WASHINGTON — It’s now been more than 40 days since Sen. Mitch McConnell’s given any legislative signs of life — at least believable enough ones to satiate his online critics, many of his Kentucky constituents and governor — but that’s par for the course in the senior-friendly confines of the U.S. Senate.
“What do you make of his extended absence?” Raw Story asked the second most powerful Democrat in the Senate.
“He explained it,” Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), an octogenarian like McConnell, told Raw Story. “For me, this makes sense.”
Welcome to the United States Senate, where an elderly colleague falling, being rendered “briefly unconscious” — according to the paper-thin statement McConnell’s staff was pressured into releasing in recent weeks — and then effectively disappearing for well over a month has been normalized.
It’s nothing new.
In the past year, the former Senate majority leader slowly started relying on his security detail to keep him steady. Then the agents became McConnell’s personal crutches, before it became routine to see him pushed through the Capitol’s marble halls in a wheelchair.
Mitch McConnell’s security detail help him into the underground tram car that whisks through the Capitol on Feb 20, 2025. (Photo: Matt Laslo for Raw Story)
While many of McConnell’s fellow senators continue to shrug off his extended absence, it’s a different story with lawmakers on the other side of the Capitol.
“If he can’t give us an update, he should resign. Absolutely,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) told congressional reporters Thursday. “It’s been very clear to people across Kentucky that his update was not sufficient.”
Sufficient or not, McConnell’s absence has hardly upended today’s United States Senate, even if he’s held up the appointments of some of President Donald Trump’s nominees, like acting-Attorney General Todd Blanche.
McConnell’s refusal to budge
Two years ago, McConnell stepped aside and passed his leadership suite and title to the current Senate majority leader, John Thune (R-SD). Publicly, at least.
Privately — or at least far away from cable news cameras — McConnell’s achieved almost omnipresent status in the Senate from his perch as chair of the little-known, if seemingly all-powerful, Committee on Rules and Administration.
Filibuster reform? If a lawmaker, like President Donald Trump, wants to upend long-standing Senate precedent and lower the threshold to pass legislation from 60 senators to a simple majority of 51, you’ve got to go through McConnell.
McConnell’s refused to budge.
Federal election reform?
Quietly stymied by McConnell. Or, at the very least, his team.
The Library of Congress?
Last spring, before Trump’s former personal lawyer was tapped to be attorney general, Todd Blanche was put forward to be the nation’s top librarian. That was a step too far even for this Republican-controlled Congress, especially for McConnell who, according to the Washington Post, “quietly” worked in the shadows to derail the executive branch’s incursion into long-established legislative branch turf.
Contested Senate elections?
Talk to McConnell.
Even the Smithsonian Institution and its 21 museums, 14 research centers, 21 libraries, one National Zoo and the roughly 157 million items entrusted to its care quietly falls under the jurisdiction of the Senate Rules and Administration Committee and its chair, Mitch McConnell.
McConnell may not be majority leader anymore, but that doesn’t mean he’s no longer one of the most powerful people in the nation.
In recent years, McConnell’s, basically, transitioned to GOP puppet master, and current Senate leaders know it.
“When’s the last time you talked to McConnell?” Raw Story asked the Senate Republican whip.
“Last week,” Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) told Raw Story. “Or a week before.”
“Is he doing alright?” Raw Story inquired.
“Completely in control of all the facts,” Barrasso continued. “And the facts that I hadn’t even known.”
Barrasso didn’t recount any of those new facts, even as he kissed what’s left of McConnell’s proverbial ring.
Kentucky’s other U.S. senator, libertarian-leaning Rand Paul, has never been counted as an ally of McConnell. If anything, over his three terms in the Senate, he’s been a proud wrench in McConnell and other establishment Republicans’ works.
But when it comes to Gov. Andy Beshear (D-KY) telling Katie Couric he’s “gotten two calls from different agencies, not state agencies, suggesting he’d passed,” Paul scoffs.
“All I know is what’s been reported publicly,” Paul said.
“Do you think the governor is playing politics with his health?” Raw Story pressed.
“Of course,” Paul said.
It’s not just Republicans. It’s the Senate.
“My staff talk to the staff”
What’s it take to be a senator anyway? On the campaign trail, contemporary politicians employ cunning teams, cutting comms operations and stout fundraising machines.
But, in contemporary Washington, each senator’s propped up by a like-minded staff, which is why McConnell’s extended absence hasn’t sent massive ripples through the chamber.
“Have you had any talks with McConnell?” Raw Story asked the senator’s counterpart, the top Democrat on the Rules and Administration Committee.
“No,” Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA) told Raw Story.
“Do you know what’s up with his health?”
“No,” Padilla said, “My staff talk to the staff. I haven’t talked to them.”
“Is the committee running at all?” Raw Story pressed.
“Yeah,” Padilla said.
“Just staff to staff?” Raw Story asked.
“Yeah,” Padilla said.
Padilla’s far from alone.
“I don’t work with his office too much,” Sen. Ben Ray Lujan (D-NM) told Raw Story.
“Yeah?” Raw Story asked. “But aren’t you on the committee?”
“Committee members can vote by proxy,” Lujan said matter-of-factly.
“I guess this is how the U.S. Senate is?” Raw Story asked.
Lujan shrugged.
“Republicans are having a hard time”
Contemporary Senate practice aside, McConnell’s absence is being felt, if on the other side of Pennsylvania Avenue.
“[Acting Attorney General Todd] Blanche’s nomination has been held up, because there weren’t enough votes,” Lujan said. “So yeah, Republicans are having a hard time.”
Medical emergencies are nothing new to Lujan who suffered a stroke at 49, but who also tried to be as transparent as possible through his recovery.
“Sometimes people need to get better,” Lujan said. “When I had my stroke, I was forthright with people about what happened to me. We had a press conference within days and I shared with folks where I was.”
While Lujan doesn’t defend McConnell, he does sympathize with his colleagues’ health issues.
“I was criticized for not having a press conference for three days, but we were waiting for the doctors to tell me what was going on so we could share that with everyone,” Lujan said. “And then when I did a press conference, I had my doctors with me, and they were explaining the technical aspects of it as well to all the people back home and I think we owe that to people.”
Lujan isn’t giving McConnell and his team a pass for their old school, close-lipped comms strategy.
“I mean, everyone has to make their own decisions,” Lujan said. “But people should have to share information, you know?”
The patience of Senate Democrats is lost on their counterparts on the other side of the Capitol.
“We have a responsibility to the American people”
Ocasio-Cortez isn’t extending McConnell much grace. She says the senior Kentucky senator owes it to his voters and the nation to be more forward than merely holding up a copy of the newspaper.
“I don’t know if he has a conversation with a journalist, I don’t know if he has a conversation with the governor, I don’t know what his staff is doing, but we have a responsibility to the American people,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
With razor-thin margins on both sides of the Capitol, Ocasio-Cortez says McConnell and his team owe America more than their lackluster proof of life attempts thus far.
“We’re seeing, increasingly, these votes are being decided by a one or two vote margin, and if you’re not capable of doing the job presently, we need to know if you’re capable of doing the job for the foreseeable future,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “And that, I think, is tremendously important.”
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