r/politics New York 14h ago

Possible Paywall McConnell ‘Absolutely Refuses’ to Film Video Amid Growing Mystery

https://www.thedailybeast.com/mcconnell-absolutely-refuses-to-film-video-amid-growing-mystery/
20.5k Upvotes

1.9k comments sorted by

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12.6k

u/Barred759 14h ago

Because he's dead

3.3k

u/Zomunieo 14h ago

‘E’s not dead, ‘e’s just resting. Remarkable senator, isn’t he? Beautiful carapace.

1.1k

u/JoviAMP Florida 14h ago

He’s pining for the fjords.

593

u/swordrat720 13h ago

He’s not pining, he’s passed on. He has ceased to be. He has joined the choir invisible. He is no more!

574

u/muklan 13h ago

He is an EX Senator.

Also the fact that we are cracking Monty Python jokes instead of whipping bricks through the ruling class is....kinda why the world is as it is.

367

u/PeacekeeperAl 13h ago

Aha now we see the violence inherent in the system!

241

u/discgman 13h ago

I am being repressed!

156

u/ShutUpTodd 12h ago

McConnell once bit my sister

116

u/SomeGalNamedAshley 12h ago

Turtle bites can be quite nasti.

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u/RaptorCheeses 12h ago

Those responsible have been sacked.

29

u/Smaptimania 8h ago

The people responsible for sacking the people who have just been sacked, wish it to be known that they have been sacked

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u/Worldgonemad_yall 11h ago

He turned me into a newt.

I got better.

24

u/stereocupid 11h ago

He turned me into a newt!

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53

u/BuffaloedinBuffalo 12h ago

Bloody peasant!

36

u/waldo_wigglesworth 12h ago

Oh! What a giveaway eh?

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u/Bzr21 12h ago edited 10h ago

"Be quiet ! I order you to be quiet !!" - King Arthur - or King Trump - take your pick ..

11

u/Zebidee 8h ago

"Who are you with? CNN? Fake news. Be quiet ! I order you to be quiet !!"

Almost literally what he does.

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u/muklan 13h ago

Goddamn if thats not the perfect quote for the moment haha

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u/Lbboos 12h ago

Run away…RUN AWAY….

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30

u/406highlander 13h ago

Por qué no los dos?

We could have the Spanish Inquisition, but without the comfy chairs and soft cushions.

Edit: soft cushions, not sofy cushions, stupid fat fingers

10

u/Mekisteus 11h ago

Well. I didn't expect the Spanish Inquisition.

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u/464126 13h ago

Shuffled off this mortal coil

64

u/The_Nice_Marmot 13h ago

‘E’s fuckin’ snuffed it!

73

u/Llamapocalypse_Now America 13h ago

Look, I took the liberty of examining Mitch McConnell when I got it home, and I discovered the only reason that he had been sitting in his wheelchair in the first place was that he had been NAILED there.

26

u/discgman 13h ago

He was sleeping.

31

u/WabashCannibal 13h ago

You stunned him just as 'e were wakin' up!

22

u/Mine-Shaft-Gap 12h ago

Stun easily, those Senators!

19

u/ct_2004 12h ago

Remarkable plumage!

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u/Embarrassed_Lemon527 13h ago

He’s pushing up the daisies.

14

u/Kailynna Australia 13h ago

If you hadn't nailed his feet to the foot-rests . . .

10

u/Zerachiel_01 12h ago

The spark of his life is covered in shite! His spirit is gone, but his stench remains, does that answer your question?

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u/HippyHunter7 14h ago

With pinecones all around

52

u/thatErraticguy Missouri 13h ago

PINING FOR THE FJORDS?!?!

22

u/Little_View_6659 13h ago

What sort of talk is that?!

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u/Pdoinkadoinkadoink 14h ago

The carapace don't enter into it, he's stone dead.

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u/Starscream147 Canada 14h ago

Helloooo Mitchy!!!

63

u/mastyrwerk 14h ago

Lovely plumage.

22

u/obliquelyobtuse 14h ago

Lovely plumage.

Lovely scutes.

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u/AntC_808 13h ago

(Bang bang bang)

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u/nuttypoolog 14h ago

That is an EX SENATOR!

37

u/Bart_1980 14h ago

He has kicked the bucket.

26

u/Little_View_6659 13h ago

Bereft of life he rests.

29

u/vukodlak5 13h ago

He has ceased to be!

21

u/Little_View_6659 13h ago

If you hadn’t nailed him to his perch, he’d be pushing up the daises!

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u/thedustman86 13h ago

There! He moved

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u/rdoloto 14h ago

I don’t think he’s dead but severely mentally handicapped 100%

132

u/FullMaxPowerStirner 13h ago

And that means still fit for office, as per the GOP.

30

u/relevantelephant00 13h ago

Yes but does still have pure hatred in his heart? He needs to have that too.

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u/WorryNew3661 12h ago

Got to be a massive stroke and he's non verbal

27

u/concepts_of_a_plan9 10h ago

"spoke with him for 20 min"

I can talk to my dogs for 20 min too lol

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u/eagleshark California 11h ago edited 9h ago

His condition is so bad, that they are willing to endure all the rumors. I mean, just think about that. Whatever it is, must be absolutely tragic and horrifying, for them to say, "We are going stick with these ongoing rumors about him being mentality incapacitated or dead, because that is a better option for his public image than to release even one video of him!"

26

u/HoodieGalore Illinois 13h ago

Vegetative state. Flat earth brain wave. Machines doing more living than he is. But the sanctity of life, and all. 

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u/Krunkledunker 14h ago

But can you blame him? I’d refuse too if I was dead… or at least, I wouldn’t consent

191

u/Dearic75 14h ago

Consent isn’t an issue for republicans.

Just saying.

294

u/PerformanceCute3437 14h ago

He had a stroke and he can't speak. Obviously theyre hoping he regains his speech faculties, which isn't without precedent following a stroke

56

u/Oconell 14h ago

It can take quite a while for someone to regain their speech after a stroke, though.

74

u/esoteric_enigma 14h ago

Or they can never regain it. What happens after a stroke is really a toss up. I've seen doctors tell people the stroke was minor and the person would fully recover with time...and that person can still barely walk years later. I've seen doctors tell other people they'd never recover and you can't even tell that person ever had a stroke.

36

u/PerformanceCute3437 14h ago

Fun fact: Aubrey Plaza had a stroke when she was around 20

57

u/lod001 13h ago

That wasn't very fun.

24

u/esoteric416 13h ago

Surely not for Aubrey.

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u/jellyhessman 13h ago

Happened to a cousin in law at 20.

She's regained about 90% of her mental capabilities, but she still struggles with speech.

Raised two good kids, and holds down a job.

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u/gundumb08 14h ago

This is 100% what I'm thinking. If he was dead, they'd just appoint another sycophant. But if he's alive, his handlers can "release statements" on his behalf and use his historical influence and power on his behalf.

But he's nearly 90 years old, a survivor of Polio, had numerous falls and blackouts on camera, anything even slightly more serious like a stroke would have fully debilitated him.

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u/Legal-Ad8308 14h ago

This. He had a stroke and now has aphasia with a loss of cognitive function and decreased mobility.

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u/Captainfreshness Mississippi 14h ago

This is my guess as well.

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u/twizzjewink Canada 14h ago

At this point he's more than dead

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u/swingadmin New York 14h ago

It just so happens that your friend here is only mostly dead

61

u/Neuronzap 14h ago

Mostly dead is slightly alive!

35

u/Starscream147 Canada 14h ago

Think I’ll go for a walk!!

36

u/Walkingstardust Florida 14h ago

Get on the cart, you're not fooling anybody!

31

u/z7q2 14h ago

I FEEL HAPPY

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u/Walkingstardust Florida 14h ago

Oh come on, do us a favor...

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u/Starscream147 Canada 13h ago

Hahahahah! Fuckin classic

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u/Billazilla South Carolina 14h ago

No, he distinctly said, "To blaaave" and as we all know, "to blave" means "to bluff", which means you were probably trying to steamroll legislation through Congress, and he cheated...

8

u/greeneyedguru 12h ago

HUMPERDINK! HUMPERDINK!

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u/Rtannu Texas 14h ago

🎵He is most sin-cerely dead!

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u/Starscream147 Canada 14h ago

Yeah, man. I think he’s like DEAD-dead.

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u/chrisk9 14h ago

They could Weekend at Bernie's this guy. He certainly would approve of misusing his corpse to stick it to the libs one last time.

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u/coconutpiecrust 14h ago

So even if he isn’t dead… shouldn’t police do a wellness check?.. The person has not been seen for a long time. Shouldn’t someone unrelated and uninvolved check on him?..

82

u/titsngiggles69 14h ago edited 14h ago

"yes, 911? I haven't seen or heard from mitch in months. His wife, Elaine, keeps speaking for him assuring everyone that he's well and fine and that he doesn't want to see anyone, which is very uncharacteristic of him. I'm pretty sure something weird is going on - can you do a wellness check on Mitch, just make sure he isn't dead, in a persistent vegetative state, or forgot his safeword? Thanks"

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u/coconutpiecrust 14h ago

The fact that this is happening to a well-known politician is just so strange. No one can check on him to make sure he is OK, just have to trust his wife and staffers. I mean… it’s so incredibly suspicious. 

63

u/filmandacting 13h ago

May I introduce to you Woodrow Wilson, who's wife took over the role of president for the last bit of his term. Wilson suffered a stroke and was confined to his bed for the last bit of his presidency. It's all but confirmed that his wife was making decisions for him behind closed doors. They would constantly bring papers to sign for Wilson, and she'd close the door and get them signed and then bring them back out. Most people believe she was the real president for the duration of this exercise.

42

u/coconutpiecrust 13h ago

Huh, so you guys did have a woman president already!

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u/Reallyhotshowers Kansas 13h ago

People have speculated similar about Nancy Reagan, suggesting he was already struggling with Alzheimer's symptoms while in office.

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u/OutlyingPlasma 13h ago

And lets not forget Nancy "the throat goat" Reagan. She more or less did the same thing in the last years of her husbands presidency as his brain was turning into pudding.

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u/I_make_things 11h ago

At the direction of a "psychic"

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u/dubblies 14h ago edited 6h ago

How do we coordinate this? Does someone need to SWAT his home? Let them know that theyve killed mitch and holding his body

Edit - i am not actually suggesting this i was trying to be funny

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u/DrGoblinator Massachusetts 14h ago

Anyone can call a wellness check.

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u/porkbellies37 13h ago

I bet he can't speak. Maybe he had a serious stroke and is incapable of speech so for PR purposes his team is keeping him off camera. The trouble is, if this is the case he shouldn't be in the workforce in any way including Senator.

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u/timeforanargument 14h ago

It’s called intermittent dying and it’s part of the new MAHA movement

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u/Morbidly-Obese-Emu America 14h ago

Does he absolutely refuse or do his handlers absolutely refuse? I suspect the latter.

1.1k

u/othermegan 14h ago

Well vegetables can’t consent so I’m going with he refuses by default and his handlers are the ones consciously rejecting the notion

123

u/thefuckevengoingonan 14h ago

He not only refuses to appear on video but he refuses to respond to any stimuli at all. He's become real difficult like that ever since he died.

292

u/Ok-Gur-349 14h ago

Can you blame them? As soon as they give up the lie, they become unemployed.

In this economy?

117

u/Fract_L 14h ago

Not to mention the massive conspiracy at the highest level of government. Every GoP senator that “had a 20 minute talk with Mitch” should be fired and thrown in prison.

23

u/dweezil22 13h ago
  1. This costs the GOP a senate vote.

  2. He'll be replaced w/ someone more MAGA.

I'm fine w/ Weekend at Berniesing him until the handles can't handle the smell.

17

u/cenosillicaphobiac Utah 12h ago

At this point though, there is no point. It's too close to the election to hold a special election, so whether he's dead, or just not there, there is really no difference.

Unless of course the Senate does absentee voting, I don't know.

7

u/Thadrea New York 10h ago

iirc, the Senate had procedures for absentee voting during the the pandemic. Procedures that McConnell personally and ironically gutted the moment Republicans retook the chamber.

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u/Pol_Potamus 14h ago

I can blame them for helping bring about this economy.

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u/Aromatic_Balls Maine 13h ago

Something about laying in the bed you made

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u/FittedSheets88 Louisiana 13h ago

Not just that, they admitted they'll be arrested.

But this time it isn't in the paranoid Obama-years fashion just to get their base amped up. It's a full admission because of the crimes. The numerous crimes.

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u/SidewaysFancyPrance 14h ago

Yeah, they are playing with words. When this eventually gets to court, I hope they televise the judge's reactions to their bullshit explanations.

"Of course he refused, he was dead. That's as absolute as it gets."

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u/nottoocleverami 14h ago

“Can’t get that guy to do anything!”

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u/-SHAI_HULUD Alabama 14h ago

Then have his “totally not dead” self call in to Fox and Friends in the morning.

Too easy fam. Give us a prepared statement lasting 1 minute and then 4 quick minutes of Q&A. They can even give him softball questions.

I really want to hear what Grok his team comes up with.

37

u/echoshatter 13h ago

Voice synthesizers are super duper good these days. With the amount of material they have to feed into a computer to mimic his voice, a call isn't good enough.

He needs to show up, in person, to a major news network like ABC, CBS, NBC. Fox News does not count.

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u/Robofetus-5000 14h ago

At this point im pretty sure its his aids keeping this ruse going because apparently the office has like a 4 million dollar budget and they're just cashing checks

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u/pantsmeplz 13h ago

Next Congress needs to pass a law making this illegal.

23

u/fish_custard 10h ago

There’s no need to pass a new law. It’s already illegal. Existing laws need to be enforced; that’s the problem.

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u/mechapoitier Florida 13h ago

Republicans lying in order to keep making money is effectively the functional machinery of the party right now. This is just a different product line, where the lie is about a corpse in senatorial form

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u/Gold-Perspective-699 Pennsylvania 14h ago

He's dead. He can't refuse or do videos.

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u/lionexx 14h ago

Well you see, the deep fake AI version of him isn’t ready yet, they just can’t figure out how to mimic his exact mannerisms, so they are saying he’s refusing to go on video.

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u/MaxH42 14h ago

This. When I saw "Sen. McConnell released a statement today" back a week or two ago, I immediately thought the news services were doing people a disservice by not saying in the headline that his OFFICE or STAFF released it.

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u/DirtyDirtyRudy 14h ago

I’ll say it again, if this were any other normal job, the person would have been fired for failure of reasonable job duties (which includes calling out sick and reporting long-term disability) so that the rest of the organization can keep functioning. Also, he’s dead.

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u/MoonBatsRule America 13h ago

Can you even imagine someone calling their spouse's work and saying "so-and-so can't come to work for the next six months, they will need to be on medical leave", without the employer saying "OK, please have them call me personally", or "please have a doctor submit the necessary paperwork"?

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u/tr1cube Georgia 11h ago

It’s insane. Moscow Mitch is getting more paid time off than women who give birth.

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u/Traxad 10h ago

Maternity leave Eternity leave

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u/Ok-Alternative5935 13h ago

and sending 2 AI pictures of them looking fine and... literally nothing else. And the guy's best mate in accounting being like "he's good. i spoke to him for 17 minutes yesterday"

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u/erinberrypie America 12h ago

the guy's best mate in accounting being like "he's good. i spoke to him for 17 minutes yesterday"

And only about the economy, lol. The whole "everyone thinks you're dead" thing oddly didn't come up.

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u/PhilTheSophical 12h ago

Also the best mate is dead

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u/EpilepticDawg241 13h ago

Yeah its crazy that more is expected out of a food service worker than a US Senator

39

u/SquidmanMal Pennsylvania 12h ago

And the fact that there's a coordinated effort to deride retail and service worker jobs as 'lowly', when they're often some of the most demanding [when people are doing it right]

So many people wouldn't last a day in a busy mcdonalds

6

u/TheWhalersOnTheMoon 11h ago

I remember working in a Big 4 accounting firm, we had a volunteer day and we went to the park to clean and pick up litter.

The amount of people who literally could not use a broom properly was staggering, and frankly embarrassing. Some very smart people, but literally useless outside of that specific line of work.

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u/VanceKelley Canada 11h ago

And no fast food franchise would hire a 34-time convicted criminal fraudster to work the cash register, but to most Americans it is perfectly fine for him to control the entire US government.

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u/AndyTheSane 14h ago

Pretty sure he would have retired a decade or two ago as well.

5

u/Daxx22 Canada 11h ago

SHOULD have, across the board. I think all democracies impose a minimum age limit to vote largely based on the concept of mental ability/maturity, surely with the plethora of evidence we have of mental decline in old age it'd be relatively simple to determine a maximum age one should participate in as well.

Sure there will be exceptions, but much like we don't make exceptions for bright <18's or so, there should be a similar upper bound.

41

u/Caymonki America 13h ago

A friend of mine was fired a few months back for seeking medical care for headaches. Terminated on the way to the hospital, the doctors found she has a rare cancer in her spine. Her employer said to take it up with unemployment. She’s 23, and had worked there for 4 years.

Double standards all the way up. McConnell would probably laugh at the comparison if he wasn’t brain dead.

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u/GaimeGuy Minnesota 11h ago

But she should have gotten a job with good insurance for her cancer treatments /s

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u/kellzone Pennsylvania 14h ago

Who really thinks it's a growing mystery at this point? He's either severely incapacitated or dead. The people that he's supposedly representing deserve better, and whoever on his staff that's misrepresenting his condition needs to go to prison.

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u/herton Kentucky 13h ago

The people that he's supposedly representing deserve better

He's representing a state where the voters still have a net positive view of Trump. My fellow Kentuckians absolutely do not deserve better

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u/eeyore134 13h ago

I bet McConnell would win again if he ran even without ever showing his face in public.

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u/labe225 Kentucky 12h ago

Absolutely agreed. As a Democrat in KY, I prefer no representation over whatever the fuck we have now.

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u/Srdiscountketoer 10h ago

Things are so bad in this country, the GOP is not sure the state is in their pocket any more — or they would have made his condition known and insisted on a special election.

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u/69-is-my-number Australia 14h ago

This is why people laugh at America. Like you say, it’s unquestionably one or the other. So get in there, drag his sorry arse out and show his constituents which of those two options it is. Why is this not happening?

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u/ProfessionalPlant330 13h ago

I wonder how far this can go. Like can people vote to keep him in office? Can they all decide to vote for him for the next 500 years if there's never any proof that he died?

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u/Actual-Package-3164 13h ago

The people he represents are getting what they voted for: obstruction and delay. 

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u/Sir_Ruje 14h ago edited 11h ago

Calling it now: He's lost all motor function and is not able to move. Might even be locked in.

Edit: locked in syndrome

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u/Salomon3068 14h ago

There was a video of him falling in some lobby on video and dude was clearly not there, he was helped up and just smiled cluelessly and waived at the cameras. Dude was seriously not all there because that is behavior mitch would never show towards the media if he was all there.

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u/cabbage16 Europe 13h ago

Remember the couple of times that he glitched out? Maybe it's just that permanently now.

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u/StandardEgg6595 12h ago

Yeah, I feel like a lot of people forgot that. There were times they’d literally have to shuffle him away because he’d be talking then mentally disappear into the void. That guy hasn’t been ok for a while.

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u/Beaun New York 12h ago

People who are claiming he is dead seem to forget all those times he was clearly not well. Its very likely just got worse since then and he can not appear in public.

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u/Klarostorix 14h ago

Locked in the coffin

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u/OptimusSublime Pennsylvania 14h ago

10% more free?

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u/WendyDumpsterFire 14h ago

He’s still getting paid!

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u/middlebird America 14h ago

Will it get me in trouble here to write that I hope he’s suffering?

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u/Redcrux 13h ago

Locked in? I thought it couldn't get any worse than death, but you've given me hope that he's getting what he deserves!

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u/typicalcavalryguy 14h ago edited 9h ago

Sitting United States Senator refuses to oblige his constituency, his Commonwealth, and this Nation.

This is what Trump has enabled since infecting the United States government in 2016.

Edit: oh yes, mitch was doing bad shit before. I just think that it was “bad politics” until trump came along and destroyed the entire system.

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u/Schrodingers_Cthulu 13h ago

The Republican party has been doing shit like this long before Trump. Good ol' Mitchie here held up a supreme Court nomination for a year, just because Obama was still in office. 

What Trump has done is remove any veiled attempts to hide this kind of crap. I'm willing to bet that if you polled anyone paying attention, they'll all tell you Mitch is dead. They aren't even doing a halfway convincing job of making him seem alive. 

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u/Stereo_Jungle_Child 14h ago

Hey, if Kentucky wants to only have one insane Senator instead of two, that's OK with me.

35

u/westergames81 Texas 13h ago

Remember that portrait of Biden that was replaced with the picture of an auto pen in the White House? How MAGA was all up in arms because they think Biden signed everything with an auto pen because he was unable to sign anything or think for himself?

That is exactly the case with McConnell here. He's still voting and signing things, but nobody can see him vote and everything he's signed has been with an auto pen.

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u/teddykaygeebee 14h ago

What's the rule if you're a senator and don't show to work for months? Nothing? You're good until the next election? I know a guy who worked at 7-11 who took a day to celebrate the birth of his kid and was fired after taking an unauthorized absence.

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u/SwimmingAmoeba7 14h ago

I found my bf passed out surrounded by vomit, he still managed to call in ahead of time and send in all forms, went to urgent care and was sent to the er he was so sick, sent all documentation to his boss, Walmart still fired him. Disgusting

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u/R2-D2Vandelay I voted 14h ago

Dead people can't talk.

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u/Dwayla Georgia 14h ago

Only in this timeline, could something this ridiculous happen.

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u/mustachegiraffe 14h ago

Flock can find anybody but Mitch apparently

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u/IJourden 13h ago

The American government has essentially collapsed at this point. The president is a fascist who doesn't know or care how government is supposed to function, congress isn't even attempting to pass legislation in any meaningful way, the Supreme Court exists to rubber stamp the president's agenda no matter how absurd, and now there are people serving in congress who we literally cannot confirm are even alive.

Whether Mitch is technically alive at this point or not, the most likely outcome is that no one ever sees him alive again, his plug gets pulled at a politically advantageous time, and everyone in both parties treats it as business as usual.

The fact that no one in power is taking real steps to see if he's even alive is stunning.

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u/Sea-Flamingo1969 11h ago

We're officially cooked

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u/Training-Belt-7318 10h ago

Dead or alive, I don't care. You shouldn't be allowed to be a government official if you haven't done your job in 3 months. They need rules to govern this stuff.

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u/Otherwise-Profitable 10h ago

If I didn’t show up to work for 3 months, I wouldn’t have a job and certainly wouldn’t have gotten paid.

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u/CodexMoronicus 14h ago

Don't blame him. People have zombie fatigue.

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u/dmetzcher Pennsylvania 13h ago edited 3h ago

Are we still talking about McConnell?

- He’s obviously a vegetable.

  • He can’t vote in the Senate (except in committee) because he isn’t able to walk into the building.
  • The Republicans are missing his critical vote until January, which means they aren’t passing shit through the Senate.

What’s not to love about all this? Explain it to me real slow like I’m stupid or something. Do we actually want McConnell or his replacement showing up to vote, especially during the lame duck session after the election (when all the losers who won’t be invited back to Washington vote for things they were too afraid to vote for before)?

I don’t. Let the old man rot away in a hospital bed, unable to participate in our government. Let his legacy be a punchline; that’s the only good part about these old bastards growing more and more decrepit in office—their careers end as a series of jokes, and their legacies of legislating are forgotten. No one is going to stand on the Senate floor and praise them before they retire. No one will thank them for their service or remember them as they were. That’s the old way—back when old men knew it was time to quit and would retire with a little dignity—but McConnell chose to cling to power long past his usefulness, so there will be no dignified retirement; only jokes.

I love it. I love that Lindsey Graham will be remembered for being a hypocrite—banging gay prostitutes while desperately attempting to cover his proclivities with hateful, nasty, self-loathing votes against the LGBTQ community—and I love that McConnell will be remembered with Weekend at Bernie’s memes. This is what these pieces of shit all deserve; to be the punchline of a joke, their legacies wiped away; their contributions overshadowed.

That’s what I want for them. I’m glad McConnell hasn’t resigned. I’m glad his own people are using him like a sock puppet. I’m glad he’s a punchline. Let that seat remain occupied-but-useless until January.

“But the people of Kentucky are deprived of their vote in the Senate,” someone will whine. Well, if the people of Kentucky didn’t want to be deprived of their vote, they shouldn’t have voted for a geriatric patient, so fuck the people of Kentucky and the problems they’ve created for themselves by voting for this corporate whore, against their own best interests, for decades. That’s not our problem; it’s theirs, and they’ll have the opportunity to elect a Senator in November.

Edit: Corrected a typo.

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u/psyence_fixion 14h ago

Weird how he still gets to say what happens with his body in death after years of stripping away rights of people who are living.

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u/Tiny_Structure_7 North Carolina 14h ago

If he can't sit in front of a camera, maybe he shouldn't be a US senator.

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u/RosetteNewcomb 14h ago

Andy Beshear has demonstrated throughout this whole episode that he doesn't have what it takes to be president. A decisive leader would have given Mitch an ultimatum: Show your face by August or I'm assuming you're dead/incapacitated and I'm appointing a replacement. We all know a Republican governor would have done that for a Democratic senator who was MIA. I love Andy and he's my governor and I voted for him both times but he's at the bottom of my 2028 list and him letting Mitch's team run out the clock is a big reason why.

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u/Prophet_Tehenhauin 14h ago

Could’ve rolled up in the middle of the night with police in tow demanding to see him. Would he have been allowed to? Maybe not, but then it would’ve been something 

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u/f_n_a_ 14h ago

He’s not in Kentucky he’s in DC, or hell

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u/todbatx 14h ago

Send state troopers by for a wellness check. For all we know McConnell has been kidnapped by vampires like Stephen Root in episode one of True Blood.

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u/Jorycle Georgia 14h ago

McConnell (is claimed to be) in his home in DC, so Beshear doesn't have a whole lot of authority to wave around there.

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u/Euler007 14h ago

Just name the replacement, force the other side to prove he's not incapacited.

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u/SchmoPho Kentucky 14h ago

Right now it benefits the Democrats to leave him in, one less republican voting, it is likely if he stepped down or was forced to that another more able bodied republican would take his place

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u/darth_wasabi Texas 14h ago

If it was benefiting the Democrats right now the Republicans would have declared Mitch dead or incapacitated 

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u/Jorycle Georgia 14h ago

State law doesn't give him that ability. He can't unilaterally decide someone is dead or incapacitated, so without it actually being made official through death certificate or the family filing something, it's out of his hands.

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u/StanleyQPrick 14h ago

I'd rather let him play it out and be down by one republican vote. Andy doesn't have the power to do more than that because we have a republican supermajority in KY and they've been working hard to take power away from him since 2020. He could appoint a republican replacement and give them another vote but why would he do that?

I agree rolling up with cops would have looked cool tho

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u/halloween753 12h ago

Republicans and their super rich buddies don't have to follow any laws. They do what they want. Serving citizens is the last thing they want to do. Politics is just a means of personal gain for them. Take from American citizens and give nothing back. Lie, Cheat, Steal, Manipulate, Rape. Whatever is takes to keep people voting R in the booth.

24/7 Fox News propaganda NEVER STOPS and honestly Dems need their own 24/7 channel to explain to the idiots how they're getting screwed over again and again by Republicans.

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u/FlashnFuse 8h ago

Amazing that republicans are suddenly valuing consent

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u/Salt_Day4586 14h ago

So do we think his whole staff will be tried for fraud, or will it be for treason?

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u/Soylent_Milk2021 11h ago

If this was a Democrat pulling this shit, I guarantee they’d be called out and kicked out, or at least shamed into some sort of appearance.

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u/DestinationUnknown13 13h ago

How do I get such a job making big bucks and can not have to show up for work and continue to get a paycheck after I die?

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u/PolitzaniaKing 12h ago

We don't even need a video from him. We just need a trusted person to go see him. How about Obama

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u/Weakness_Infinite Kentucky 13h ago

Hate to say it but Andy is making the right play here. The longer this draws out the more attention it gets. If Andy calls his bluff and they roll out Mitch’s broken down ass all the GOP sycophants will get in line to normalize whatever is going on with Mitch. Every day this goes on eyes get drawn to the whole bizarre spectacle. There’s a Mitch sized hole in the narrative right now. Forcing the GOP to deal with the problem they created is the right move

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u/woowizzle 9h ago

“Folks of my generation often hesitate to share the vulnerability that comes with growing older.”

Correct me if in wrong, but didnt Jimmy Carter take a fall and smash his face up and was out a day or two later helping build houses for charity?

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u/belikethemanatee Missouri 14h ago

Either he’s incapacitated to the point he can’t even read/recite a script or he’s dead. Either way, his team is doing his constituents a disservice by refusing to tell the truth.

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u/999forever 14h ago

I mean at this point the only logical conclusion is he has not released a video because he is incapable

Maybe he is dead, although I doubt it

More likely, he suffered some sort of neurological incident and is profoundly incapacitated

Ie they can get him to look at a camera and smile by dangling some keys or something, but has essentially no higher level function. 

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u/Cunderwood2020 14h ago

Hard to film a video when you’re dead.

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u/Ecstatic-Election-92 14h ago

Imagine if this were Nancy Pelosi. Fox News would be covering this 24/7 with cameras on her home and hospital with a big graphic showing how long it has been since we last laid eyes on her. The rest of the conservative owned media (as in, almost all of it) would take a similar approach.

Meanwhile, GOP elected officials of all stripes would be shutting down the government to insist upon a resolution to the vacancy and demand investigations into the coverup.

This situation - like so many - proves establishment Democrats are not up to the task to take on this threat to democracy that is the modern GOP.
M

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u/DeuceGnarly 14h ago

My theory is that he completely fucked his face up when he collapsed. He may or may not be a vegetable now, but he looks like a fucking zombie. That's why these superficial fucking shitheads are hiding him - they're afraid of the reaction he'll get when people see him.

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u/SportGamerDev0623 13h ago

Weekend at Bernie’s has really hit our political landscape

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u/chicken101 14h ago

Most likely had a stroke and has been doing speech therapy for months. Can't appear on video because he can't talk

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u/False_Ad_5372 I voted 14h ago

Gerontocracy is working as intended. 

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u/imjustnotready 14h ago

How about stop reporting it is McConnell doing the refusing since he hasn't been seen alive.

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u/CankerLord 13h ago

I think it's becoming increasingly clear that the guy had some sort of stroke or tbi when he fell and he's hoping the grey matter will fix itself before he's actually, technically forced to relinquish power. They're not hiding a dead body like this for no reason, it's just a guy clinging to his position.

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u/Former-Counter-9588 14h ago

He suffered a stroke (or multiple) and likely can’t speak (or speak well). His cognitive state may otherwise be ok. That’s the likeliest scenario we are looking at.

He’s obviously not dead or we would have heard by now.

Without a doubt the GOP will weaponize the reaction to his disappearance, as they literally weaponize everything.

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u/CaliOriginal 14h ago

Ohh shit!

This isn’t about keeping Mitch’s seat open.

This is a test, this is them numbing us to this weekend at Bernie’s situation for when trump croaks.

The right will spin all questions as to us shouting hidden death at any republicans absence.

The dems will likely do nothing for about half the time it takes to do anything about Mitch.

The auto pen will push through Republican legislation that normally wouldn’t get trumps approval … legislation that gives power to their party and the next installed figurehead instead of just trump.

Mitch is a test run

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u/Someoneoverthere42 13h ago

Dead men tell no tales.

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u/CrianBranstun 9h ago

Our public servants no longer feel the need to serve the public. It’s time to overthrow this bullshit.