Reporter suggests ‘cranky’ McConnell is reveling screwing with Senate amid health crisis
A veteran journalist who has covered Kentucky politics for 50 years offered a unique take on Mitch McConnell‘s secretive health scare, saying the senator is just being “cranky.”
Al Cross, a retired professor emeritus of journalism at the University of Kentucky School of Journalism, spoke to CNN’s Kasie Hunt on July 28 and downplayed some of the alarmist rumors surrounding the ailing senator.
“Well, I said that he cherishes his independence, and he could easily resolve this matter, but you know, he’s just being a little cranky and pugnacious here in the twilight of his career,” said Cross.
McConnell, 84, has been discharged after being hospitalized. It wasn’t until rumors began to swirl that McConnell had secretly died that he put out a proof-of-life photograph and statement in which he explained that he had taken a fall in his home that left him unconscious, then developed a “mild case of pneumonia” in the hospital. On July 27, he provided a second update saying he was engaging in rigorous physical therapy but had no timetable for his return to the Senate.
These updates did little to quell rumors that McConnell was secretly brain dead, incapable of speech, or otherwise incapacitated in a way that would make him unable to complete his final term in the Senate. Many of his colleagues, including some GOP senators and Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, have demanded McConnell post a video or call into a news network to prove that he is at least functioning.
On the July 28 edition of The Arena, Cross suggested that McConnell is probably able to make a video and put the rumors to bed, but is refusing to out of spite.
“[He] says, ‘I’m going to do it the way I want to do it.’ And he’s often done that. He’s always been pretty private about his health and so on. So it’s not really a big surprise. You know, I wish he would give us a short video and put all this misinformation to rest, but he’s going out the way he wants to go out,” Cross mused.
Cross also suggested McConnell’s silence is his way of sticking it to Governor Beshear, who is coming up against an August 3 deadline to call a special election to replace McConnell if the senator resigns by that date.
“McConnell has basically, I think, been happy to let Beshear stew in his own juice,” Cross continued. “Here, Beshear is coming under lots of pressure from people on the left to do something, and he really can’t do anything except talk. It would be silly to try to appoint somebody to a seat that’s not vacant, as some people have suggested. So he’s trying to get off the back foot here as a presidential candidate and look forceful.”
On July 27, Beshear openly demanded that McConnell prove he is capable of speech and returning to the Senate or tender his resignation.
“This is the most forceful talk that we have seen from him yet,” Cross said. “And you basically say, ‘put up or resign.’ That’s very tough.”
McConnell has been absent from the Senate for well over 40 days, and Cross doesn’t see that coming to an end any time soon.
When pressed on if McConnell could face any “consequences” for leaving his colleagues and constituents in limbo, Cross said, “There are hardly any consequences for Mitch McConnell, which is one reason we’ve seen him stay pretty well mum for 43 days.”