The White House has refused to say whether Donald Trump has had any contact with absent Republican Mitch McConnell—even as the president backs the growing GOP push for congressional term limits.
As the mystery surrounding the 84-year-old Senator stretches into another week, Republicans are increasingly calling for new laws to deal with incapacitated members of the Senate or House who can no longer fulfill their duties.
The issue is particularly pertinent given McConnell—who has been in office since 1985 but has had many health issues in recent years—has now skipped dozens of votes and his absence is stalling Trump’s flagship election priority, the SAVE Act.
Trump threw his weight behind fixed term limits at the White House Correspondents’ dinner on Friday as he relayed a story about an unnamed aging senator.
“I think term limits are very important because I see what’s happening,” the 80-year-old president told his lukewarm audience as he tried to land another joke.
“The other day, a senator I knew got a text, a great guy, from his wife. And she said, ‘When you get home, I wanna have you immediately come up the stairs and make love to me.’ And he said, ‘I can’t do both.’ Does anybody get that one?”
Notably, Trump’s call for term limits did not extend to his own term in office.
And despite his call for new laws to deal with aging or incapacitated members of Congress, the White House has repeatedly refused to answer basic questions from the Daily Beast about whether the president has had any contact with McConnell, whether he has any concerns about the senator’s prolonged absence, and what specific term limits he would like to see.
One proposed amendment introduced by GOP Senators Ted Cruz and Katie Britt earlier this year would limit U.S. senators to two six-year terms and members of the U.S. House of Representatives to three two-year terms.
At the time, Cruz, who has been a Texas Senator for 13 years, described the reforms as a way of dealing with “permanently entrenched politicians who prey upon the brokenness of Washington to govern in a manner that is totally unaccountable to the American people.”
But Cruz is not the only high-profile Republican pushing for change.
As the mystery surrounding McConnell deepened last week, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis also weighed in on the debate, declaring that the U.S. Senate “looks like an old folks home”—a reference to politicians from both sides of the aisle sticking around even when they are too old or ill to serve their constituents.
McConnell’s fellow Kentuckian Thomas Massie also joked that Congress needs a “three strokes and you’re out” rule, while Tennessee Republican Tim Burchett called for an “incapacitation clause” allowing lawmakers who are medically unable to perform their duties to be replaced.
McConnell was rushed to George Washington University Hospital on June 14 after a 911 call suggesting he’d had a heart attack, was unconscious, and had received CPR.
But he has only released two images of himself smiling at the cameras since then, both of which have been met with skepticism, with some observers even suggesting the photos were AI-generated.
In his latest “proof of life” statement this week, he said he was working hard to return to the Senate, but had not yet been medically cleared to leave rehab.
However, it is not clear if he was transferred to rehabilitation outside of GWU Hospital, or simply into the rehabilitation unit within the facility itself.
Adding to the mystery are unmarked Capitol Police SUVs that the Daily Beast has observed for days outside the hospital, parked in the same spot.
The vacuum has sparked countless theories online, with some believing that McConnell is dead or on life support, but that this is being covered up in order to avoid a vacancy being created in his seat.
McConnell is one of the longest-serving Senators in U.S. history and, in 2021, was estimated to be worth more than $30 million according to Forbes. U.S. Senators also receive an annual salary ranging between about $174,000 and $194,000, and he continues to be paid despite his absence.
As the public demands greater transparency, Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear wrote a letter to McConnell on Monday asking that he provide proof of his “capacity to serve, or resign”.
This came after the senator and his team, led by McConnell’s $226,000-a-year chief of staff, Terry Carmack, ignored the governor’s previous attempt to get answers.
The Democratic governor also acknowledged that there is a conspiracy that McConnell’s true fate is being withheld by Republicans until after August 3, so Beshear can’t take action to address a vacancy before McConnell’s full term is up at the end of the year.
“Those that are really pushing this, I think, are under the impression that a Democrat in Kentucky might be able to win that election,” he said, before giving the public a reality check: “It’s been since 1992 that we had a Democratic senator in Kentucky.”
