NCS’s Republican political analyst Scott Jennings on Tuesday supplied an update aimed toward quelling the rumors swirling round Washington, D.C., about Sen. Mitch McConnell’s health standing.
Jennings, a former adviser to McConnell, stated he’d spoken to the long-serving former Republican Senate chief, who stays hospitalized.
McConnell’s allies in Republican Senate management keep that he’ll return to work, even as updates on his situation from his workplace haven’t been forthcoming. But already the senator’s critics have begun to query whether or not his situation is being reported precisely.
Jennings stated on Tuesday that he and McConnell spoke about a number of subjects, together with the brand new sexual assault allegations rocking the Maine Senate race and the evolving ceasefire with Iran.
“He’s still recovering in the hospital,” Jennings stated. “ I told him we want to see him back at work as soon as possible.”
On Monday, MAGA activist Laura Loomer waded into the dialogue. Loomer, a far-right conspiracy theorist with an extended historical past of creating racist statements and embracing weird falsehoods, tweeted {that a} “high level source close to the White House” instructed her that the Kentucky senator was “brain dead” and “not coming back” to Washington.
Loomer’s credibility points are well-known, however her connections to Donald Trump’s White House are equally as robust. She aided Trump in purging what she perceived as disloyal members of the National Security Council final yr, and was final noticed on the White House as lately as final month.
The Independent reached out to McConnell’s workplace for updates on his standing on Tuesday, as hypothesis was rampant on social media.
“Senator McConnell appreciates the outpouring of support he’s receiving while he continues his recovery in the hospital. The Senator continues to improve, and is working closely with his staff on Kentucky and Senate matters while the Senate is out of session,” a spokesperson for his office instructed information shops final week.
“Senator McConnell appreciates the outpouring of help he’s receiving whereas he continues his restoration within the hospital,” his office continued.
Shortly after noon, members of Senate leadership released statements claiming, like Jennings, to have spoken to the senator.
“Leader Thune spoke with Sen. McConnell yesterday by telephone. They had a prolonged and substantive dialog that lined quite a lot of subjects, together with nationwide safety,” stated a spokesperson for Thune’s workplace stated, in accordance with Punchbowl.
McConnell’s standing represents a highly-charged topic on Capitol Hill. Clearly in declining general health, he now recurrently travels across the Capitol in a wheelchair after a nasty fall on the Hill in early 2025. He not makes common appearances or statements at Republican press conferences, a weekly fixture on the Hill, and infrequently speaks with reporters across the Capitol complicated. Stepping again from management, he introduced final yr that he wouldn’t stand for re-election in 2028 — establishing a battle for his seat in deep-red Kentucky.
Paramedics who had been dispatched to his dwelling June 14 reported performing CPR on an individual in cardiac arrest, in accordance with dispatch audio obtained by The Washington Post.
At the identical time, nonetheless, he stays a sharp-edged political determine within the higher chamber. Post-leadership McConnell has develop into one thing of a Senate maverick, breaking with Donald Trump and the White House extra regularly than most of his colleagues and typically taking uncomfortable stances (and votes) which his successor as GOP Senate chief, John Thune and the GOP caucus use to ship messages to the White House.
One of these messages was delivered in late May, simply weeks earlier than his hospitalization. McConnell was current, together with many of the GOP Senate caucus, for a lunchtime assembly with Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche as the DOJ chief sought to pitch senators one final time on a $1.776 billion fund meant to profit victims of the Department of Justice’s supposed “weaponization” by Joe Biden — together with, critically, convicted January 6 rioters who attacked members of regulation enforcement.
That assembly was a fiery conflict between senators and Blanche, and afterwards it was McConnell who drove dwelling the Senate GOP’s opposition to forcing senators to fund such a provision in an election yr.
“So the nation’s top law enforcement official is asking for a slush fund to pay people who assault cops? Utterly stupid, morally wrong – Take your pick,” the former GOP chief stated on the time.
He additionally opposed the affirmation of three Trump Cabinet members final yr: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and former Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. McConnell has lengthy been one of many biggest thorns in Trump’s aspect throughout his political profession, but additionally saved Trump from public oblivion in 2021 when he opposed the impeachment of Trump after the January 6 assault.
His absence from the Senate now poses an enormous downside for Senate Majority Leader John Thune.
The chamber was already struggling repeated defections on key votes as the White House’s rift with the Senate over points just like the Iran struggle, the choice of Bill Pulte as Gabbard’s alternative, the “slush fund” and extra continues to develop. Further angering Republican senators, Trump has endorsed towards two incumbents this cycle, each of whom went on to lose their seats in Republican primaries. Such a transfer will imply that Republicans need to spend more cash and combat more durable to guard a Senate majority which most agree wouldn’t even be in peril had been it not for Trump’s antics.
If McConnell’s newest health scare precedes his sudden departure from the Senate, the scramble to fill his seat through particular election may very well be only one extra headache for Republican management as it charts a path by means of the midterms.