Kentucky’s Democratic governor, Andy Beshear, gave Sen. Mitch McConnell an ultimatum on Monday: Provide more information about his ongoing health struggles and his ability to return to the Senate, or resign from office.
“As Governor of the state you serve, I am calling on you to directly and verbally address the people of Kentucky and provide proof of your capacity to serve, or resign,” Beshear wrote in a letter to the longtime senator’s office obtained by NOTUS.
The letter, first reported by CNN, came on the heels of a statement released by McConnell Monday, announcing that he is still not cleared to return to the Senate and is focusing on “intense physical therapy.” The update included another picture of the senator and his wife, Elaine Chao, but did not include many details about his condition or an expected return date.
McConnell added that he would be unable to attend Kentucky’s Fancy Farm event this Saturday, which is the state’s long-standing bipartisan political rally.
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“There’s no place I’d rather be on the first Saturday in August than with the good people of western Kentucky, feasting on pork and mutton,” McConnell said in the statement.
The Office of the Attending Physician stated that McConnell is continuing to recover, but Beshear took issue with the lack of details about the senator’s physical condition.
“Even the attending physician’s written statement does not discuss your actual condition, including whether you can speak, reason, or carry out your duties as a senator,” Beshear wrote.
The governor addressed the letter to McConnell but called on his Senate staff to be “honest and transparent” with Kentuckians if the senator is unable to reply.
“I am addressing this letter to Senator McConnell under the assumption that he is capable of reading and responding verbally, and not incapacitated by means of consciousness or cognition,” Beshear wrote. “If the Senator is unable to respond for either of those or other conditions, consider this letter a demand for his Senate staff to be honest and transparent with the people of Kentucky.”
McConnell’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the governor’s letter.
Beshear sent the letter to Senate Majority Leader John Thune along with an additional letter calling on him to investigate McConnell’s absence.
If McConnell steps down, a special election is required to fill his vacant Senate seat, according to a 2024 state law. A 2021 law would have allowed Beshear to choose a replacement for McConnell from a list of three Republicans provided by the outgoing senator.
But the governor signaled that he might be willing to challenge the law.
“There is a Kentucky constitutional provision that says that I appoint all state officers when there’s a vacancy,” Beshear told MS NOW earlier this month. “The question is, does that apply to federal offices? Well, before there was ever a law in Kentucky on how this would work, multiple appointments were made by governors, presumably under that provision.”
McConnell has not been seen in public since his hospitalization on June 14. The senator’s office has released statements saying he is receiving medical treatment after suffering a fall and was “briefly unconscious” after the initial incident.
As a survivor of childhood polio, McConnell has said that the illness still impacts his mobility. The senator had been seen using a wheelchair at the Capitol following a previous fall.
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