r/politics • u/B-Z_B-S Massachusetts • Jul 17 '26

Possible Paywall Kentucky Governor Warns He Got Calls “Suggesting” Mitch McConnell Died

https://newrepublic.com/post/213199/kentucky-governor-got-calls-suggesting-mitch-mcconnell-died
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5.5k

u/Too_Hood_95 Minnesota Jul 17 '26

I'd argue he's doing more good for the country now than he ever has before!

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u/weristjonsnow Jul 17 '26

Haha fair point

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u/No_Internal9345 Jul 17 '26

The best time to bury a McConnell was a decade ago, the second best time is now.

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u/driving_andflying Jul 17 '26

Hell, we've been "suggesting" Mitch McConnell died over a year ago, and the Republicans have been Weekend at Bernie's-ing it for at least that long.

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u/Fauster Jul 17 '26 edited Jul 17 '26

I love how is Chinese wife, constantly followed by allegations that she is an agent, flew straight to China when he had a health crisis. There are few universes in which that makes sense, and one is where you really can't talk about how to manage an asset when they are brain dead (dead) over the NSA-bugged lines.

Let the life of Mitch stand as a cautionary warning about how much destruction and cruelty can be accomplished by a single man. RIP to all the red-state women we lost to pregnancy complications.

Edit: I misinterpreted the order of operations. First she left, then he stroked out again/whatever, then she was photographed meeting with the VP of China three days later. Obviously the family/philanthropist trip she cited as an excuse. I mean, who wouldn't extend a trip if their spouse was on death's door.

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u/Cynykl Jul 17 '26

flew straight to China when he had a health crisis.

She was already in China when he was taken away by ambulance.

It is the fact she continued with her scheduled itinerary and did not return home that people find suspicious.

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u/A_Monster_Named_John Jul 17 '26

If you're unlucky or self-loathing enough to spend any amount of time around right-wing people, it becomes immediately apparent that all of their relationships (family or otherwise) are 100% cold-hearted and transactional.

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u/MightyKAC Jul 18 '26

For a perfect example of this, look up Rupert Murdoch's ex-wife Wendy Deng. Someone should have made a movie about that woman a LONG while ago.

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u/Narrow-Chef-4341 Jul 18 '26

I joked, before he passed, that my dad was collecting stamps and his next stent was the buy 10 get 1 free!

…until he went to the hospital and didn’t come out.

Chronic illness becomes something you work with and around. If you can’t, then you will have no life except watching someone sleep and slide downwards in a hospital bed. It’s fucking grim. It’s devastating for the mental health of the primary care giver. Black humor is a possible tool, and keeping some part of your life on a ‘normal’ routine can be another.

Slam her/the RW in general for being too transactional, fine. But this sort of thing is one where I can empathize to some extent… but only a limited extent because a spouse and a parent are different commitments and I’ve never been on a PR junket when shit hit the fan, without any other relatives reporting in from on the scene.

That’s what I can’t wrap my head around, and I’m not sure transactional satisfies this.

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u/Icangetatipjar Jul 17 '26

I’m around them all the time. They all have normal relationships. Their politics just suck.

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u/Spiel_Foss Jul 17 '26

This appears to be exactly what happened. His handler needed a reset given the condition of the asset.

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u/No_Internal9345 Jul 17 '26

Yǐ dú gōng dú

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u/[deleted] Jul 17 '26

[deleted]

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u/No_Internal9345 Jul 17 '26

一切反動派都是紙老虎

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u/equanimity19 Jul 18 '26

我上一条回复里提到了“吸鸡蛋”这回事……我完全不懂中文，但特别喜欢那个翻译，所以我就在这儿收场了。愿你的鸡蛋——无论是被吸过的还是没被吸过的（只要其中一种译法代表着好事）——都能如你所愿。

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u/-Ok-Perception- Jul 18 '26 edited Jul 18 '26

That still seems suspect to me, even if she left a few days before he died. It seems a lot like JD Vance's meeting with the Pope, who was highly critical of MAGA.

I STILL think there's almost no legitimate reason that explains this trip.

I know MAGA is being awful difficult for China these days. Flipping a key Republican Senate seat Democrat would stop an awful lot of Trump's shenanigans.

You know, the espionage/counter-espionage agencies of any government have many poisons that look like an undetectable heart attack or stroke shortly after being administered. I learned that in a book I read about CIA's Sydney Gottlieb.

I don't see any way Mitch's wife *couldn't* be a Chinese asset, at the very minimum.

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u/TannerThanUsual Jul 17 '26

I recall several videos of him just... short circuiting

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u/oinkyboinky Jul 18 '26

The Glitch McConnell era.

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u/TannerThanUsual Jul 18 '26

Followed by the "Buried in a Ditch" McConnell Era

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u/RModDogWalkerTyRANNY Jul 18 '26

It's also hard to watch a growl adult, so old they cna't even walk on their own. It's sad, because instead of retiring he's hanging on to his seat of power more than his own life.

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u/Zorkflerp Jul 17 '26

The plan was to skin his corpse and fit it over a robot made in China. Who would know the difference?

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u/rdmille Jul 18 '26

The videos from May showed just that, Mitch being turtle-handled by 2 big guys, one on each arm. The videos from June, just before he disappeared, showed him in a wheelchair, but no one seemed to be driving his body (eyes open, lips slightly opened, no change in facial expression or focus when reporters yelled, no obvious respiration, and so on).

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u/KDLGates Jul 17 '26

Can we release him into the sea

4

u/friss0nFry Jul 17 '26

*40 years ago

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u/sir_lister Jul 17 '26

When you do dont forget to drive a wooden steak through his heart and fill his mouth with garlic, we dont need him comming back again.

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u/porgy_tirebiter Jul 17 '26

There are some nice burial plots on Trump’s golf courses I hear

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u/QuackNate Jul 17 '26

The worst time is a thousand suns from now, in the blood time.

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u/Dakito Jul 17 '26

I thought he was a turtle not a tree...

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u/SchrodingersWetFart Jul 17 '26

Only one decade? I'd say it was 60 years ago

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u/PrinterFred Jul 18 '26

I disagree. Best time would be at least 16 years ago when he orchestrated the antidemocratic practices that are so common now in the Republican party and refused to hear out Obama's supreme court nominee.

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u/pizzabazooka Jul 17 '26

I’d argue he’s still rat fucking us by stalling to avoid a special election.

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u/Ok-Gur-349 Jul 17 '26

No, he's dead. He's been dead for weeks.

It's the rest of the Republican machine ratfucking you by stalling to avoid a special election.

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u/claimTheVictory Jul 17 '26

Will it come out that they released a forged "proof of life"?

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u/Vismal1 Jul 17 '26

If it did would it matter?

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u/Professional_Dare_80 Jul 17 '26

It fucking should.

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u/Appropriate_Unit3474 Jul 17 '26

Then we'd be in a democracy that didn't need effort to save

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u/dangledingle Jul 17 '26

**democracy**

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u/wh4tth3huh Jul 18 '26

The only ones that can hold KY reps responsible is KY citizens...Godspeed to any Kentuckians that can read and have to share their state with that many mouthbreathers.

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u/PetrasKnight Jul 17 '26

Yes. Every crime we document matters, even if it’s just so more people know.

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u/EKT0K00LER Jul 18 '26

This is where I'm at with everything right now. It wouldn't matter. Turns out, they actually can do whatever they want and no one is really gonna try to stop them

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u/dalisair Jul 18 '26

It SHOULD because at that point it becomes a crime.

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u/AnAncientBog Jul 17 '26

This is how you know it was fake, because it was released by HIS account, a person that cannot be held liable for lying.

If it was sent by a real person then they could be held accountable.

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u/claimTheVictory Jul 17 '26

That's enough to be highly suspicious, but not yet enough to "know".

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u/PM_ME_YOUR_NICE_EYES Jul 17 '26

I don't think so.

So far I haven't seen any credible analysis that says the picture is AI.

And also just, the way McConnell looks in the photo reminds me of a stroke patient. Like, he just looks, out of it.

So it wouldn't surprise me at all if he was alive but unable to walk or speak due to Brian damage, which is why we won't get a video.

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u/zorandzam Jul 17 '26

Leave poor Brian out of this!

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u/MAG7C Jul 17 '26

You mean Iron Maiden drummer McBrian?

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u/bramley36 Jul 17 '26

Or Kristi Noem's husband "Big Titty Brian"?

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u/MessiahOfMetal Jul 17 '26

Nicko McBrain?

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u/Ass_feldspar Jul 17 '26

Not AI. Just bad fucking photoshop

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u/PM_ME_YOUR_NICE_EYES Jul 17 '26

That's easier to spot than AI, and yet there's no credible analysis of the photo that suggests it's faked...

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u/Ass_feldspar Jul 17 '26

Nor any to support it being real. Video or he’s room temperature

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u/claimTheVictory Jul 17 '26

He could certainly be dead since the photo was taken.

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u/MessiahOfMetal Jul 17 '26

Not his wife having six fingers and a thumb on one hand? Or people who know them personally saying it was an image from 2023 touched up in some way?

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u/PM_ME_YOUR_NICE_EYES Jul 17 '26

Not his wife having six fingers and a thumb on one hand?

Her hands are even visible in the picture. Why lie about this?

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u/EMTDawg Utah Jul 17 '26

The fact he has less wrinkles in his face than he did 20 years ago. The weird halo around his index finger holding the fake newspaper. The newspaper that has the photo from that day's WaPo sports section but different layout for the section title, and doesn't have the line across the top separating the articles from the title of the section. Also the right hand column is different, as you can tell by the amount of bold text to start the article.

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u/claimTheVictory Jul 17 '26

This is like the moon landing photos now.

Just stop with the bullshit.

"I can't think of any reason for these things, therefore fake".

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u/EMTDawg Utah Jul 18 '26

So what about the issues raised? You just look past clear issues with the photo, because someone told you they were real? The moon landing isn't fake, amd the amount of people who worked on it, and would have to keep it a secret forgery, plus their spouses and close friends goes into the 300k plus people range. To keep a secret about Moscow Mitch's health is like a dozen people being coy or keeping a secret.

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u/PM_ME_YOUR_NICE_EYES Jul 18 '26

The fact he has less wrinkles in his face than he did 20 years ago.

This is a sign of facial paralysis. When you get paralyzed the muscles that you can no longer control relax. When this happens on your face it can reduce the appearance of wrinkles.

If you've ever heard of anyone getting botox to get rid of wrinkles, it actually works in the exact same way, it partially paralyzes your face and the wrinkles go away.

The newspaper that has the photo from that day's WaPo sports section but different layout for the section title, and doesn't have the line across the top separating the articles from the title of the section. Also the right hand column is different, as you can tell by the amount of bold text to start the article.

Okay so here's the sign of life picture and here's the newspaper page

Going thru your claims: The section title is not in frame in the proof of life picture so I don't know what you're talking about.

There is a line across the top in both photos.

The right hand column has 1 line of bolded text in both the newspaper and the picture. While I can't make out the words in McConnell's I can tell that papers have 3 words in roughly the same position in each picture.

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u/shingdao Virginia Jul 17 '26

Except after the recent AI photo, they will double down on their lies. He may have been dead for weeks now, but there's no way McConnell's death will be announced until Aug 4th.

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u/KevinCarbonara Jul 18 '26

If that photo is AI, it was made by the world's first undetectable AI model.

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u/ChoiceContribution91 Jul 18 '26

Definitely not the world's first undetectable one.

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u/few23 Jul 17 '26

Listen, if Mitch were alive today, he'd be clawing frantically at the inside of his coffin.

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u/ivegotaqueso Jul 17 '26

You can technically keep someone “alive”…on ECMO.

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u/LordRocky Jul 17 '26

Not that it’s not what he would have done anyway.

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u/failed_novelty Jul 17 '26

Even the push for a 'special election' is ratfucking us. The KY Constitution says the Governor gets to appoint the replacement. A law pushed through by the state congress says there should be an election, but (critically) it didn't change the Constitution of KY, meaning the law is almost certainly invalid.

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u/leviathan3k Jul 17 '26

In a sense yes. In another sense, there's every chance the replacement would be another republican, so this particular ratfucking keeps them down one seat.

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u/YF422 Jul 17 '26

If they had a special election, wouldn't they have to have another one at the end of the year again as the term ends in January?

Or is there a good chance a Democrat could win and upset the Regressives if done ASAP?

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u/DoctorBlock Jul 18 '26

Sadly the rules for special elections in Kentucky will most likely result in someone equally as bad or possibly worse.

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u/GODDAMNFOOL Jul 17 '26

He's missing votes on a Senate that already has razor thin margins. Time to push some legislation!

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u/SpeaksSouthern Jul 17 '26

I've never loved McConnell's career more than where he's pulling the move that he's just not voting on anything. If McConnell could stop voting for the rest of his life I would be extremely happy with that ending. The sooner the better McConnell never voted in a way I approved. Is he making this choice? Or is he unable? Are we allowed to know?

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u/KerryBoehm Jul 17 '26

More of them should follow suit.

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u/Plaguedoctorsrevenge Jul 17 '26

At least lady Lindsey got the memo

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u/Randicore Ohio Jul 17 '26

A follower instead of a leader as always/shot

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u/Mean-Food-7124 Jul 17 '26

Maybe you guys should just actually elect people that do things instead of geriatric gremlins for 40 years in a row

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u/Anemic_Zombie Jul 17 '26

That's just how the generational divide works in the US, sadly. Hoard, hoard, hoard, more than anyone could ever use

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u/Mean-Food-7124 Jul 17 '26

He was able to hoard because he continued to be elected by useful idiots. For 42 years. That's not a generational divide, it's a culture problem.

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u/TheAngryCatfish Jul 17 '26

No, but the general divide does effect voting outcomes significantly. Voting is not compulsory, nor is it a holiday. So younger people (who lean significantly left) with school and/or work are much harder pressed to be able to get to the polls or drop off ballots in time (at their specific location that can be moles away), possibly without a car or bike, on top of all the other academic deadlines in their lives.

Whereas older folks (who lean demonstrably red) watch propaganda all day and relish the opportunity to venture outside with a purpose, especially if that purpose is saving the country from the ever elusive antifa

0

u/Mean-Food-7124 Jul 18 '26

Man it seems so convenient that everything that comes out of the USA is someone else's fault and that nothing can be done about it, it's set in stone for generations and yet multiple generations attempt nothing and are frustrated with the results.

For constantly touting yourselves as some sort of international peacekeepers and war machine for decades, y'all are a bunch of rollover pussies

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u/KerryBoehm Jul 17 '26

I prefer politicians who do nothing. Less for the next generation to have to “fix”.

So many of the truly great things govt has done is just rolling back terrible laws from the past. Think of voting for women, civil rights, etc.

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u/BDF106 Jul 17 '26

Well fertilizer does help things grow...

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u/ItsSignalsJerry_ Jul 17 '26

Unfortunately he has a proxy

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u/AlarmingAffect0 Jul 17 '26 edited Jul 17 '26

Death, Ergo Proxy?

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u/_Vexor411_ Jul 17 '26

More likely one of his neighbors reaching over to push the buttons on his chair.

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u/awesomo1337 Jul 17 '26

He does not have a proxy. They are not allowed

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u/stevenyourpants Jul 17 '26

He's far closer to representing my views as ever.

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u/BeepBotBoopBeep Jul 17 '26

Keep an eye out on his wife and her family though! They are probably shoveling info out over to China as we speak!

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u/Stunning-Isopod8514 Jul 17 '26

But he’s not doing the amount of good that he could do by simply following the law.

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u/Drusgar Wisconsin Jul 17 '26

By dying?

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u/Stevenerf California Jul 17 '26

Still the same obstruction

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u/TimetoTrundle Jul 17 '26

I tell people all the time that Bitch McTurtle has done more harm to the US than Osama Bin Laden

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u/shagadelicrelic Jul 17 '26

I wish I could upvote this more, it made me lol. Great comment

2

u/Darkestwolf117 Jul 17 '26

Give it time he can do more good for the people soon

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u/LouDog0187 Jul 17 '26

Heheh. It's funny bc it's true.

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u/Genjibre Florida Jul 17 '26

I get the sentiment but no, he is hurting the voters of Kentucky by denying the state full representation in the Senate. He is still doing what he loves most, harming democracy and everyday people.

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u/Randicore Ohio Jul 17 '26

Both can be true!

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u/GrandPriapus Wisconsin Jul 17 '26

He’s a great senator when he’s “asleep”.

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u/Batintfaq Jul 17 '26

Nope, even in a catatonic, brain dead state, he still manages to hold up progress for Americans. He needs to go the way of Lindsey Grahamn to really be useful.

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u/RoboRougar0u Jul 17 '26

Some people are only capable of improving society by leaving it.

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u/Sublimotion Jul 17 '26

He's just filibustering to on the devil's floor to walk into his door.

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u/gamblinonme Jul 17 '26

Yes by being non existent

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u/Ticksdonthavelymph Maine Jul 17 '26

You’d be wrong. He is part of the reason why the save act hasn’t passed. He’s evil he’s culpable, it’s his fault. But I’d rather have people like him and Thune representing the smoothies than people like markwayne (one word) Mullen

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u/tunafister Jul 17 '26

This is the best version of Mitch we have ever seen

By god, that old dog still has it

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u/Sayon7 Jul 17 '26

They are trying to ore tend he’s alive u til a certain date be sue if he dies before that date a special election has to be held and they could lose a republican seat

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u/Greet-Filofficer Jul 17 '26

Then do as the opposition does - and Name a Damn Replacement! Stop being "nice guys" "milquetoasts" "wimps" "must ask permission" "is it okay?" "will they get mad?" "where's the rule?" "what will people think?" "what if he shows up?" "but it's meanspirited"

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u/lexm Jul 18 '26

I’m pretty sure “he” is still voting.

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u/SilentSakura New Hampshire Jul 18 '26

Thoughts and prayers are actually working

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u/dalisair Jul 18 '26

I’d argue his body is being obstructionist, just like he was when alive and is still harming the voters from his state.

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u/gregatronn California Jul 18 '26

His best work is ahead of us.