A Republican lawmaker has made a shocking admission about the potential condition of Sen. Mitch McConnell, saying he is unsure if the Kentucky senator is even alive.
Republican Rep. Marlin Stutzman made the eyebrow-raising statement on NewsNation after being bluntly asked if he believes McConnell, 84, is dead.
“You know, just the things that I’ve heard and seen from some friends is that he’s obviously not doing well, but don’t know if he’s alive or has passed away,” Stutzman said.
Stutzman, who represents northeast Indiana, slammed the secrecy surrounding McConnell’s three-week hospitalization. He demanded answers from the McConnell team, which is led by his longtime, camera-shy aide, Terry Carmack, who is set to earn more than $226,000 this year.
Unlike other Republicans, including CNN’s MAGA pundit Scott Jennings, a former McConnell adviser who said he spoke with his former boss for 17 minutes this week, Stutzman, 49, said he has not heard from the lawmaker.
He said McConnell’s absence will begin hurting Republicans once Congress is back in session on July 13.
“His constituents deserve answers where he is at,” Stutzman said. “I think that the governor of Kentucky has every right to ask after three weeks that no one has said anything. As a Republican, I think we need to hold our own party accountable. And so, the fact that we haven’t heard anything really from Senator McConnell is very discouraging and concerning.”
Republicans have just a six-seat advantage in the Senate with McConnell present.
“I think that for the representation of the Republican Party and to get some of the bills done that we want to get done in the Senate, it’s critical that we have a senator from Kentucky voting in the Senate chamber,” Stutzman added.
McConnell has been MIA since he was found unconscious and received CPR from emergency responders after suffering cardiac arrest at his Washington home on June 14, EMS dispatch audio revealed.
When the 911 audio was surfaced by the independent journalist Desirée Townsend last week, McConnell staffers claimed he was still “working closely” with his aides on Senate business but would “not be voting this week.” That has done little to quell speculation that McConnell is in dire condition or even “brain dead,” as the far-right instigator Laura Loomer claims he is.
Adding to the mystery surrounding McConnell has been the actions of his wife, Elaine Chao, who admitted in a statement to the Daily Beast this week that she did not fly to his bedside when he was found unconscious last month.
Instead, Chao, who was Donald Trump’s first Transportation Secretary, said that her ailing husband’s health “did not warrant an immediate return” from a trip to China she was in the middle of.
A spokesperson for Chao, 73, said she was back in the United States by Tuesday, but refused to answer the Daily Beast’s questions about McConnell’s condition, when exactly she returned to the United States, or who had found her husband.
Meanwhile, a report revealed that three days after McConnell was hospitalized, his wife of more than three decades was meeting with China’s Vice President Han Zheng in Beijing.
