Kentucky governor calls on Sen. McConnell to provide health update

Gov. Andy Beshear called on Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., to address the growing concerns around his well-being after McConnell remains hospitalized after being admitted just over three weeks ago due to an undisclosed health issue. Public officeholders make a commitment of transparency to constituents, so Kentuckians deserve a full update on the 84-year-old senator's health status, according to the Wednesday letter.

McConnell’s office shared few details after the senator’s initial hospitalization on June 14. Last week, an independent journalist published 911 audio indicating that emergency responders were called to McConnell’s Washington, D.C., home on a report of an unconscious person the same day the senator was hospitalized. The patient was never publicly identified, and McConnell’s name was never referenced in the dispatch call or scanner traffic. Public rumors swirled that the senator was on life support and legally brain dead, though these reports have not been substantiated.

Has anyone spoken with him? The office of Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told WORLD that Thune held a long phone conversation with the hospitalized lawmaker on Monday. Thune’s office described the call as lengthy and substantial, having covered several complex topics, including national security.

Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., also spoke with McConnell on the phone for about 20 minutes on Tuesday, Barrasso’s spokeswoman told WORLD. The pair caught up on the Senate races, the Graham Platner scandal, and a recent SCOTUS ruling, she said. The Kentucky senator was fully engaged and ready to return to the upper chamber, the spokeswoman added. Conservative commentator Scott Jennings also described holding a 20-minute conversation with McConnell and discussing the wars in Iran and Ukraine, according to a Tuesday statement.

Various political commentators appeared suspicious about the authenticity of the calls and released parody statements describing their own fictitious phone calls with McConnell. Ardent Trump supporter Laura Loomer mockingly claimed she spoke with McConnell for about 20 minutes about his spirit animal, the meaning of his wife’s name, and why she left the country after he was hospitalized. Acquitted Wisconsin protest shooter Kyle Rittenhouse claimed to have met with McConnell, and posted a photoshopped image of the pair with the senator being carried in a mocking fashion reminiscent of the film Weekend at Bernie’s.