Mitch McConnell may have gone home but his office continues to play games with the public – as delivery provides a new “clue”! Mitch McConnell may or may not finally be back home after nearly two months out of public view, but the mystery surrounding the 84-year-old Republican senator’s health is far from over.
His team’s refusal to provide straight answers regarding his condition is getting more ridiculous and infuriating by the day.
Reporters gathered outside McConnell’s Washington home after he was discharged from rehabilitation Thursday, hoping to catch their first glimpse of him since his hospitalization. They didn’t see McConnell. What they did see, when the front door briefly opened, were boxes for a pair of motorized lift recliners designed for people with limited mobility. They use a motorized mechanism that raises and tilts the seat forward to help the occupant stand up.
Mystery Surrounding Senator’s Health Deepens
There’s no confirmation the chairs are for McConnell, and a couple of cardboard boxes are obviously not a medical diagnosis. Still, one can surmise that he must be alive, remains at some level of incapacity, and will need the chairs now that he is back home. More circumstantial evidence for this includes the Attending Physician of the U.S. Congress, Brian Monahan was spotted entering his house (photo, right), and later an in-home caregiver who arrived and amusingly asked journalist Nick Ballasy for permission to ring the doorbell. Good work, Nick. But the fact that this is the best evidence the public is getting after nearly two months of stonewalling is pathetic – and it’s entirely by design.
McConnell disappeared from public view after emergency responders were called to his home June 14. Audio from the emergency response reportedly described CPR being performed on a patient in “cardiac arrest.”
His office has never said McConnell suffered a heart attack. After weeks of questions, it claimed he fell unconscious after a fall and later developed a “mild case of pneumonia.”
Lack of Transparency Continues
The increasingly desperate effort to manage the narrative has been almost comical. We’ve all seen the questionable photos and the avalanche of funny memes, and the accompanying platitudes that he is recovering nicely and will be back at work when he’s ready, etc. The latest is he is home and will “maintain an intensive regimen of physical therapy” during the August recess.
That’s progress of a sort. He has a pulse. We’re pretty sure how he is out of the hospital. People are looking after him. But after nearly two months of secrecy, McConnell’s people STILL refuse to be transparent. An elected official of this stature owes the public more than cryptic photo ops and carefully worded non-answers. The games need to stop.
Accountability shouldn’t require detective work.