We Don't Believe You!

A photo doesn't calm concerns.

After weeks of not appearing, somehow the Kentucky senator officially releases a photo of him and his wife. It doesn't calm concerns.

Addison Mitchell McConnell, the 84 year old Kentucky senator and former Republican leader has released a photo which has him and wife, former Trump administration official Elaine Cho.

His press office claimed that he fell and suffered from pneumonia.

But the official 9-1-1 call stated an unconscious man. A photo of a motionless man in an orange blanket feet out. 

For an 84-year-old, a cardiac arrest requiring CPR carries an incredibly low survival rate, which makes the official claim that he merely had a "fall and mild pneumonia" highly questioned by critics. Skeptics argue that his office may be downplaying a much more severe cardiovascular event to avoid pressure regarding his fitness to serve. Conversely, medical experts note it is possible for a severe fall or a brief loss of consciousness to be misreported as cardiac arrest by a panicked bystander making the initial 911 call.

Gov. Andy Beshear gave McConnell a week to make a formal call before he defies the Commonwealth state house and appoint a member of the Democratic Party.

They stripped his appointment powers. He now will go ahead and consider a replacement if McConnell is too ill to do his job.

Beshear has publicly signaled that he is prepared to launch a legal challenge rather than simply yield to the state's Republican-backed Senate succession law. In interviews regarding Senator Mitch McConnell’s extended hospitalization, Beshear stated that if a vacancy occurs, he intends to look at his executive authority to ensure Kentuckians are represented, predicting "at least... probably a disagreement."

Beshear's argument rests on the Kentucky Constitution, which explicitly dictates that the governor appoints all state officers when an unexpired vacancy occurs. He has previously maintained that the Republican supermajority's efforts to strip away this gubernatorial appointment power and force a special election violate both state and federal constitutional provisions (such as the 17th Amendment).