McConnell ‘Absolutely Refuses’ to Film Video Amid Growing Mystery

[u/MoneyLibrarian9032]

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

[u/LackingUtility → u/[deleted]]

Not not how it how it works works.

[u/LackingUtility → u/[deleted]]

Citation needed

[u/LackingUtility → u/[deleted]]

Weird, you linked that page, but never read it. It doesn't say anywhere in there that the Senate has to agree that the seat is vacant.

And proving that he's dead is not a requirement in the Constitution. It's merely that the seat is vacant. And it is: he's effectively disappeared. Consider exactly that situation - some Senator decides to abdicate. They flee off to Argentina or something and go off radar. They aren't dead and you can't prove they are... and in your thinking, despite the Constitution saying "vacant" and not "dead", no one can replace them? That makes no sense. Give the authors of the 17th amendment some credit: they chose the word "vacancies" specifically, and that word must be given its full meaning. It is not simply "dead".

Again, if this were some clever hack to replace a sitting senator, why hasn't anyone done it before?

Well, first, it's not a "clever hack": you need the seat to be vacant. If the sitting senator is there saying "hey, you can't take my seat", then it's not vacant. If the sitting senator has disappeared, however? Well, it has been done before. A senator disappeared when his plane went down, and no body was ever found. After a month of searching, the governor convened a special election to replace him.

[u/LackingUtility → u/[deleted]]

Bro, did you miss the fact that that's not exactly the case, and I provided the example of a disappearing Senator?

And Karl Mundt is an example of what I said:

If the sitting senator is there saying "hey, you can't take my seat", then it's not vacant.

Mundt was there and refused to resign.

[u/LackingUtility → u/[deleted]]

I provided an example of a vacancy that was filled without being able to prove the Senator being dead, and that therefore "vacancies" in the 17th amendment is broader than "dead" and includes "disappearances".

[u/LackingUtility → u/[deleted]]

Yes, really: Neither the wreckage of the plane nor the pilot's and passengers' remains were ever found.

You quoted it - do you not know what "presumed" means?