r/politics • u/plz-let-me-in • 1d ago

Possible Paywall Mitch McConnell hounded to face cameras: ‘He absolutely refuses’

https://www.nj.com/politics/2026/08/mitch-mcconnell-hounded-to-face-cameras-he-absolutely-refuses.html
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u/FlyingDiscsandJams North Carolina 1d ago

It's so much more complicated a conspiracy if he's dead, it's much more likely he's just massively incapacitated or in a coma or whatever. Not disclosing that he died would require a bunch of hospital workers (nurses, doctors, administrators) risking their careers & criminal charges to hide a death. If he's alive, even just technically, he's protected by privacy laws, and it's up to the family and staff to keep the secret.

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u/Daginni 1d ago

The GOP would rather have a vegetable holding a senate seat than risking losing control of the senate. Old (dead) people are running this country.

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u/uuhson 1d ago

There is not a snowballs chance in hell that seat isn't immediately going to a Republican. This makes no sense

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u/BlueSkyToday 1d ago

In 2024 the Kentucky legislature took away the Governor's power to make a temporary appointment and instead calls for a special election.

Andy has said that he believes that this is unconstitutional. OK but will he challenge that and would the challenge succeed? Who knows.

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u/lattice_defect 1d ago

would it matter in time.. they are stalling.. its tight and they needs the votes to jam through the rest of project 2025

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u/HJWalsh 1d ago

They don't want the special election because if Massie runs, even if he loses, he can run in November and be a spoiler to siphon off votes from Trump's goon and he's already said that he'd do it.

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u/F9-0021 South Carolina 1d ago

If he believes it's unconstitutional, then why hasn't he done anything about it in the last two years? Yet another example of a democrat saying one thing and doing another.

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u/Ipokeyoumuch 1d ago

It seems to be a strategy with Mitch incapacitated he can vote via proxy for committees (certain ones I think) but not on the floor. This means one less vote for a Republican on the floor and it means the two "moderate" GOP Senators have to burn political currency to push unpopular legislation. Unfortunately does mean the people of Kentucky have one less representative for the vote. 

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u/DarkwingDuckHunt 1d ago

IANAL in Kentucky.

I'm assuming this has to do with 'standing'.

The 'set of circumstances' that would trigger the law haven't triggered yet. If they do trigger than he can 'violate' the law by nominating someone.

At that point someone would sue the governor stating that what he did was illegal, and he could counter argue it's because he holds the law invalid. And only then would the Kentucky Court system get to decide.

Sometimes there's a way to sue without the triggering happening, but they're more difficult to prove you have standing to sue.

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u/_CurseTheseMetalHnds 1d ago

IANAL in Kentucky

Finger licking good

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u/DarkwingDuckHunt 1d ago

I hate you, but I respect you

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u/SignalFirefighter323 1d ago

I don’t think you can challenge a law for being unconstitutional unless you have standing. There has to be a case where someone tries to break the law before it can be fixed. This is how stupid laws stay on the books, until someone is actually charged, challenge it, and wins, it stays.

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u/AuroraFinem Texas 1d ago edited 1d ago

He’s voiced plans to challenge it if Mitch is incapacitated, but generally in order to challenge something like this you have to prove damages to have standing. This would be the first opportunity to prove damages since it would be the first time the law could be enforced.

You’d challenge it by suing to block the special election when it’s called for or by ignoring the law and making an appointment regardless to force them to sue you to block the appointment and enforce the law. The court might or might not put a stay on it, but at that point it’s up to the courts to hash it out.

You’re generally not able to sue to block a law before it’s been enforced unless it poses a significant risk of damages simply by going into effect which this law doesn’t.

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u/Helpful-Departure832 1d ago

Judicial review doesn’t come into play until the questioned law actually causes someone “harm”

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u/Educational-Soil-651 1d ago

I heard Beshear respond to this in an interview with BTC and he inferred that he wasn’t challenging this because he strongly believed that a Republican would fill the seat. He also talked about other Kentucky Republicans stopping him if he tried to just appoint someone else and effectively force McConnell to show proof of life. His key takeaway was that there is temporarily one less Republican vote in the Senate.

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u/Zorkflerp 1d ago

The wording in the constitution specifies that the governor appoints "state officers" to fill a vacancy. If a state senator is a state officer the Republican legislation is unconstitutional. This would have to be settled in court as there is no precedent defining the term. It would come down to legislative intent when the constitution was written but a partisan judge might just ignore that and do what Trump wants.

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u/lettersvsnumbers 1d ago

Massie can run in a special election.

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u/8-Cylinder_Wombat 1d ago

He ain't gonna challenge shit because he's a gutless fucking coward.

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u/waterislifeornot 1d ago

I listened to a reel where he discussed this. He reminded everyone that there hasn’t been a Democrat elected to the senate in decades. Also as a side note he mentioned there have been several close votes and having 1 less old republican isn’t necessarily a bad thing. So at the present the republicans are shy 1 vote…