The 84-year-old Kentucky Republican was reportedly admitted to a D.C.-area hospital on June 14 after suffering cardiac arrest at his Capitol Hill townhouse. Since then: radio silence.

President Trump told reporters Thursday he hasn’t spoken to McConnell and has no idea how he’s doing.

President Trump said on Wednesday evening that he hasn’t spoken to Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) after his hospitalization in June. “I have no idea how he’s doing,” Trump said, as he was returning from the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey. pic.twitter.com/s7reDsr5gA

— CBS News (@CBSNews) July 9, 2026

Do his Senate colleagues know more?

The Senate’s rules are clear: No senator can absent himself from duty without permission. Rule VI of the Standing Rules of the Senate states senators must disclose reasons for extended absences and request leave from the body.

The Federalist CEO Sean Davis pointed out McConnell’s obligation Thursday on X.

Under paragraph 2 of Rule VI of the Standing Rules of the Senate, “No Senator shall absent himself from the service of the Senate
without leave.”

Rather than communicating through secret phone calls or anonymous sources, McConnell has an obligation to disclose to the Senate the… https://t.co/5qgI3SlUYepic.twitter.com/AukB3nbqc7

— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) July 9, 2026

McConnell’s staff issued a statement July 2 saying the senator was recovering in the hospital and working with his office on Kentucky and Senate matters. But that was over a week ago. No photos. No video. No proof of life.

His last Senate vote was June 11 — three days before the cardiac arrest. The last time he posted on social media was June 12.

Rep. Marlin Stutzman, R-Ind., told Good Morning America Thursday he doesn’t know whether McConnell is dead or alive.

“His constituents deserve answers where he is at.”

On @NewsNation today, GOP Congressman @RepStutzman was asked whether he knows if Senator Mitch McConnell is alive.

Stutzman said, “I don’t.”

https://t.co/hxTHMPHrPepic.twitter.com/fJHFEjw9uY

— Laura Loomer (@LauraLoomer) July 9, 2026

Conservative activist Laura Loomer claimed McConnell is brain dead, citing a White House source.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso reportedly spoke with McConnell earlier this week — at least their spokespeople said they did.

A NewsNation source said late Thursday that McConnell is alive and in rehab. The source claimed he’s mentally fine but needs time to physically recover.

NEW on MCCONNELL’s health:

“He’s alive. He’s not brain dead. He’s in rehab and the hospital. With his condition, he needs time to physically recover. But mentally he’s fine. The doctors want to make sure he’s okay.”

Unlikely McConnell is back at the Capitol next week although…

— Jackie (@Jackie_Koppell) July 9, 2026

But anonymous sources aren’t Senate procedure.

Davis laid out the requirement: McConnell must formally request leave from the Senate and disclose his reasons for absence. Without that disclosure and Senate approval, McConnell has an obligation to resign.

The mystery absence is complicating Senate business. McConnell chairs the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense. His absence forced the subcommittee to cancel a critical hearing on defense spending, according to The Washington Post.

Without McConnell, the Appropriations Committee is split evenly between Republicans and Democrats — eliminating the GOP’s one-seat majority. Tied votes sink legislation in committee.

The Senate returns from recess Monday, then faces another month-long summer break starting the second week of August. McConnell, who holds the record as the longest-serving party leader in Senate history, is set to retire when his term ends in January.

His staff has refused to say what’s ailing him, what his prognosis is, or when he’ll return. The 84-year-old has dealt with several health incidents over the past few years — some that sidelined him for extended periods.

Davis summed it up on X: “These are the rules, and it’s long past time for senators to actually follow them.”

CNN’s extreme leftwing bias exposed pic.twitter.com/5YEbGToOA7

— Rep. Jack Kimble (@RepJackKimble) July 8, 2026

Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Kentucky Republican and former Senate majority leader, suffered a serious medical emergency three weeks ago that left him hospitalized. His office has declined to provide details. Since then, dueling reports describe him as both working from the hospital and, according to a Trump confidante, brain dead.

What happens next is often nothing.

In the summer of 2024, Rep. Kay Granger, a Texas Republican, disappeared without explanation. Reporters visiting her offices found locked doors, covered windows, and unanswered phones. For months, her district went unrepresented.

“We then received a tip from a Granger constituent who shared that the Congresswoman has been residing at a local memory care and assisted living home for some time after having been found wandering, lost, and confused.”

Lost, confused, institutionalized — and still drawing a congressional salary. She never went to Washington.

Members of Congress have medical privacy rights. But their constituents have a right to be represented.

The conflict between those competing rights keeps coming up.

South Dakota Republican Karl Mundt had a stroke in 1969. He stopped showing up to the Senate but refused to resign. The seat stayed his until he retired in 1973 — leaving South Dakota with half its representation in the upper chamber for four years.

Mundt’s case echoed Sen. Carter Glass, a Virginia Democrat in the 1940s who took his last Senate oath at his Lynchburg home in carpet slippers. After two years of unbroken absence, he was urged to resign. He offered no public response.

More recently, Rep. Tom Kean, a New Jersey Republican, stopped coming to work for four months without explanation. When he returned to the House, he announced he had been hospitalized for depression.

Rep. Frederica Wilson, a Florida Democrat famous for her colorful hats, missed more than 40 votes before announcing she had skipped work to recover from eye surgery.

Not participating in deliberation while serving in deliberative bodies. Not providing representation while holding office in a representative government.

To change that, Congress would have to act.

You can see how likely that is.

Rep. Riley Moore (R-WV) told Breitbart News Daily the maneuver puts proof-of-citizenship requirements back before the Senate — and this time, senators can’t ignore it.

“We are constantly consistently held hostage to the inaction of the Senate,” Moore said.

“We have passed the Save America Act three times in the House. The SAVE Act is going to be attached to the National Defense Authorization Act.”

Moore said the SAVE Act — the original voter ID bill — will be merged into the NDAA’s base text through the rules process. Once the bill is engrossed in the House, the language becomes part of the defense authorization.

If the Senate rejects it, the House and Senate would go to conference and “fight over putting that language back into the bill.”

That forces senators to take “the action of removing this from the National Defense Authorization Act.”

The West Virginia Republican said pressure should fall on GOP senators.

“We got 53 Republicans in the Senate, their margin is better than ours in the House,” Moore said. “They need to vote for this National Defense Authorization Act with the Save Act in it.”

Asked whether Democrats could be persuaded to support the legislation, Moore was blunt: “I don’t think Democrats are going to vote for this.”

He pointed to California’s automatic voter registration system as an example of the problem.

“State of California has automatic voter registration when you go get a driver’s license,” Moore said. Driver’s licenses are available to people in the country legally and illegally.

Moore asked whether anyone believes there are not noncitizens voting in U.S. elections.

The federal government should ensure that “U.S. citizens are voting in our elections,” Moore said. If Republicans cannot stand up for that principle, “That is a sad state of affairs for the Republican Party.”

Moore drew a distinction between the SAVE Act and the Save America Act. The SAVE Act is “primarily dealing with voter ID,” while the Save America Act addresses “voter ID and the mail-in ballot question.”

On mail-in ballots, Moore said Democrats have “eroded trust and confidence in the elections” by allowing vote-counting to continue well after Election Day.

“Why would you not have an erosion of trust in the process when it drags on for weeks, if not months?” Moore asked.

He pointed to India as an example. The country has “over a billion people” and “got their election results in a day.”

California sometimes cannot produce results “within five, six weeks.”

“It doesn’t make any sense. I lack trust in results from California because delayed counting contributes to doubts about whether elections are all above board.”

Moore also criticized Republicans who argue that continued focus on election integrity undermines confidence and turnout.

“They are the ones that are hurting Republican enthusiasm and turnout,” Moore said.

“It goes back to that point that I just made, the erosion of trust in the election cycle. Why would voters show up when I don’t even know my vote even matters?”

Moore said election integrity remains a major concern among Republican voters, calling it “a core tenant” of why Republicans “won in 2024.”

The issue comes up at “any Lincoln Reagan Day dinner in any county in America.”

“This will be a top issue for any Republican that you talk to,” Moore said. The concern spans “moderate to MAGA” Republicans who do not understand “why you can’t get this done.”

The judges blocked Trump administration voter-roll integrity measures on back-to-back days this week. Democrats declared victory. They shouldn’t have.

The rulings exposed exactly why Congress needs to act — and the House has already passed the fix.

Here’s what happened. The Department of Homeland Security, working with the Department of Government Efficiency, overhauled a federal database originally built to check public benefits eligibility. DHS turned it into a citizenship checker for voter rolls, integrated with Social Security data.

Judge Sparkle Sooknanan blocked it. Her ruling said the overhaul violated the Social Security Act’s prohibition on disclosing Social Security numbers across agency lines, the Privacy Act of 1974, and the Administrative Procedure Act.

Translation: the administration didn’t have congressional authority to consolidate personal data across federal agencies for voter-roll verification.

Congress wrote specific prohibitions against consolidating personal data across federal agencies without statutory authorization. The administration walked into those prohibitions without a statute.

That’s the legal problem. But it’s also the roadmap to the solution.

The fix is already written. The SAVE America Act — passed by the House, now sitting in the Senate — gives DHS the explicit statutory authority the court said was missing.

Pass the SAVE Act, and Judge Sooknanan’s ruling becomes irrelevant. The administration gets the legal green light to verify citizenship on voter rolls using the exact databases Democrats claim don’t exist.

For years, the Left insisted noncitizen voting was a myth. A conspiracy theory. A made-up problem designed to suppress votes.

Now two Biden judges just confirmed the federal government doesn’t currently have the legal tools to systematically verify citizenship before ballots are cast.

If noncitizen voting is a myth, why are Democrats so opposed to giving the government the tools to prove it?

The Senate has the bill. The House passed it. The court cases just made the argument airtight.

Patriots know what happens next: Senate Republicans put the SAVE Act on the floor, force every Democrat to vote on the record, and dare them to oppose citizenship verification heading into the midterms.

The dramatic reversal came just one day after the Senate approved the measure directing Trump to withdraw U.S. troops from hostilities with Iran.

Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Senator Bill Cassidy (R-La.) both flipped their votes after a closed-door Republican luncheon where Trump and administration officials made their case.

Cassidy switched to a “no” vote after receiving what he called a “thorough briefing” from Vice President JD Vance and other White House officials.

“I want to thank Vice President Vance and Special Envoy Witkoff for the thorough briefing this afternoon on Iran. I appreciate the quick invitation to the White House to address many of my concerns.”

Paul explained his reversal on X, saying he changed his vote “to give the President more space and leverage to negotiate a lasting peace” even though his views on executive war powers hadn’t changed.

Tonight I will vote present on the War Powers resolution.

My opinion on the debate over war and executive power has not changed and I have voted that way several times.

But since hostilities seem to be over and the President asked me to give consideration to his…

— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) June 25, 2026

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) spoke with Trump after the vote and said the president appeared “pleased with the outcome.”

Trump celebrated the reversal on Truth Social Wednesday evening.

“Wow! The Senate just changed its vote on Iran from 50-48 against, 50-47 for. Rand Paul and Bill Cassidy changed. Thank you Leader John Thune, Lindsey Graham, Bernie Moreno and all. This vote puts Iran on notice!”

Every GOP senator except Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) voted against the resolution.

Senator John Fetterman (D-Pa.) was the only Democrat to break ranks and oppose the measure. All other Democrats supported it.

The White House lobbying effort delivered Trump a critical win on foreign policy as he pursues what he’s called a lasting peace deal with Iran.

The Senate rejected a resolution from Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) that would have required Trump to withdraw U.S. military forces from combat with Iran unless Congress voted to authorize the action. The measure failed 47-50-1 after Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) and Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) switched their votes.

Just one day earlier, four Republicans had broken ranks to advance the Democrat-backed resolution.

Paul voted present on Wednesday. Cassidy voted against advancing the measure.

“The Senate just changed its vote on Iran from 50-48 against, to 50-47 for. Rand Paul and Bill Cassidy changed. This vote puts Iran on notice!”

Trump had blasted Tuesday’s initial vote as “poorly timed and meaningless,” saying it “provided aid and comfort” to the enemy and hampered his negotiations with Iran.

According to Fox News reporting, Trump met with Cassidy and Paul at the White House on Wednesday in what sources described as a contentious meeting. Whatever Trump said behind closed doors worked — both senators flipped their votes hours later.

Trump celebrated the reversal on Truth Social Wednesday night, thanking Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD), Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), and Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-OH) for their efforts in defeating the Democrat resolution.

Kaine’s resolution initially passed the House of Representatives before Senate Republicans blocked it Wednesday night. The measure would have forced the president to remove U.S. military forces from engaging in combat “within or against Iran” without explicit congressional authorization.

The failed vote leaves Trump’s war powers intact as his administration continues military operations and diplomatic negotiations with Iran.

The Pennsylvania Democrat issued the challenge Saturday on Fox News Channel’s “Saturday in America,” addressing Platner by his Kik handle directly.

“P-Hustle, here’s a great chance. You can just prove that all these people that you’re dropping those d–k pics and saying these things to were over 18. I will wear a suit every day in the Senate.”

Fetterman, appearing in his trademark black hoodie, pressed Platner to release the full record of his Kik conversations.

“You can set the record clear and provide all of those texts and all of those conversations that you were having as a newlywed just before you were going to run for the Senate,” Fetterman said, then added a one-word demand: “Transparency.”

Kik is an anonymous messaging app that has faced scrutiny over underage users.

Platner, a Marine Corps veteran backed by Sen. Bernie Sanders and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, has admitted having an active Kik account while newly married. He has denied wrongdoing and has not been accused of any unlawful conduct involving minors.

The scandal erupted last month when The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times reported that Platner’s wife, Amy Gertner, told campaign staff in August 2025 about sexually explicit texts she had discovered between her husband and other women earlier in their marriage.

Genevieve McDonald, the campaign’s former political director, told The Associated Press that Platner had been “sexting multiple women while married” and that aides treated the matter as a potential vulnerability before deciding it was private.

The New York Times then reported claims by ex-girlfriend Lyndsey Fifield, a former Republican operative who dated Platner from 2013 to 2015, alleging he twisted her arm behind her back and shoved her into a bedroom, holding the door shut until she was “calm.”

Platner denied that account on MSNBC, calling Fifield’s story false. He has called the broader reporting “journalistic malpractice.”

CNN independently verified that a Kik account under the username “phustle0331,” showing a shirtless man in a towel, appears to belong to Platner. His campaign said he had deleted the app from his phone but had not deactivated the account.

The stakes are immediate: Maine’s Democratic primary is June 9, and Platner holds a wide lead after Maine Gov. Janet Mills suspended active campaigning.

The flip came Thursday after The New York Times exposed Graham Platner, Maine’s presumptive Democrat Senate nominee, with allegations from multiple ex-girlfriends of “volatile and ‘toxic’ relationships” that were “unsettling and at times emotionally wrenching.”

“Mr. Platner could be charming and charismatic, they recalled in interviews, but also demeaning to women and, in at least one case, even physically threatening. He drank heavily and was regularly unfaithful.”

The Times report centers on Lyndsey Fifield, a 40-year-old Virginian who worked in conservative circles and dated Platner from 2013 to 2015. Fifield — who has since accused the Times of delaying and twisting the story to benefit Platner — alleged that the Democrat candidate “could be rough with her … particularly when they were drinking.”

She also claimed he “regularly grabbed her by the shoulders — sometimes hard enough to leave marks — and, on one occasion, yanked her out of a cab by her wrist after an argument.”

The Times buried those allegations in the 22nd paragraph of its report.

Platner’s campaign told the outlet he “strongly disputes” Fifield’s claims but admitted he “too often self medicated with alcohol, and was a far from perfect boyfriend.” He called any other characterization “false” and “politically motivated.”

The allegations follow reports that Platner sent sexually explicit text messages to several women while married to his current wife.

Within hours, Democrats dismissed Fifield’s allegations because of her work in Republican circles. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., reportedly said he’s “not impressed” with the Times report and that it “seems like a lot of nothing” from a “woman who works for right-wing political operations.”

Democrats are casting Platner’s accusers as unreliable after treating Kavanaugh’s less-than-credible accusers as gospel.

The evidence against Platner is far stronger than anything presented against Kavanaugh.

Platner doesn’t deny being in a relationship with Fifield. His campaign didn’t dispute some of Fifield’s claims, including that Platner allegedly said he would “rape” anyone who broke into his apartment “in a sexual way, not in a gay way.”

The Times reportedly obtained and reviewed texts between Fifield and Platner, Google Chat exchanges, Facebook messages with Fifield’s friends during and after the relationship, and diary entries from after the relationship ended.

Both parties confirmed they had a relationship. That’s already more than what existed during the Kavanaugh witch hunt.

In Kavanaugh’s case, there was no evidence whatsoever to corroborate his accusers’ claims of sexual impropriety, let alone that he had even met them.

Authors Mollie Hemingway and Carrie Severino noted the inconsistencies in the testimony of Kavanaugh’s chief accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, and how she couldn’t recall basic details about her alleged encounter with Kavanaugh. None of the people Ford named as being at the supposed party — including Ford’s lifelong friend Leland Keyser — recalled being at any such party.

Keyser also said she doesn’t know Kavanaugh, didn’t believe Ford’s story, and told the FBI that Ford’s allies tried pressuring her to change her statement to help Ford.

Claims by accusers Deborah Ramirez and Julie Swetnick also lacked any corroborating evidence and similarly collapsed under scrutiny.

Democrats and their media allies treated them all as credible anyway.

The Platner scandal confirms that the left doesn’t actually “believe all women.” They choose to believe allegations only when they can be weaponized to advance their quest for power.

Kavanaugh’s accusers were deemed believable because they could block a conservative judge from ascending to the Supreme Court. But since Platner’s accusers could threaten Democrats’ chances of defeating GOP Sen. Susan Collins, the party couldn’t care less.

Unless Democrats make a last-minute swap with a less-controversial leftist, the “party of women” will continue to defend Platner for as long as it takes.

The reconciliation package allocates over $30.73 billion to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, $22.57 billion to Customs and Border Protection, and $2.5 billion in Department of Homeland Security appropriations through 2029.

The passage came after President Donald Trump’s June 1 deadline had already slipped, with the administration’s $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund throwing the process into chaos.

Senate Republicans drafted the legislation in response to the 76-day shutdown of DHS after Democrats refused to fund the agency following high-profile shootings involving immigration agents in Minneapolis in January. The reconciliation process only requires a simple majority of 51 votes to pass.

Republican Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski was the only GOP senator to vote against the package.

Several Senate Republicans — including Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, and Katie Britt of Alabama — feared the Department of Justice fund would compensate Jan. 6 Capitol rioters convicted of assaulting police officers. Senate Majority Leader John Thune said he was not a fan of the fund, adding that certain guardrails should have been affixed to it.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche testified Tuesday that the administration was not moving forward with the fund. The chamber held a vote-a-rama, where Democrats introduced an amendment attempting to send the funding package back to the Senate Judiciary Committee and add instructions to ensure the fund would never be revived.

The amendment failed in a 49 to 50 vote, with Republican Sens. Susan Collins, Jon Husted of Ohio, and Dan Sullivan of Alaska joining Democrats in favor. All three senators are up for reelection in the 2026 midterm elections.

Republican Sen. Thom Tillis put forward an amendment to redirect money from the DOJ fund to fraud enforcement, which failed in a 15 to 84 vote. Tillis decided not to run for reelection in June 2025 after Trump threatened to primary him over his opposition to the One Big, Beautiful Bill Act.

Democratic Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman, who has broken with his party in a number of votes, told the Daily Caller News Foundation Thursday he planned to vote against the funding package. “I’m going to vote with my party,” Fetterman said.

The package also faced hurdles because of Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough, who ruled that four sections violated the Byrd Rule, which dictates that provisions in a reconciliation bill must have a direct, non-incidental impact on the federal budget. The impacted provisions involved funding for CBP, DHS appropriations, and additional funds to screen unaccompanied migrant children.

MacDonough also ruled that $1 billion in funding for security enhancements tied to White House ballroom construction violated the Byrd Rule, causing Senate Republicans to eliminate that funding from the revised version. The ruling prompted Trump to pressure Thune and Senate Republicans to replace MacDonough.

The bill now heads to the House for consideration.