As questions about the health and well-being of Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell linger, a newspaper in the 84-year-old lawmaker’s home state of Kentucky has published a premature version of his obituary.
In a Wednesday column for the Louisville Courier-Journal, writer Joseph Gerth shares what he describes as his too-early “tribute” to McConnell, noting: “I figured I’d go ahead and tell you what I think about McConnell now — when no one can complain, ‘How dare you write that about a dead guy?’”
Gerth draws numerous parallels between McConnell and former President Richard Nixon, who in 1974 resigned amid fallout from the Watergate scandal, in his piece. While McConnell “is every bit the detestable figure that Nixon was,” he writes, the senator has “never paid for his sins that have damaged our nation’s trust in government, destroyed the country’s ability to have meaningful dialogue and cemented our nation’s politics as an arena in which winning is the only thing that matters.”
Elsewhere, Gerth praises McConnell for having “rebuilt the Republican Party in Kentucky,” and points to several of his major legislative achievements, including local infrastructure improvements and the 2004 federal tobacco buyout.
Still, he believes the senator’s legacy will be his “cynical and hypocritical manipulation of the U.S. Supreme Court confirmation process,” referring to the senator’s success in blocking Merrick Garland’s Supreme Court nomination in 2016, as well as his embrace of President Donald Trump as a way “to protect and increase his own political power.”
“Even when Trump said racist things about McConnell’s wife, former Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, McConnell continued to bend his knee,” he writes. “And that is the legacy of Mitch McConnell.”
“Whew! I’m glad I got that off my chest while he’s still alive,” he later concludes.
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McConnell has not made any public appearances since June 14, when he was admitted to the hospital, and has not voted in the Senate since June 11. In the weeks since then, speculation about the reasons for his hospitalization has intensified among fellow lawmakers and in the media, no doubt amplified by the July 11 death of Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) at age 71.
A day after Graham’s passing, McConnell’s office broke its silence by releasing a photo on X showing the senator in what appeared to be a hospital bed alongside Chao, who was seated beside him. In an accompanying statement, McConnell said he’d landed in the hospital after a fall, but didn’t specify where or when it had taken place.
“My doctors have confirmed that I didn’t break any bones or suffer a concussion. I didn’t have a heart attack or a stroke. I don’t have any tumors or hemorrhages,” he explained. “But I was briefly unconscious and was taken to the hospital. While receiving excellent care over the past several weeks, I’ve also had to deal with a mild case of pneumonia.”
He added, “I’ll keep working hard to get back on the Senate floor as soon as possible. And I’ll keep you posted on the progress of my recovery. Until then, I’m so grateful for your prayers and well wishes.”
The post also included a statement attributed to McConnell’s attending physician. “The remainder of his hospital stay focused on physical therapy and strategies to reduce his risk of future falls,” the statement read. “He has been medically cleared to continue fully participating in his intensive physical therapy program.”
The image and statements have seemingly done little to quash the ongoing chatter ― much of it predictably littered with snark ― regarding McConnell’s condition. Earlier this week, Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) publicly pressed for more transparency.
“Somebody needs to do something. Somebody needs to come out and put a little video out,” he told reporter Nicholas Ballasy on Tuesday. “We didn’t get any information today in our [Senate GOP] luncheon. I don’t know why, what’s going on, but that’s not my business; that’s the leadership’s business, and we wish him well.”