US senator Mitch McConnell on Sunday revealed for the first time that a fall led to his hospitalization, breaking the silence about the Kentucky Republican’s condition after weeks of mounting speculation about his health.
The statement included a smiling picture of McConnell with his wife, Elaine Chao, a tacit response to speculation online that he had died or was incapacitated. McConnell held a copy of Sunday’s Washington Post sports section in his hand.
Or, you know, McConnell himself could readily put all the whispers to rest.
It’s not like reporters have never interviewed someone in a hospital before, and if he really did talk with all those Republicans that swear he did in the last few days, twenty minutes at a time apparently, then he should have enough stamina to issue a few words to the public personally. If he can sit in a chair, he can sit in a wheelchair.
This is not live. It is a still, posed photograph issued by McConnell’s office along with a written press release, which would have been fine in say 1876, but technology has moved forward. Why the leap backward?
When a sitting Senator who is facing the possibility of a special election because everyone, including his own state’s governor, thinks his seat is probably vacant, I don’t think it’s too much to ask that he say a few words to his constituents, LIVE, in a publicly verifiable manner.
He was barely presentable in front of a camera before this happened. Obviously he’s in rough shape and they don’t want to reveal how rough.