing,” the neighbor said. The neighbor said they looked at McConnell’s feet, which were uncovered and — in a brief glimpse — were “not moving.”
The neighbor said while they did not see McConnell’s face, others on the block did.
“One of my neighbors is like, ‘Oh yeah, it’s Mitch, I saw his face,’” the neighbor recounted to CNN.
What is most unsettling is that the first responders did not seem panicked:
“In a situation where perhaps time is of the essence, there seems to be a little bit more urgency, but there was no urgency here,” the neighbor told CNN.
When the emergency vehicles left the street, the neighbor said their sirens were not on.
Additional reading: National Right to Life posts, then deletes message about supposed death of Mitch McConnell (the Washington Examiner)
‘Architect’ of Trump’s rise
Upon McConnell’s retirement announcement in 2025, the Hill examined his legacy as “the architect of the Golden Age of Trump, a political era that has profoundly reshaped the judiciary, emboldened extremism and deepened the erosion of democratic norms.”
From the article:
For all the analysis of Trump’s rise, the fundamental groundwork was laid not in 2016, but years earlier, in the corridors of the U.S. Senate, where McConnell wielded power with cold precision. His refusal even to consider Merrick Garland’s nomination to the Supreme Court in 2016 was not just a political maneuver; it was an outright defiance of the democratic process, an act of obstructionism that set the stage for the radical transformation of the judiciary.
That single decision led to the appointment of Neil Gorsuch, setting in motion a chain reaction that culminated in a conservative-dominated Supreme Court and the overturning of Roe v. Wade — a decades-long conservative goal.
McConnell’s refusal to convict in both impeachment trials was a “calculated decision,” the Guardian notes. “He denounced Trump on the Senate floor but ultimately ensured he would face no consequences for his actions. This was not about loyalty to Trump but loyalty to power. McConnell needed Trump’s base to continue his judicial project, so he protected him.”
Additional reading: Ranking Member Raskin Expands Query into Inconsistencies in Trump Health Reports, Failure to Release Cognitive Exam Results (House Committee of the Judiciary)
‘This charade can’t continue’
Calls for legitimate updates about McConnell’s health are now bipartisan, USA Today writes. The senator's office still has not disclosed why he was hospitalized.
Two GOP House members took to social media with their concerns:
Rep. Nancy Mace, R-South Carolina, drew comparisons to the public’s health concerns about former President Joe Biden, whose mental acuity became a focal point in the final months of the 2024 election, ultimately forcing him to leave the race.
“If McConnell is in as bad a shape as Biden ever was – or worse – he needs to step aside,” Mace said in a July 9 post on X. “This charade can’t continue. We can’t demand of others what we won’t demand of ourselves.”
In a separate post, Rep. Marlin Stutzman, R-Indiana, also evoked Biden in pressing for answers about McConnell’s health. He specifically mentioned Biden’s now infamous 2024 debate performance against Donald Trump, which resulted in the then-president’s startling exit from the race.
Gov. Andy Beshear (D-Kentucky) has asked for an update, writing in a letter to the senator that constituents are "increasingly concerned about the current state of your health and wellbeing.”
The senator is a polio survivor who has had numerous health issues over the last several years:
Starting in 2019, he had a series of setbacks. He tripped and fell at his home in Louisville, suffering a shoulder fracture. Things began to take a turn for the worse in 2023, however, when he collapsed at least three times, resulting in a concussion and a broken rib that eventually led to him using a wheelchair.
During that period, McConnell also experienced several events during which he appeared to freeze while speaking in public. These prompted further scrutiny of his capacity to serve. In February, he was also hospitalized for flu-like symptoms.
Additional reading: Where retirement goes to die: Inside America’s geriatric government (the Times of India)
Why lie about his health?
Mahdawi of the Guardian said that politics in the United States “veers manically between tragedy and farce, but it’s worth pausing for a moment and taking in just how ridiculous this situation is … why can’t he get in front of a news camera and tell his constituents that he is OK? You don’t have to be a conspiracy theorist to suspect that something is very wrong.”
Why isn’t McConnell’s team being more transparent? Mahdawi explains:
One hypothesis is that the silence is strategic because Republicans don’t want to risk a special election. McConnell is retiring from the Senate and his successor will be decided in a November election between Republican congressman Andy Barr and Democrat Charles Booker – with Barr widely favoured to win the seat. If it turns out that McConnell is unfit for office, Kentucky law states that there would have to be a special election to fill the rest of his term. This would be risky for Republicans because of how unpredictable special elections are. So, the thinking goes, they’d prefer to wait out the election clock.
Imagine for a second if this absurd situation involved a Democrat. Forget taking the high road, Republicans would be raising hell. McConnell himself would be doing whatever he could to turn the situation to his advantage. … McConnell has built a reputation for being a cunning tactician; he’s a man who has spent his life gaming the system. I don’t know what condition McConnell is currently in, but I wouldn’t put it past him to still be gaming the system from the afterlife.
Additional reading: When Are the 2026 Midterm Elections? And What is Their Purpose? (U.S. Vote Foundation)
‘250-year experiment has come to an end’
Sen. John Thune (R-South Dakota) is the majority leader, an important man whose word carries weight. However, he has lied and looked the other way so many times for the president, a 34-time felon, that nobody believes him. Thune said he spoke to McConnell and people still question if the Kentucky senator is alive.
How pathetic is that? That’s what our U.S. Senate is reduced to — nobody believes the current majority leader saying he spoke to a former majority leader. The president of this country destroyed all trust in our government, demonized the media, and turned on anyone who didn’t agree with him. This is what we’re left with. It’s awful.
On that note, I recently had a letter published in the Guardian.
Jonathan Freedland, a columnist for the Guardian, wrote a July 2 column titled “I used to revere the great experiment that is the United States. After Trump, I’m not so sure.”
The whole thing is worth checking out, but here’s a snippet:
On paper, the US constitution is a thing of beauty. But Trump has revealed its great weakness. Which is that it cannot enforce itself. For all its hallowed status – and it is revered as a sacred text in the US – it relies on people, mere mortals of flesh and blood, to do its will. And what we have learned this past decade is that the people entrusted by the constitution with its enforcement will sometimes refuse to do their duty.
Vivid proof came after the attempted insurrection of 6 January 2021. Trump was impeached, as the constitution required – but Republican senators ducked their obligation to convict him and remove him from office. In this second term, Congress has watched as the president gathers more and more power to himself, stealing it from them, and they have not stirred. They have been supine.
Freedland said to not “bet against the US bouncing back once Trump has gone,” but noted the sad truth that “the man who turned 80 last month has exposed a weakness in the country that turns 250. Now we have glimpsed it, we cannot unsee it.”
That hit me hard. Here’s my response:
Jonathan Freedland’s column should be required reading for all US citizens. It’s disheartening to see how people worldwide speak about the nation I have lived in for nearly 40 years. But it needs to be said.
The US has been destroyed by a wealthy class of oligarchs looking out for each other and their precious corporations, while the average person is left to – I don’t know – rot and die? The president truly does not care. Science is being ignored. Xenophobia runs amok. Division rules. It’s sad to see a mighty empire fall in real time.
Chris Flowers
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, US
I’d love to write a follow-up to this letter in 2028 after if we elect our way out of this mess.
Additional reading: COMMENTARY: January 6 revisionists are traitors to their country
. . .
McConnell released a statement on Sunday evening confirming he is, in fact, alive. https://apnews.com/article/mitch-mcconnell-hospitalized-fall-health-senate-d708e9a1f18763fbb961fd3879227ce3