A Republican senator summoned security to get away from a reporter asking him about Mitch McConnell as he walked through the Capitol.
Nebraska Sen. Pete Ricketts, 61, was questioned Thursday about his colleague, who was hospitalized on June 14 and has released two photographs of himself since then, but no video or audio, spurring questions about his condition. McConnell, 84, has claimed he fell and then contracted pneumonia, and is currently doing the “intense physical therapy” his doctors ordered while getting caught up on Senate business.
Ricketts was approached by TMZ about the situation.
“Do you think Mitch McConnell needs to do more to prove his health?” reporter Charlie Cotton asked, as the two walked up a flight of stairs.
“I think we should give Mitch the time he needs to be able to recover and come back to the Senate, and we’re praying for him and wish him well,” Ricketts said, as they approached a security checkpoint with two guards and a metal detector.
“Yeah, but we can give him the time he needs while also—he provides—" Cotton continued, as the two of them walked around the metal detector.
Ricketts motioned for security to confront Cotton. Only after this did a guard tell Cotton and someone beside him to stop.
Ricketts, who was with an aide, then turned around and said to security, “Only he’s with me. These two are not.”
“Yeah, but I’m a reporter, sir,” Cotton replied.
“You still have to go through security,” a guard said.
Cotton replied that he had already been through security, and that he had come from downstairs.
The video then cuts off.
Ricketts’ office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Beast.
McConnell, who is retiring in January, has not given a timeline for when he could return to work. Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear has called on the senator to prove his ability to serve, or resign. So far, there has been no response.
McConnell’s office is led by longtime aide Terry Carmack, who is set to make $226,000 this year.
McConnell’s communications director is Stephanie Penn, who last Thursday ignored a reporter’s questions about the senator. She makes $106,999 annually.
On Wednesday, McConnell spokesperson Robert Steurer, 59, also refused to answer the same reporter’s questions.
Steurer, who has been with McConnell for more than 20 years, stands to make over $226,000 this year.
