On Wednesday, that rotten old Confederate turtle Mitch McConnell basically had a stroke in the middle of his weekly press conference. He went dead-silent, his cold, clammy face was white as a sheet and he had to be led away by one of his Republican colleagues. No one around Moscow Mitch got him to a hospital or called the doctor. So if they’re fine with it, so be it. Moscow Mitch’s deep freeze has brought more attention to his health issues this year, from his disappearing act in March and April following a mysterious “fall” at a DC hotel, from the claims that he needed in-patient physical rehab to the fact that no one knows if Moscow Mitch is in the least bit cognizant of his surroundings. Well, here’s an additional detail: Mitch had a second fall this month.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell tripped and fell disembarking from a plane at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport this month, two sources familiar with the incident said. McConnell, 81, was not seriously hurt, and he was seen later that day at the Capitol, where he interacted with at least one reporter.
The fall, which has not been previously reported, occurred July 14 after the flight out of Washington was canceled while everyone was on board. McConnell, R-Ky., who was a passenger, had a “face plant,” someone who was on the plane at the time but did not witness the fall told NBC News. That passenger also said they spoke to another passenger who helped tend to McConnell. McConnell has also recently been using a wheelchair as a precaution when he navigates crowded airports, said a source familiar with his practices.
McConnell, a polio survivor who has long struggled to navigate stairs and other obstacles, has had a difficult recent history with falls. He sustained a concussion and a cracked rib in a fall in Washington this year, and he spent six weeks away from the Senate. He fractured a shoulder in a fall in Kentucky in 2019, requiring surgery.
McConnell’s nearly 20-second freeze during a news conference Wednesday renewed concerns about his overall health after the concussion.
“He’s definitely slower with his gait,” said a Republican senator who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue. In closed-door GOP meetings, “he doesn’t address it,” the senator said, referring to health issues.
I despise the man and everything he stands for, but I have to admit – if he’s only having these significant health and mobility issues now, at the age of 81, he’s been doing pretty well. Obviously, he should not be in charge of anything and the man is probably going to keel over on the Senate floor, but if no one around him cares enough to do anything, what can be done?
Meanwhile, Senator Dianne Feinstein doesn’t know where she is or what she’s doing. People are always like “but what about Feinstein?!?!” like anyone is going to defend her senile ass. Like, we agree? Feinstein and McConnell both need to retire.
A confused Sen. Dianne Feinstein trying to cast her vote for an $823 billion military budget is reminded by colleagues to “just say aye” pic.twitter.com/as1vJHwJCS
— Ken Klippenstein (@kenklippenstein) July 27, 2023
mitch mcconnell freezing w/ laura palmers theme pic.twitter.com/2LBvhiLD5L
— zach silberberg supports the WGA (@zachsilberberg) July 27, 2023
Photos courtesy of Cover Images.
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- United States Senator Dianne Feinstein (Democrat of California) at the Senate as she is helped from a wheelchair for a Senate Committee on the Judiciary business meeting in the Hart Senate Office Building Featuring: Senator Dianne Feinstein Where: Washington, District of Columbia, United States When: 11 May 2023 Credit: Rod Lamkey/CNP/startraksphoto.com
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- United States Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Republican of Kentucky) speaks to the media following the weekly Senate policy luncheon. McConnell stopped speaking in the middle of his opening remarks and was escorted away from the podium before returning to answer questions and saying, “I’m Fine” in the US Capitol in Washington, D.C. Featuring: Senator Mitch McConnell Where: Washington, District of Columbia, United States When: 26 Jul 2023 Credit: CNP/startraksphoto.com
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- United States Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Republican of Kentucky) speaks to the media following the weekly Senate policy luncheon. McConnell stopped speaking in the middle of his opening remarks and was escorted away from the podium before returning to answer questions and saying, “I’m Fine” in the US Capitol in Washington, D.C. Featuring: Senator Mitch McConnell Where: Washington, District of Columbia, United States When: 26 Jul 2023 Credit: CNP/startraksphoto.com
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- United States Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Republican of Kentucky) speaks to the media following the weekly Senate policy luncheon. McConnell stopped speaking in the middle of his opening remarks and was escorted away from the podium before returning to answer questions and saying, “I’m Fine” in the US Capitol in Washington, D.C. Featuring: Senator Mitch McConnell Where: Washington, District of Columbia, United States When: 26 Jul 2023 Credit: CNP/startraksphoto.com
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- United States Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Republican of Kentucky) speaks to the media following the weekly Senate policy luncheon. McConnell stopped speaking in the middle of his opening remarks and was escorted away from the podium before returning to answer questions and saying, “I’m Fine” in the US Capitol in Washington, D.C. Featuring: Senator Mitch McConnell Where: Washington, District of Columbia, United States When: 26 Jul 2023 Credit: CNP/startraksphoto.com
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- United States Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Republican of Kentucky) speaks to the media following the weekly Senate policy luncheon. McConnell stopped speaking in the middle of his opening remarks and was escorted away from the podium before returning to answer questions and saying, “I’m Fine” in the US Capitol in Washington, D.C. Featuring: Senator Mitch McConnell Where: Washington, District of Columbia, United States When: 26 Jul 2023 Credit: CNP/startraksphoto.com
Well….. ain’t karma a B?
Term limits are needed for a number of reasons and here are two prime examples.
These two and so many others over the years. We also have Chuck Grassley who is older than McConnell. Add this the fact that the two leading candidates for President are in their mid-70s. Trump is Trump, of course, and only the good die young as Billy Joel says. Biden is looking increasingly frail to me when I see him walk. What does it take to get these folks to just retire and enjoy their lives and their grandkids and great grandkids? And Feinstein is clearly not competent. The people of California didn’t elect her staff to represent them. The Senate is turning into Weekend at Bernie’s.
“Biden is looking increasingly frail to me when I see him walk.”
And FDR was in a wheelchair, should he not have been President?
Biden has all his faculties about him and is doing a lot of good work cleaning up what Trump destroyed and would have continued to destroy. This comment is ableist af.
Hahahahaha. Weekend at Bernies. Omg. Thanks for the laugh today!
He doesn’t have anyone who even cares enough for him in his personal life to insist on taking care of his health. Tells you a lot about a person. Rot turtle.
Agree with term limits.
Biden has spinal osteoarthritis and neuropathy in his feet, so he may walk a little stiff.
It’s crazy how acknowledging the reality of being old and everything that comes with it is somehow considered “ableist” now.
@SarahLee. Power is a helluva drug and these people will not willingly give up that high.
I think the correct word is “ageist”. And I think performance should be the determining factor, not some arbitrary number. As long as you can go, keep going!
+1
I agree. I also think that there comes a time when even when you CAN keep going, you need to let younger folks take their shot. I’m 61 years old. Not a spring chicken. In the process of determining how long to keep working so as to not lost the person I’ve identified as my successor to another opportunity because I held on too long. RBG held on too long. I get why Biden ran in 2020 and I get why he is running again. I just think it is a sad state of affairs when this is all we have to choose from – old white men.
I agree age limits are ageist, but term limits would be fairly applied to everyone and would be very necessary.
For instance, CA Dems have been discouraged from running against Feinstein for many election cycles now (in part for fear that it would have been ageist to oust her). But that’s exactly why so many voters wanted an alternate choice, yet the establishment wouldn’t allow a genuine contender.
And now we have someone who was physically incapable of doing the job for months (she literally could not be present to vote or serve on committees), and does not seem mentally capable to do it even when she is there.
I don’t think a one-size-fits-all mandatory retirement age is appropriate, but certainly term limits are.
And possibly requiring certain kinds of health screenings, and requiring the disclosure of those results.
(I’m sure that needs thinking through further – which screenings should be public knowledge; should any be private; would it be a government doctor, instead of one you could just pay to sign whatever you write yourself, like Trump’s docs did, etc.; and what potential ramifications are of any of this.)
The other problem is by waiting to let people decide for themselves when they are no longer capable of serving, instead of having an age or term limit, we see them sail past the point of being capable, but they are either unable to acknowledge (or, possibly in Old Confederate Turtle here’s case, too power hungry to give an F). And we are left with people who are incapable of running the government, and no means until the next election of fixing that problem.
And we have a right to know that the people we elect are capable of representing us.
Feinstein should have retired at the end of her last term. She’s in a suuuuuper safe D seat. I lived in California at the time and voted for her opponent (also a Democrat, Kevin De Leon….who yes has since had his own political scandals down in LA so maybe wasn’t a perfect candidate, but still…is under age 65 and a Democrat).
Her votes are desperately needed in a Senate that doesn’t have a true majority. She’s retiring. Until then, we need her to continue doing her job.
Yeah, she’s retiring in 2024….not 2018 (or 2012) like she should have. If she had retired in 2018 we would not be dealing with holdups in judiciary appointments, etc. Same as if RBG has retired in 2014 we would not have ACB on the Supreme court. Sorry, I really have no patience with these people in critical positions just refusing to acknowledge their own mortality. Average life expectancy in the US is 77 years. Assume that being comfortably off and having good healthcare gives you a few extra years, you’re still on borrowed time when your 80th birthday rolls around. Dementia rates also really start rising among 80+ year olds, even really intelligent ones. The odds you are going to be alive and mentally compentent for another 4-6 years once you hit 80 are, unfortunately, quite poor.
Honestly, I have mixed feelings about Biden running again due to his age because on the one hand I think he’s too old and on the other hand…TRUMP. But, if Biden conks out, there is a defined succession process. I would hope also that if he is re-elected and then starts to have cognitive problems, he would have the grace and humility to step down and let Harris take the wheel for the remainder of his term.
She can B-A-R-E-L-Y do her job, that’s the fucking problem. Just yesterday, she struggled to simply cast her vote for an $823B military budget and had to be reminded to just say “aye” after trailing off confusedly.
It’s crazy how people minimize the job of senators like they’re grocery store baggers or something instead of people entrusted with one of the greatest responsibilities in our society. This isn’t a charity position–it should be rightfully earned and a very base-level requirement of being a legislator is being mentally acute. DiFi doesn’t even seem to know where TF she is at any given moment FFS.
I’m confused why she won’t retire, if it’s a safe D seat. If it were a purple seat or any chance an R would get it, she should hang on for dear life, but that’s not the case.
The reason why she won’t step down I believe is seniority. As I understand it, even though the Democratic governor will appoint another democrat, they won’t get Feinstein’s committee seats. The democrats don’t want to lose that important vote.
Oh, yes, it’s the committee seats, I forgot about that. Still, that was painful to watch. I hope her family can talk some sense into her.
Could care less about McConnell.
I believe if she retires now the Republicans have indicated they’ll block her replacement from being appointed to the judicial committee. So retiring now is not going to fix the problems that are being caused by her age/absences from the Senate. Retiring in 2018 would have avoided this mess.
Yertle has been an evil Trump enabler. This might change as Agent Orange hates weakness—MM might be sporting a nickname soon. He helped -3- (!) Supreme Court (in)Justices to a position to destroy the US. He’s responsible for countless laws that erode our liberties, decimate our environment and concentrate wealth by a corrupt few.
I wish there were more videos of him face planting. And I’m curious as to why the Rs are still working “with” him.
Even if Mitch McConnell laid down on the Senate floor and was incapable of continuing a speech, you’d still see another Republican behind him asking, “Are you indicating that you’d like to return to your office for a nap now, Mitch?” Like nothing unusual happened.
You can add Grassley to the ‘should be put to pasture’ group.
Bernie is also way, way up there.
In their younger year, McConnell, Feinstein, Grassley etc worried about tripping over their tongues. Now, they are tripping over their feet
And this is the guy ripping Biden about tripping over a sandbag 🙄 The physical fitness difference between them couldn’t be more glaring.
Except I don’t this this IS the first significant health issues he’s had. He had a severely bruised hand and mouth in 2022. Which resembled what skin can look like after having an IV attached to one’s hand and being intubated (purple around the mouth). I think Mitch has had health issues for a VERY long time but has been able to keep it under wraps. The problem now is that his health issues are now incurring frequently in public.
I think his health has been failing for quite some time, and to distract, the typical projecting Republicans got louder about Biden’s health (which seems fine).
@Ameerah – I had wondered, with the bruising, since we couldn’t see the rest of his body, if someone had totally screwed up the coumadin dosing?
I find it hard to believe it was a face plant since his face looks normal. When geriatric people fall they bruise like crazy and take forever to heal.
An uncle of mine recently fell in a McDonald’s & hit his face on the edge of a table. He ended up in the hospital for a few days then died. Some sort of brain injury. He was in his 80s. Terrible way to go.
I’m very sorry for your loss.
Falls are SO serious for seniors, a bruised face is a minimum. Bones weaken, they lose fat (cushion) and so many of them are on blood thinners, it doesn’t take much to get a brain injury.
I don’t envy McConnell or Feinstein’s staff. Is there anyone to tell them that they need to retire?
Maybe close family members or “elder statesmen” in their respective parties, if such a thing still exists. Given that we’re talking about older people, finding an “elder” statesman with enough authority and experience to advise these people is kind of tough.
It needs to be a family intervention, like having that conversation about taking away your parent’s car keys. It’s a tough conversation, but it has to be done.
Once those falls start in an older person, it’s often a quick decline. Particularly when their health isn’t stable.
He’s falling an awful lot and clearly his health isn’t stable. Six months seems optimistic for this guy.
Does he not use a cane? If he’s falling a lot now, at least that might be helped by using a cane. There’s no helping his cognitive issues, though.
I truly don’t understand the resistance to using a cane. I’ve been using one full time for a little over a year now & I’m a lot younger than McConnell. Falling hurts! I’d rather not do that, thank you very much.
Yeah, that was my mother’s problem. She was doing fairly well up until her 91st year, but the falls started and 6 months later she passed away. Mitch is definitely on his way out.
Where the Hell is Elaine Chao while her husband is face planting in airports and glitching in front of microphones?
No but seriously, are they even still married?
Several years ago, I started to have to get involved with elderly relatives. Some of my elderly relatives have no need of help whatsoever, but my mother needs to be in Independent living, for instance. She’s absolutely fine until she gets sick and then she makes stupid decisions. I also help out a couple of neighbors who have nobody immediately in the vicinity with shopping or rides if they need them.
My experience with older people is that sometimes they’re absolutely fine and then they fall or get ill and then their health can go down quickly. Much more so than with younger people. This is not true of every older person, so this is tricky.
However, I do think that there should be term limits on political jobs: different people of different backgrounds should have a chance to work on running our government, which is supposedly for the people and by the people. I also feel that there should be age limits as well. My father was a teacher and his retirement age was 65. I would argue that 70 or so might be a better cut off for politics. In any case at an age where you’re still actively healthy. Also, people of all ages, genders, ancestry and backgrounds (including blue collar) should be in our government.
I’m a Democrat and no Mitch fan, but I think we should all be hoping he hangs on for as long as possible, healthy or not. It’s not as though he’s going to step down and the Republicans are going hand their top spot over to a Democrat. Whoever replaces Mitch, as bad as he is, will be way worse. I mean, do you want to see Ted Cruz or Tommy Tuberville as the guy in charge of keeping the Good Ol’ Boys in line?
Was he travelling on Dump one 😂
Mitch looks like he should be in hospice care, instead he’s having mini strokes on tv. That’s not normal behavior. The Republican Party have lost their collective minds.
So my father is 80 and has done the 8 hours drive to Toronto from where he is in NY twice in the past 6 months to visit me. My mother who is 75 doesnt like to visit me(she feels I should have my own life by now, I am unmarried at 42, and not call them as much). They are driving up tomorrow together because I am moving to Ottawa to be closer to them(we hired movers). They seem to think they are invincible and my dad will be driving to me by himself for the next several years. He is 81 in November. I have hinted that the train or plane is in their future, but they dont have passports yet for the plane. They stubbornly think they are living forever.
Mitch and anyone else who is 75 plus needs to know when to pack it in. Mitch doesnt seem competent to be in his position anymore.
Hope he will have to travel to another state far away to get medical treatment.
It’s been reported that several people tried to get Diane to step aside but she refused.It got to the point where she wouldn’t even take their calls.So like RBG,there’s a lot of obstinacy with these older members.Addicted to the power and ego driven by believing in their own importance.
Awww they just had to take him in back and reboot him
Unfortunately, no. Don’t anyone feel sorry for this dirtbag POS. There is a top tier medical facility – Office of Attending Physician available to all members of Congress right there on Capitol Hill. Any one of them can go and get checked out whenever they like. This is part of the reason they live so long. Ol’ Mitch just fights tooth and nail against health care for regular Americans, but makes sure he himself has access to world-class healthcare.
Post polio syndrome is an extremely overlooked health issue in our society. As are ALL serious health issues, deliberately and unfortunately. It means The motor system (movement) is impacted, not necessarily mental functioning, although it appears that #MoscowMitch is being mentally impaired. Time to move on to a functional individual.
The elderly dinosaur needs to retire before he dies on camera. When my grandma was having this many falls she had to be put in a care home. He is endangering himself by continuing to work a demanding job when he should be enjoying his remaining years. Instead he is ensuring oppression, inequality, suffering for generations to come like the bigotef fascist he is. He should be seeking medical care and announcing his retirement. Instead he is pretending he is fine and not like we all witnessed him having a serious medical event at a press conference
Thank you for still calling him Moscow Mitch. People shouldn’t forget what an awful, terrible person he is and how much he has done to subvert the power of the people in the USA and damage world politics by taking money and help from autocrats.