{"id":634,"date":"2026-07-08T16:56:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T16:56:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/?p=634"},"modified":"2026-07-08T16:56:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T16:56:15","slug":"mitch-mcconnell-has-been-in-the-hospital-for-weeks-whats-going-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/?p=634","title":{"rendered":"Mitch McConnell Has Been in the Hospital for Weeks. What’s Going On?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Mitch<\/div>

<\/p>\n

\n

\n\tWe know, generally speaking, where Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell<\/a> is: in a hospital in the Washington, D.C., area. What we don\u2019t know is why he\u2019s there, when he will leave, and what state he is in right now.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tMcConnell, 84, has been hospitalized for a full three weeks. He was initially taken in on June 14 for unclear reasons. While McConnell\u2019s team and several Republican allies have insisted that he is communicative and will return to work, the vague information they\u2019ve provided and McConnell\u2019s health record have sparked a fierce rumor mill speculating that the former Senate majority leader\u2019s condition may be far more dire than his political team is letting on.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tRight now, here\u2019s what we know for sure: McConnell has not been publicly heard from since he entered the hospital. The best indication we have about the reason he\u2019s there comes from EMS dispatch audio recorded the night that McConnell was admitted. The audio was subsequently obtained and reported by multiple news outlets, including The New York Times<\/em><\/a>. The recordings don\u2019t mention McConnell\u2019s name, but they do note that EMS was called to respond to an \u201cunconscious\u201d person found at McConnell\u2019s home in Washington sometime between 8:36 and 8:43 the morning of June 14. Shortly after those calls, a medic reported that there was \u201cCPR in progress\u201d at the site.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile this seems dire, two Republicans \u2014 current Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Senate Majority Whip John Barasso \u2014 have claimed that they have spoken to McConnell in the hospital.<\/p>\n

\n\tThune claimed back on June 15 that McConnell was \u201cclearly dialed into what\u2019s going on,\u201d and said that the ailing senator was \u201cfollowing the stuff we\u2019re doing this week up here. Very much so.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOn Tuesday, former McConnell adviser and conservative political operative Scott Jennings wrote on X that he too had spoken to the senator. \u201cWe talked for just shy of 20 minutes \u2026 about IRAN, UKRAINE, the unfolding situation in MAINE, my visit to the TR Presidential Library, and even a little bit of Senate history,\u201d Jennings claimed, noting that McConnell was \u201cstill recovering in the hospital.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

I spoke to my old friend Mitch McConnell this morning, the senior Senator from Kentucky. He\u2019s still recovering in the hospital. We talked for just shy of 20 minutes \u2026 about IRAN, UKRAINE, the unfolding situation in MAINE, my visit to the TR Presidential Library, and even a\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2014 Scott Jennings (@ScottJenningsKY) July 7, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

\n\tThune and Barasso also both released statements on Tuesday saying that they had spoken to McConnell.<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n

\n\t\u201cSenator Barrasso and Senator McConnell had a lengthy conversation early this afternoon. Their phone call lasted roughly 20 minutes. They caught up about the latest news impacting Senate races, the Graham Platner scandal, and the recent Supreme Court ruling on coordinated spending limits,\u201d Kate Noyes, a spokesperson for Barrasso told The Hill<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cLeader Thune spoke with Sen. McConnell yesterday by phone. They had a lengthy and substantive conversation that covered a variety of topics, including national security,\u201d a Thune also told The Hill.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe statements are clearly meant to respond to the enormous amount of speculation and outright rumors swirling around McConnell\u2019s health. The senator\u2019s own office has been extremely vague about his health, referring most reporters to the same statement for the past week, saying that McConnell \u201cappreciates the outpouring of support he\u2019s receiving while he continues his recovery in the hospital.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThat hasn\u2019t been enough for the right-wing fever swamp. On Monday, far-right troll Laura Loomer claimed on X that sources have told her McConnell is \u201cbrain dead,<\/a>\u201d and \u201cnot coming back.\u201d Loomer is, of course, a highly unreliable source \u2014 she\u2019s regularly posted disinformation and outright hoaxes, and has highly partisan reasons for casting doubt on McConnell\u2019s fitness to serve (the MAGA movement\u2019s more extremist wing considers McConnell to be a centrist impediment to their goals).\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\t\tRelated Content<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n

\n\tLoomer\u2019s claims got a boost from independent reporter Desir\u00e9e Townsend, who was first to release the audio of the EMS call to McConnell\u2019s house. Townsend reported<\/a> that her sources were telling her similar things, but offered no real evidence for them.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tAttempts to run these claims down by the mainstream press have also turned up inconclusive responses. Huff Post directly asked<\/a> McConnell\u2019s team if he was brain dead, and were referred back to the same statement.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tKentucky Gov. Andy Beshear wrote to McConnell\u2019s office on Wednesday, \u201crequesting the Senator provide an update on his current health status,\u201d a move seemingly prompted by the fervent rumor mill this week.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAllowing speculation to continue in the media is not fair to the Senator or to Kentuckians,\u201d Beshear wrote. \u201cMy hope is that this provides him the opportunity to share the information in a transparent manner, direct from the source. I wish him a safe and speedy recovery.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tDespite Thune and Barrasso\u2019s statements, In the absence of any public comment from McConnell himself, the rumors are only going to gain momentum, because McConnell\u2019s health has been tenuous for years. He has been hospitalized for both illnesses and physical accidents in recent years, and in 2023 had a bizarre series of incidents in which he appeared to freeze up in public<\/a>, briefly losing the ability to speak. In his most recent public appearances, he used a wheelchair to move around the Capitol.<\/p>\n

\n\t\tHow have Republicans responded?<\/strong>\t<\/h2>\n

\n\tOne of the more striking things about a ranking member of the Senate going AWOL for three weeks is that his colleagues \u2014 aside from Thune and Barrasso \u2014 don\u2019t seem to know much about it. Republican Senator Mike Lee, for instance, wrote on Monday that he was completely in the dark. \u201cMany of us aren\u2019t speaking about Mitch McConnell\u2019s condition because we know nothing about his condition,\u201d Lee said.<\/p>\n

\n

\n\tAgain, you have to take these statements with a grain of salt: Lee is one of the more reactionary senators in the GOP\u2019s caucus, and has publicly feuded with McConnell in the past. McConnell has become the avatar for the wing of the conservative movement that the MAGA faithful consider to be \u201cRINOs\u201d or \u201cRepublicans in Name Only,\u201d for any number of perceived slights against President Donald Trump.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tHowever, even Trump himself doesn\u2019t seem to be saying much about McConnell\u2019s situation. Trump hasn\u2019t commented on McConnell, but does seem focused on legislative priorities that McConnell\u2019s presence in the Senate could be crucial for: late last night, the president posted <\/a>a long rant calling for a new reconciliation bill that would provide an additional $350 billion in defense spending.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tOne of McConnell\u2019s last public statements<\/a> before his hospitalization was the prediction that it was \u201csafe to conclude there will not be another reconciliation bill.\u201d McConnell has stepped down from Senate-wide leadership but still heads the Defense subcommittee on the Appropriations Committee, which means he\u2019d have a direct hand in whatever third funding bill Trump is trying to pass, after the so-called Big Beautiful Bill and the follow-up immigration and border security package.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\tWhat happens if McConnell dies?<\/strong>\t<\/h2>\n

\n\tIf McConnell dies or is otherwise unable to serve out the rest of his final term, it would shake up a Congress that is on the verge of a hugely consequential midterm election.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tOrdinarily, the governor of a state can appoint a senator to serve out the term of a retired or deceased politician. In Kentucky, that would mean that governor Andy Beshear, a Democrat, could fundamentally alter the makeup of the Senate \u2014 if not for a key switch in Kentucky\u2019s laws back in 2024. That year, Kentucky passed a statewide bill<\/a> requiring the governor to call for a special election. But legal observers have noted that this bill appears to conflict with the 17th Amendment, which says that the governor can appoint a successor while an election is being set up. This law has yet to be tested, meaning we could be in for a protracted legal snafu if McConnell dies.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tIf there\u2019s an election, though, the candidates and parameters are already pretty much locked in. Because McConnell announced he would retire in January, there are already two candidates set for the general election in November \u2014 and it\u2019s highly likely they\u2019d represent each party in some kind of snap special election to serve out the last months of McConnell\u2019s term. The Democrats have nominated Charles Booker, a former state representative who was the party\u2019s nominee in the 2022 Senate election against Kentucky\u2019s other senator, Rand Paul. Booker lost to Paul in that election by over 20 points. He\u2019s running against Representative Andy Barr, who has been representing Kentucky\u2019s 6th congressional district since 2013.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n

\n\tWe\u2019re not likely to get much more clarity on the situation absent McConnell himself making a public statement. All we know right now is that he\u2019s lying in a hospital bed.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThis story was updated on 8\/7\/2026 at 12:30 PM to reflect additional information <\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We know, generally speaking, where Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell is: in a hospital in the Washington, D.C., area. What we don\u2019t know is why he\u2019s there, when he will leave, and what state he is in right now.\u00a0 McConnell, 84, has been hospitalized for a full three weeks. He was initially taken in on June…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":635,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/mitch-mcconnell-explainer.jpg?w=1600&h=900&crop=1","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[1354,1353,1352,421,540],"class_list":["post-634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-hospital","tag-mcconnell","tag-mitch","tag-weeks","tag-whats"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=634"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}