MAGA influencers are demanding answers and accusing Senate Republicans of a massive cover-up amid a sudden flurry of claims by GOP leaders that they have spoken to Senator Mitch McConnell this week amid explosive claims about his health.
McConnell, 84, was hospitalized after he was found unconscious in his home on June 14. CPR was performed at the scene, according to emergency dispatch audio.
In the three weeks since he was hospitalized, there have been almost no updates from his team. His office provided a statement on July 2 that he “is working closely with his staff“ but did not elaborate. His Communications Director Stephanie Penn told the Daily Beast on Monday they would ”be sure to keep you updated" but did not answer a series of questions.
That same day, MAGA influencer Laura Loomer claimed McConnell was “brain dead” while GOP Senator Mike Lee posted that many senators were not speaking out about his condition because they knew nothing about it.
As demand for information mounted on Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, Whip John Barrasso and former McConnell aide Scott Jennings all claimed that they had spoken with McConnell this week.
A spokesperson for the majority leader told the Daily Beast on Tuesday that he and McConnell spoke by phone on Monday and had a lengthy, substantive conversation covering a variety of topics, including national security.
Thune’s update came after his office had ignored the Daily Beast’s previous questions this week about McConnell.
Barrasso’s office also issued a statement that the pair had spoken on Tuesday, after standing by the whip’s claim that he had spoken to McConnell three weeks ago, on June 15 at 5 pm, in response to the Daily Beast’s questions.
“Senator Barrasso and Senator McConnell had a lengthy conversation early this afternoon. Their phone call lasted roughly 20 minutes,” said Communications Director Kate Noyes.
“They caught up about the latest news impacting Senate races, the Graham Platner scandal, and the recent Supreme Court ruling on coordinated spending limits. They also discussed the Senate’s July work period, including the need to pass the NDAA and confirm President Trump’s nominee for Director of National Intelligence. Senator McConnell was fully engaged and is eager to get back to the Senate,” she added.
Barrasso’s office also responded with the statement after the Daily Beast asked for more details about the call the senator said happened on June 15 and whether there was a witness to it.
Meanwhile, CNN contributor Scott Jennings, who previously worked for McConnell, posted that he had spoken to his former boss on X.
“I spoke to my old friend Mitch McConnell this morning, the senior Senator from Kentucky,“ Jennings wrote. ”He’s still recovering in the hospital. We talked for just shy of 20 minutes … about IRAN, UKRAINE, the unfolding situation in MAINE, my visit to the TR Presidential Library, and even a little bit of Senate history.”
It was their first update on McConnell in three weeks. While Thune and Barrasso both told reporters that they had spoken to McConnell the day after he was hospitalized, neither had provided any updates on his prognosis or recovery since.
Their new statements did not explain why McConnell is still in the hospital or when he might be discharged.
A medic in the emergency dispatched audio from the Kentucky senator’s address on June 14 said “CPR in progress.” His office did not address the Daily Beast’s specific questions on Monday about whether the senator was even conscious or on life support.
McConnell’s staff is led by his longtime, camera-shy aide Terry Carmack, who is on track to earn more than $226,000 this year.
MAGA influencers were not buying the Republicans’ sudden claims that they had spoken to McConnell.
“Fascinating. Mitch McConnell is apparently well enough to spend 20 minutes discussing global geopolitics, but somehow not well enough to record a 30-second video reassuring the people of Kentucky, and the world, that he’s okay,” wrote Trump ally Kylie Jane Kremer on X in response to Jennings’ claim.
“Also, his office of roughly 40 staff members still can’t provide a meaningful update? Nothing about why Elaine Chao traveled to China to meet with senior CCP officials just three days after he was hospitalized? And we’re all just supposed to accept this at face value? None of this inspires confidence. If anything, this post raises more questions than it answers,” she added.
“Biggest cover up ever right now happening regarding Mitch McConnell. I remember when we mocked the Democrats for doing the same thing with Joe Biden,” wrote Loomer, who previously claimed McConnell was a “vegetable.”
Former MAGA Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene also called out Jennings, writing, “Of course it is the great RINO Republican establishment hack and paid McConnell consultant that comes out with ‘proof of life.’ So pathetic you can’t even make it up,” she wrote on X.
Other MAGA social media users were also quick to point out that Thune, Barrasso, and Jennings’ statements all “sound awfully similar.”
While the Senate is on recess until next week, the Daily Beast asked the offices of all 53 Republican senators whether each senator had spoken with McConnell since he was hospitalized. Apart from the brief updates from Thune and Barrasso, not one senator’s office responded to questions.
Thune and Barrasso’s offices did not immediately respond to questions about witnesses, photographs, or audio of their McConnell calls taking place.
