Sen. Mitch McConnell may have resurfaced, but he still has a lot to prove before anyone can be sure he’s capable of doing his job, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear says.
An extremely frail McConnell, 84, reemerged in a wheelchair Monday, 92 days after emergency responders dispatched to his home for a reported cardiac arrest rushed him to the hospital.
The longest-serving Kentucky senator in history was wheeled out for another Senate vote on Tuesday and announced in a Monday X post that he would “get back to more of business as usual.”
McConnell’s statement offered few details about his injuries or treatment during his three-month absence, while leaving the door open to further absences. “I will do my best to be present for tough votes when our Conference needs me,” he wrote.
Beshear says that won’t cut it.
The 48-year-old Democrat told LEX News that while he is glad McConnell was able to make his return to the Senate, McConnell hasn’t done enough to settle lingering questions about his fitness for office.
“I still think he has an obligation to prove to the people of Kentucky that he has the capacity to represent us and represent us well. That means being able to come day after day, to serve on committees,” he said.
Beshear said Kentuckians deserve two senators who can show up and do the job and called on McConnell to explain what’s really behind his prolonged absence.
“We need to make sure we have two active U.S. senators. Now, he’s taken a step in the right direction. But it’s my hope that he will talk to the people of Kentucky, be straight about what he’s going through, what the expectations are, and that he can show us he has the capacity to be a day-to-day U.S. senator,” Beshear said.
McConnell’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
McConnell only gave a brief statement to reporters at the Senate on Monday, but reporters were not allowed to record his comments, and he did not answer any questions about his absence.
In his X post, McConnell wrote that he had suffered from a “bad fall” that led to a “long and often frustrating” recovery process.
The senator and his office, led by chief of staff Terry Carmack, who makes more than $226,000 annually, have not provided a clear medical diagnosis, any medical documentation, or a statement from his medical team.
They also have not explained why McConnell and his staffers, who have collected roughly $893,872 in taxpayer-funded paychecks over the past 92 days, failed to regularly inform Kentuckians about his condition and timeline for returning to the Senate, and why his office never produced a video or recording of McConnell speaking despite widespread demands for one.
And McConnell and his team have not addressed why paramedics had given him CPR before rushing him to the hospital on June 14.
During the geriatric senator’s disappearance, Beshear repeatedly tried to get in contact with McConnell and demanded that the senator film a proof-of-life video for Kentuckians.
But the governor’s appeals went nowhere, leading him to declare, “Mitch McConnell cares about his legacy, and he’s ruining it.”
