SerpApi.Org
Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear is getting impatient on Mitch McConnell‘s lack of communication with his office as a crucial August 3 deadline approaches.
On July 20, the exasperated governor gave an update on the conversations he’s had with the longtime Kentucky senator — or rather, hasn’t had.
“I haven’t heard a thing. Not an email, not a letter, not a call, not a video… absolutely nothing,” Beshear said.
“When you represent the people of Kentucky, and you’ve been in a hospital for a month, and you’ve missed all the votes, you owe your boss an explanation. It’s been reported that he’s had 20-minute conversations with different individuals, so call into a news station for 5 minutes or put out a short video,” he added.
He also said he heard from two unnamed agencies that McConnell had died.
McConnell, 84, has been in the hospital for over a month, and it wasn’t until rumors circulated in mid-July that he was secretly dead that he finally provided proof of life. He said he took a fall in his home in June that left him briefly unconscious, and while he was in the hospital, he said he developed a mild case of pneumonia. However, he did not provide a timetable for returning to the Senate.
He has not been heard from since.
Should McConnell die or declare that he cannot serve the remainder of his term by August 3, the state would have to hold a special election for his replacement until the November elections. Even if McConnell is still alive, Beshear, 48, could call the special election anyway if he determines it’s in Kentuckians’ best interest to have active representation in the Senate, but so far he has not indicated that he’s willing to pull that card.
McConnell’s team has been bafflingly tight-lipped about the senator’s health, and even set up a security perimeter around the hospital treating him, according to The Daily Beast.
It’s also been weeks since anyone claimed to have spoken to him. The last person to claim to have spoken to McConnell was MAGA pundit and former McConnell aide Scott Jennings, who set off a firestorm by saying earlier in July that he had spoken to McConnell for “20 minutes” on the phone. As of July 21, it’s been two weeks since he made that claim.
McConnell showed dramatic signs of ill health well before his current hospitalization. He fell in Capitol Hill on multiple occasions and appeared to freeze up for lengthy periods of time. He is retiring at the end of his term.
