Beats the fuck out of me. The simplest explanation is probably that McConnell really is recovering to an extent sufficient for him to be personally forbidding his staff from being more transparent because he’s a power-hungry asshat and refuses to relinquish his grip on power, but he’s not actually well enough to do more than pose for one photograph per week. He likely has enough personal loyalty in the ranks to get the guys talking about the phone calls to lie for him. Hell, they might actually have called Mitch for 20 minutes and talked to (not with) him about all kinds of things, with Mitch occasionally moaning a bit in response. So, technically not lying about the calls.
That’s pure speculation, of course. But it’s more plausible than the idea that the Republican party is covering up McConnell’s death to avoid a special election that would most likely put an extra MAGA vote in the Senate till the permanent replacement is sworn in next year. The idea that Massie would be likely to win is just fantasy.
However: Should a journalist or someone not affiliated with the facility somehow independently learn where McConnell is being treated (I envisioned a rando catching a peek at Elaine Chao in a parking garage, then dropping a dime), that journalist or whoever – not being affiliated with the relevant healthcare facility – is exempt from sanctions of the HIPAA Privacy Rule.
While I haven’t gone through this thread with a fine-toothed comb … I don’t believe the house (present SDMB company, not the Gang of 435) has lately forwarded any of these theories in earnest.
Ack! @Moriarty , I overlooked the Hindustani Times link. Thanks for trying, but you know that doesn’t count. The Daily Mail gives the Hindustani Times the side-eye.
I’m not sure where you are getting that from but if his staff is comprised of “reptile people”, that’s a hundred percent more reason to go take a look, wouldn’t you say? Imagine you’re trying to get some proof of life for McConnell and instead you see one of his staff devouring a mouse. That’s a way better story!
Having said that, I agree with @Kent_Clark’s assessment here:
The front desk probably bounces all visitors up to and including Governors that haven’t been pre-approved. Still, I think it would be worth a try. But if McConnell wants to sit there and rot unobserved, so be it.
He’s deader than a doornail and I fully expect that they’ll announce it on or slightly after August 4. When people scream bloody murder about the coverup they’ll feign outrage that the Democrats are “politicizing the man’s death”.
Oh, yeah, definitely. But the original idea was along the lines of “You give a janitor at the place a million bucks to give the location, what’s going to happen to him?” Answer - a fine, legal fees, etc.
Did you miss the part where I said “proof that he’s conscious”? A recording of him saying anything would be evidence of that. A video of him moving his face under his own power would be evidence. A still photo is meaningless.
They wouldn’t be evidence for the people who want to believe he’s dead. “Oh, they put together old clips of him, and then used AI to clean them up!” The Hindustani Times cite quoted the TwitX posting of self-proclaimed Proud MAGA patriot “Gina Beana Fofina.” GASP! he’s wearing the same shirt he wore in 2025. How the f*** many sports shirts should an 84-year old man own?
I don’t think he’s dead. If he were, the doctors would have said so.
But his condition could be literally anything short of dead. And the absence of proof, even when it would be really simple to provide, inclines me to believe that it’s closer to the vegetable end of the spectrum than the recovering-nicely end.
I wouldn’t put it past them to try, but I think that if they did, it’d be with their usual level of competence, and they’d be found out.
The governor of Kentucky knowing whether the state’s senior senator is going to be away from the Senate floor for the short-term, the long-term, or permanently is entirely germane to his job and to the state.
That seems like the sort of mischief they’d enjoy. And it’s certainly true that there’s currently a lot of internet posturing along the lines of 'I liked Beshear, but if he can’t deal with this decisively then I can’t support him.’ (Just the sort of thing the Repubs would help along with a little goosing.)
That’s for sure. As has been suggested in the thread, Scott Jennings and his ilk would have no “ethical” problem with calling a number and talking for 20 minutes, and calling it ‘a conversation with Mitch.’ Being that their ethics are in the state they are.
It’s germane to his job in that there might be some kind of federal help his state needs where he’d rather talk to Mitch McConnell but now has to seek out Rand Paul.
It’s not germane to Beshear’s job to know the medical situation obviously making it impossible for McConnell to say if or when he can return to his U.S. senator job.