Former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s social media accounts have not posted in weeks as rumors swirl about the severity of his most recent hospitalization.
McConnell, 84, has not posted from his official accounts since June 12, just two days before he was hospitalized after he was found unconscious after suffering an apparent heart attack at his Washington, D.C. home, according to EMS dispatch audio.
The longtime senator’s account was once very active, posting about Republican legislation, favorable news coverage, and commemorating holidays.
At the same time, his daughter, Porter McConnell, has deleted her once prominent X account. She had frequently used the account as she was openly critical of her father’s conservative politics and the Republican Party.
McConnell’s social media silence comes as details about his health remain unclear, sparking further speculation about the potential severity of his condition.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune claimed he spoke to the 84-year-old and that he “sounded good” one day after he was hospitalized for a cardiac arrest episode.
“He wants to be back, but I’ll defer to his staff on when,” Thune said on June 15.
But other Republican senators, including MAGA Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, have said they’ve been kept in the dark about McConnell.
Far-right activist Laura Loomer has claimed that a “high-level source close to the White House” told her “Mitch McConnell is officially brain dead. He’s not coming back.”
His Senate office has for days refused to answer basic questions about his health, and has only repeated the same statement that he is “working closely” with staff on Senate business while Congress is out of session. 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.
His wife, Elaine Chao, 73, who formerly served as transportation secretary in the first Trump administration and labor secretary in the Bush administration, was photographed in Beijing meeting with Chinese Vice President Han Zheng on June 17, just three days after McConnell’s hospitalization.
Neighbors at his Capitol Hill home have said no one, including family, has come or gone from the house since he was taken by paramedics over three weeks ago.
Independent journalist Desirée Townsend, who has been closely following McConnell developments, has reported that his Capitol Police security detail, which normally sits outside of his home, is still at the D.C. hospital where McConnell is being treated as of July 7.
There has also been speculation that McConnell’s team is trying to run out the clock and avoid a special election to replace him.
State Republicans changed the rules for filling a Senate vacancy before the end of a term two years ago. Kentucky law now requires that a special election be held immediately if a sitting senator dies, changing the previous law that gave the governor the power to appoint someone to the seat until the next election.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, a Democrat said to be considering a run for president in 2028, has said the senator’s office has not been in communication with him about his condition.
McConnell, the longest-serving Senate leader in U.S. history, had announced previously that he would not seek reelection in 2026 after four decades in office.
A series of health scares and injuries have plagued McConnell’s final term.
He’s suffered apparent medical episodes where he has frozen and stopped talking mid-sentence when the cameras were rolling. He’s had several falls in the halls of Congress, including two in rapid succession, which prompted his need for a wheelchair. He sprained his wrist and cut his face after tripping and falling during a Republican Senate lunch in 2024.
It’s also his second hospitalization of the year, after he checked himself into a hospital in February out of “an abundance of caution” due to “flu-like symptoms,” spending eight days there receiving care.
