Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell appeared to freeze for about 30 seconds on Wednesday while speaking with reporters after a speech in Covington, Kentucky.
The incident is similar to an episode McConnell experienced at the US Capitol late last month and is likely to raise additional questions about the fitness of the 81-year-old to lead the Senate Republican caucus.
Wednesday’s episode occurred when a reporter asked the Republican leader if he was planning to run for reelection in 2026. McConnell had to ask him to repeat the question several times, chuckled for a moment, and then paused.
Someone at his side then asked him, “Did you hear the question, senator, running for reelection in 2026?” McConnell did not respond.
Article includes video of the incident.
Sounds kind of like when my maternal grandma had a series of micro strokes for a few months before having the Big One.
Time to retire, Mitch. For both our sakes.
Maybe Mitch and Dianne can agree to retire at the same time
A little ditty about Mitch and Diane…
Oh yeah, their terms go on…
Long after their cognitive functions are gone.Jesus, that’s some dark humor there. Hilarious, but dark.
Dark humor or sad truth?
Yes.
A+
I’m surprised Dianne Feinstein isn’t running again. I thought she would have been stubborn enough to try to stay in office well into her 90s until she achieves lichdom just to troll us.
I feel at this point it’s gotta be ego.
Like…you have so much power that you don’t even sweat elections.
Maybe it’d be a better course to work with your party, find a worthy successor that you agree on and start preparing the way for them.
Public functions, etc. get them in the spotlight. Then when the time comes, go out on the campaign trail with them, endorse them, tell your loyal base that the new person will now carry the torch.
If you pick the right person, in a state that’s so consistently supported you, it shouldn’t be too too difficult.
Not doing it this way is the elected position equivalent of RGB refusing to retire in the Obama administration and fucking the very SCOTUS (and American people) she claimed to be wanting to serve. Now she’s going to forever have the tainted legacy of having great views, but being too proud to do the sensible thing, and choosing her own ego over her ideals.
“Okay, fine. On three… One… Two… … … … …”
four hours later, we are still not sure if they’re waiting for the other to blink, have bluescreened, or both
All these old fossils need to GTFO. Him, Feinstein, all of em.
But McConnell in particular has royally fucked this country. No member of Congress should have that much power. But he used it quite effectively for his own ends. So fuck him
Its either happening frequently and just happens to have been caught on camera twice, or it could instead be related to hearing well enough to understand.
My grandparents were like this. Even if they could hear you, a lot of times it seemed out of context to them because they missed some other important piece.
The people handling him knew exactly what was going on there. This happens all the time, I’m guessing.
Source: youngest grandchild of a huge family.
You’d think if it were a hearing issue he would just say “Could you repeat the question?” and not stand there like a deer in headlights.
🦌💡💡
He did ask them to repeat the question, several times, before just standing there blankly.
Schrödinger’s McConnell: competent enough to lead the Republicans in Senate, not competent enough to answer questions about Trump under oath.
Yeah, that’s not a hearing issue. I’ve seen people with hearing issues who zone out because they can’t hear / follow the conversation. But, they’re not at a podium at the time. When that happens they know they can just back out of the conversation and hang out until the conversation is over, or the meal is over, or whatever.
When you’re at the podium you know you’re the focus of attention and need to respond. You can’t just stand there with a blank look. That looked more like a stroke or a seizure than a lack of hearing.
Oh it was rough towards the end with my grandfather. He was getting near deaf so it sounded like he was screaming at you all the time and you had to explain everything loudly and slowly, he couldn’t take it easy either. Was still out there running his little carpenter business so he had to communicate with people. To make matters worse, in a way, his mind was fine so he knew that he used to be capable of stuff and could see it all in his head he just couldn’t explain to someone calmly and in a normal voice that he wanted a hammer.
Of course the big big difference between him and the Turtle is my grandfather wasn’t a bigoted pile of self-serving crap who was utterly useless.
Yeah idk if auditory processing goes with age but you can also have delays from that.
That said if this were that you’d think he’d get hearing aids after the last one
Mitch has had a series of bad falls over the past year, this isn’t just poor hearing. Something else is going on and this is elderly abuse keeping him in office
My sister’s absence seizures turned out to be stage four brain cancer. I know he’s an arsehole, but doesn’t he have anyone looking out for him? At all? He needs help.
Did you see the look on that lady’s face? She wasn’t even worried, she was annoyed. That’s the world Republicans want to create for everyone. A Russia-like society where no one gives a fuck about anyone outside their immediate family, because it makes people much easier to control.
Ugh yes. It was like her gadget had malfunctioned, AGAIN.
Nah.
Have him die as he lived, peddling lies and attacking democracy.
Silly, he’s still young for a senator
he’s set for a presidential run soon 😂😭
I kind of hope he doesn’t retire and goes out in an explosion of bodily fluid on live TV. What a show that would be.
Glitch McConnell.
I’m pretty sure that time was in 1984.
I’m good with him staying on in a state where he can’t fuck us over more. My worry is who then pulls the puppet strings.
Glitch McConnell is at it again!
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Timezone difference, they pushed updates to their clients over night, just standard practice.
But it’s still funny that they force-reboot like Microsoft.
Looks like some developer forgot to switch time zones!
That explains drumpf’s incoherent ramblings, corrupted bios after a failed flash.
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I’m fully rooting for Mitchs dementia. Much the same as I am a big fan of Limbaughs cancer.
Sometimes nature rolls a nat 20.
It all seems kind of pointless doesn’t it? You screw over your compatriots only to become a lukewarm wet towel yourself.
May he receive thoughts and prayers. And no other form of healthcare or support.
The world will become a slightly better place when he finally dies.
I hope he’s dying.
Pretty sure he died years ago.
He was replaced by three snakes in a suit and they are old enough now to have mini strokes
Tots and pears
Technically we are all dying
After reading all the comments about wanting his life to be over and the counters about feeling bad for him etc. I think ive come to a conclusion on how to ethically handle him.
I’m going to laugh. I’m going to laugh at how foolish he looks having a stroke on stage. How despite all of the terrible things he has done to this country on a socio-economic level trying to line his pockets and stay in power, he is standing up there, feeble and barely coherent, looking like he simultaneously shat himself and forgot his name, I’m going to laugh.
Because if he wants any semblance of dignity, any ounce of respect, he needs to admit that he is done and bow out.
“But he is still human, have some empathy” No, why should I? This man has engineered tearing the country apart so he can put his grubby hands all over it and smear it in his own grease. And he is still trying to keep doing it!
What I see up there is an old man trying to walk across the freeway, with a dozen people telling him not to. And he is not only ignoring them but lifting his nose high and walking out into the road anyway. So when I see that mack truck hit him like it did on that stage, I laugh.
“The grace of God knows no bounds. But my mercy has some practical limitations.”
Americans stop voting old white dudes and ruining the rest of the world please.
Just stop voting old dudes period. A white old dude is as unsuitable to govern as a non-white old dude.
Vote for younger and more progressive generation.
I’m from UK and we need to stop that shit also.
But BoJo, Liz, Rishi and Starmer aren’t that old.
if you could choose one…
it’s hard when the DNC and RNC hand-pick the candidates for us. Our primaries are a sham
This is the real problem.
Bingo. The problem here is old, not white or men. Only white, or only men is a separate problem, which is maybe what they meant.
I’ll disagree. Old is part of the problem but the huge majority of the problem is OLD AND WHITE. Literally America’s biggest issue. If you don’t think so, you’re either a troll or you live in a bubble.
If you don’t think so, you’re either a troll or you live in a bubble.
Weird, on a totally unrelated note: what do you think is driving the burgeoning popularity of white supremacists across the U.S.?
Just curious what your take is, considering you’ve clearly thought about this topic.
Have you not noticed how many towns and cities across the USA are designed? White people tend to live in the northern part of the city, while darker people tend to live in the southern part of the city.
That’s not by accident, the city planners design it that way, and they have different regulations and taxes and shit depending whether you live north or south of the highway or tracks…
I don’t fuckin want them either. It’s our fuckin boomers who want to take everything to the grave with them.
Let’s not be descrimatory here. I don’t think Dianne Feinstein is doing too well either:)
Weekend at Feinstein’s
Kentucky is going to Kentucky. Hold my beer while I burn the state to the ground. I lived there and it was disheartening how many people vote against their self interest.
Because to most people in Kentucky keeping America safe from Hillary Clinton is more important than healthcare, abortion access, or school funding. Those voters have shown us their priorities, time and time again, and they truly care more about culture war nonsense than anything else.
They’re just voting for the only party who pretends to care about them.
Democrats have spent almost no energy on making rural voters feel included.
If you saw everything you’ve ever known decay into the shambles of globalization, then some orange guy comes and starts yelling about how he’s going to fight for your way of life, while the other guy is talking to the people who have been shaming you for decades, who do you think you’d vote for?
If we want a better future, we’re going to have to get over all this hatred towards our neighbors. Waving your hands around a map and saying “fuck allll these (rural) people” isn’t going to work anymore, because China/Russia know exactly how to exploit that hate.
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That is hard to watch. I hate his guts and everything he’s done and stood for in politics, but it’s still rough to watch a man just fade away like that.
He needs to retire and stop clinging desperately to power. The stress of it alone is probably literally killing him.
Edit: Just so we’re clear, here, I’m not offering him sympathy. I have none to give for a monster like Mitch McConnell. The man has done enormous damage to the country, and people like him are why I worry about the future for my kids (both LGBTQ+).
I was only trying to express that on a gut level, it’s still unpleasant to see someone basically drain away like that.
He lost all potential sympathy from me when he denied Garland and rammed in Barett during an election year before RBG was fucking cold in the ground. That decision and denial of representation has made shockwaves of regression in terms of civil rights, voting rights, women’s bodily autonomy and LGBTQ rights …and that’s what we have gone backward in…so far (birth control and gay marriage being illegal again is coming) and we will feel these effects for several decades way after he’s gone.
tots and fucking pears, goddamn ghoul.
Yup. SCOTUS is eternally corrupted thanks almost exclusively to one man, and the sooner he’s worm food the better. Hell, even the fucking worms will gag on his bones.
Whether he clings to power and dies from stress is kind of his decision.
I don’t enjoy seeing a person, even him, suffering illness. Even as much as I despise that horrible piece of shit.
My initial response is to feel empathy and compassion when I see this, it’s awful. Then I remind myself how many people have been hurt by him and how many people continue to be hurt by him and my compassion is tempered. I don’t delight in his ailing, but I can’t say I feel the same about this as I would if it were someone else.
He lost “human” status a long time ago. I actually like reptiles and lizards, so I have a better one:
Ghoul.
That’s the look you get on your face when you’re standing at the podium and look out to see a skeleton wearing a robe and holding a scythe pointing at you from the back row.
Someone made basically exactly that comic last time this happened: https://files.catbox.moe/dow37c.webp
This one sparks joy.
Awesome!
Last comment was deleted, so I guess I’ll repost it with edits.
Couldn’t happen to a nicer piece of shit.
Lot of folks trying to take the high road here out of compassion.
This guy single-handedly fucked democracy sideways for at least a generation. The reverberations of his Supreme Court shenanigans are going to be responsible for the deaths of thousands.
I hope he spends the rest of his days confused and shitting himself.
Why are comments being deleted?
I love how republicans will say Biden is too old and make fun of him while also down playing this BS…
Both can be true. I doubt Biden is the one making decisions. This guy is too old and both parties are as corrupt as it comes on this earth.
Oh both can be true, but acting like only one is, well that’s peak hypocrisy.
Also, yes both parties are corrupt, I’d agree with that, they’re out there enjoying the lobbying on both sides. But the corruption on one side is on VERY different levels.
I think both men are clearly too senile to make any decisions on their own. McConnell more than Biden, but both for sure.
Stating “acting like only one is” is in itself implying that only one side is stating this, thus creating your own hypocrisy. Slam dunk on that theory when your final line brings corruption into the argument which is irrelevant to the topic, as both sides are doing it. Regardless of party, people who are senile should not be in office.
Non American commenting here. Just want to see people make kind, and considerate word choices. Let’s bring people together. There are kind loving people, and there are hateful discriminating people on BOTH sides. If the scales are tipped towards one of those sides, we should not discriminate against the kind loving people still left on that side.
lol okay you clearly need to brush up on american politics because no one who supports the party of not feeding or housing poor children is loving
Yes, there are bad people on both sides, but acting like both sides are equal is naive. One side is taking away health rights and literally banning books and outlawing the teaching of sexual education and slavery. A pretty good litmus test is if your side is banning books, you’re on the wrong side of history.
Can’t help but enjoy this, given what a despicable human being he is.
illustrates the love his party members have, keeping him working even after he’s had a stroke on tv twice.
Not only that, but to ask him about his reelection plans.
Get this man into a nursing home.
No matter what, he’ll be sure to recover enough to start posting on Twitter, like Herman.
The mummy’s curse will never release him
Satan keeps sending him back. He doesn’t want him either. Also he feels he has done his part by taking Pat Robertson a few months ago.
Tough noogies. If Satan doesn’t like the gig then he knows what he’s got to do about that touchy asshole boss of his. Tell him to take the necrotizing turkey neck or else.
