BE WRITE BACK

Mitch McConnell Sparks New Mystery With Op-Ed Attack on Trump

The senator has not been seen for weeks, but has penned a scathing editorial.

Mitch McConnell has not been seen publicly in nearly a month, but the Kentucky senator delivered a scathing op-ed slamming Donald Trump’s handling of Vladimir Putin and the war in Ukraine.

McConnell has long been an intense critic of the Russian president and a supporter of Ukraine, but he vanished over the summer for roughly three months after suffering a fall and has been largely silent since.

The 84-year-old returned to the Senate in mid-September in a wheelchair and cast his final vote on September 30 with other senators before they went home for more than a month ahead of the midterms. McConnell has remained out of the public eye throughout October.

His vanishing act and health concerns have led some critics to question whether the senator was actually behind the op-ed under his byline.

In the op-ed published Sunday afternoon in the Wall Street Journal, McConnell warned that “coddling” Putin will not bring peace to Ukraine.

“President Trump’s gambit to end Russia’s war in Ukraine by pressuring the victim is certain to fail,” the op-ed reads. “His approach to the war reveals he misunderstands facts that American voters understand well.”

While McConnell is credited with penning the 870-word op-ed, he has said little publicly since returning to the Senate in mid-September, when he gave a brief off-camera statement before casting his first votes in more than three months.

During the two weeks McConnell was back on the Hill, he did not answer reporters’ questions as he headed to and from the U.S. Capitol. Instead, he would sometimes throw up a peace sign and a thumbs-up when approached.

The senator was also closely surrounded by aides, including his chief of staff Terry Carmack, who earns roughly $226,000 per year and was never more than a few feet away from McConnell during his brief return to public view.

Other top staffers include his Communications Director Stephanie Penn, senior adviser David Popp, senior communications adviser Robert Steurer, and senior adviser Dylan Vorbach, who has also served as his chief speechwriter and has been known to share previous McConnell articles and op-eds on social media. All three are on track to receive annual salaries of more than $210,000.

The Daily Beast asked McConnell’s office for an update on his ongoing recovery and how he has spent his time since the Senate let out, but received no immediate response to multiple questions on Monday.

Since his fall and hospitalization on June 14, the senator has not given any on-camera remarks or interviews.

His team did not reveal much about the extent of his injuries beyond a few statements, in which they claimed he had not suffered a stroke or heart attack. McConnell was discharged from a rehabilitation center on August 6 to continue his recovery at home.

The op-ed on Sunday states, “Mr. Putin is America’s enemy. He is aligned with China, Iran and North Korea to divide the U.S. from our allies and undermine our global influence” and slams Trump for relying on his real estate friends-turned-diplomats. While it did not name Steve Witkoff, who called Putin a “humanitarian,” the envoy appeared to be the direct target.

“If the president means what he says about ending the conflict, he should look to the wisdom of the American people, not naive businessmen who seem to think diplomacy entails fawning over adversaries,” the op-ed claims.

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McConnell, who chairs the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, also slammed the Pentagon for undercutting allies and warned of a potentially tough road ahead for the president.

“Mr. Trump has high hopes for a lame-duck legislative agenda, including the one-time defense spending I’ve urged the administration instead to build into full-year appropriations,” McConnell stated in the op-ed.

“Passing this agenda will require working with Republicans who know the difference between the good guys and the bad guys. Ending the obeisance to Mr. Putin may be table stakes for the end-of-year legislation. The president should plan accordingly,” it continued.

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While McConnell has remained behind closed doors, his name was also included in a letter earlier this month from a bipartisan group of senators to the president urging Trump to implement sanctions against Russia.

“The deal you struck with President Vladimir Putin on October 9th will not achieve just ends, nor will it benefit Americans,” the letter warned.

“Granting Moscow the ability to sell Russian diesel freely in global markets damages American security interests and is a betrayal of the people of Ukraine, who continue to defend themselves from Putin’s murderous, illegal war. This deal is a gift to our adversary and a betrayal of our Allies; it should be rescinded,” it continued.

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Last month, he also led a GOP letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio pushing for the release of military aid to Taiwan.

Despite McConnell’s silence since his fall in June and his staff’s tight-lipped stance, some GOP senators have defended him and insist that, behind closed doors, he’s talking and sharp as ever.

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His close ally Sen. Thom Tillis defended the Kentucky senator earlier this month and claimed that when they spoke, McConnell took less than 30 seconds before he jumped in with concerns about helping Ukraine and a series of other issues.

Over the summer, GOP leaders like Majority Leader John Thune, who said they had been in touch with McConnell as he recovered, insisted that despite his health, the 84-year-old remained focused on the issues at hand.

The Senate is not set to return to Washington, D.C. until Monday, November 9, nearly a week after the midterm elections.

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