Mitch McConnell Breaks Silence Amid Long Absence

Sen. Mitch McConnell has remained almost completely out of public view for nearly two months, but one of his longtime allies says the Kentucky Republican is improving — and still deeply involved in GOP politics from home.

Conservative CNN commentator Scott Jennings revealed Tuesday that McConnell personally called him and sounded noticeably stronger as the 84-year-old senator continues recovering from a serious fall that left him unconscious and hospitalized in June.

“He called me directly from his phone today,” Jennings said during CNN’s The Arena.

Jennings said McConnell appeared alert, engaged and fully plugged into the political battles Republicans are facing ahead of the November elections.

The two reportedly discussed everything from the Michigan Senate race and the GOP’s broader electoral map to the farm bill and one of McConnell’s longtime priorities — protecting the Senate filibuster.

“Being at home is better than being in the hospital, that’s for sure,” Jennings said.

The phone call is one of the clearest indications yet that McConnell remains mentally engaged despite his prolonged disappearance from Capitol Hill.

McConnell has largely stayed out of sight since falling at his Washington, D.C., home on June 14. The accident reportedly knocked him unconscious and eventually sent him to a rehabilitation facility.

His office announced last week that he had been discharged and was continuing his recovery at home.

But McConnell himself still has not appeared publicly or directly addressed Kentucky voters, leading to increasingly loud questions about his health and whether he will be able to finish his final term in the Senate.

According to Jennings, however, McConnell is aiming for a comeback.

“I think their plan is to hopefully get him back to the Senate,” Jennings said.

The Senate is scheduled to reconvene Sept. 14, and Jennings said several upcoming legislative fights remain particularly important to McConnell before he leaves office in January.

McConnell announced earlier this year that he would not seek reelection, bringing an end to one of the longest and most consequential Senate careers in modern Republican politics.

But his prolonged absence has turned into a political issue back home.

Kentucky Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear has publicly questioned why McConnell has been willing to speak privately with Jennings but has not appeared before voters or reporters himself.

“If he supposedly had a 17-minute conversation with Scott Jennings, he can call in and have a three-minute conversation with you,” Beshear told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins in July.

Beshear said he hopes McConnell is doing well but argued that the senator owes Kentucky residents a firsthand update.

“He can go to camera and just let us know he’s doing all right, which is what we all ultimately hope for,” Beshear said. “But it is incumbent upon him to have enough respect for the people of Kentucky and the United States of America to do the bare minimum and be honest and transparent.”

Beshear even suggested Jennings could simply put McConnell on speakerphone during a CNN appearance to end the speculation.

Jennings pushed back on the criticism, arguing that McConnell has always been unusually private about his health.

McConnell, who survived polio as a child, has rarely spoken extensively about his medical problems in public.

“My belief about males of that generation is that they’re intensely private,” Jennings said.

And despite missing Senate votes since June, Jennings insisted McConnell has not simply disappeared from his duties.

He said the senator has been meeting regularly with staff, speaking with other senators and closely tracking legislation from home.

Jennings said McConnell spoke with Arkansas Republican Sen. John Boozman about the farm bill and Utah Republican Sen. John Curtis about defending the Senate filibuster.

“So, I know he was doing sort of senatorial work on the phones as the Senate was winding up its previous session,” Jennings said.

He added that McConnell has also received visitors and continues to hold meetings with aides.

Upcoming fights over the farm bill and the National Defense Authorization Act are apparently especially important to the veteran senator.

McConnell even acknowledged during his conversation with Jennings that the secrecy surrounding his recovery has created an unusual situation.

“I know this is an unusual circumstance,” McConnell reportedly told Jennings. “I’m sitting here, the doctors tell me I don’t have any life-threatening issues. It must seem rather strange.”

That explanation has not completely quieted the questions.

CNN contributor Lulu Garcia-Navarro pressed Jennings on why McConnell has not simply called into a friendly television network such as Fox News to reassure the public himself.

“Why isn’t he calling into even one that he would consider friendly like Fox News?” she asked.

CNN host Pamela Brown similarly suggested McConnell could appear on Jennings’ radio show.

Jennings said he hopes that eventually happens.

“I hope that he will call into my radio show,” Jennings said. “I’ve had him on before and I’m hoping to have him on as we get closer to when the Senate [returns].”

Jennings added that McConnell appears well aware of the speculation and may be growing irritated by it.

He said the senator seemed “somewhat aware of it and frankly somewhat frustrated by it.”

Meanwhile, fellow Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul is urging people to give McConnell some room to recover.

Speaking in Louisville on Tuesday, Paul acknowledged that he still has not personally spoken with McConnell but said there is little reason to believe his senior colleague is intentionally avoiding his responsibilities.

“I think we ought to have some consideration for the fact that he’s trying to come back,” Paul said, according to the Louisville Courier Journal.

He urged Kentuckians to “wish him well and hope he gets better soon.”

Paul said McConnell’s absence has not caused major problems in the Senate so far, although his vote could become important once lawmakers return to Washington.

And he offered a blunt defense of the recovering senator.

“I don’t think he’s staying out, you know, playing hooky or on vacation in the Caribbean,” Paul said.

“He’s struggling.”

For now, McConnell’s private phone conversations are doing much of the talking for him.

Whether the longtime Republican power broker actually walks back into the Capitol when the Senate returns in September could determine whether the growing questions about his health finally disappear — or become even louder.