Mitch McConnell, the 84-year-old former Senate GOP leader who was reportedly found unconscious and needed CPR after a cardiac arrest last month, is apparently still alive and talking foreign policy from his hospital bed. Which, if true, is both medically remarkable and extremely on brand for a guy who has spent his entire career refusing to stop working no matter what his body has to say about it.
According to USA Journal, conservative commentator Scott Jennings posted on X that he spoke with McConnell on the phone and that the Kentucky senator is "still recovering in the hospital." Jennings said they "talked for just shy of 20 minutes ... about IRAN, UKRAINE, and unfolding situation in MAINE, my visit to the TR Presidential Library, and even a little bit of Senate history." Jennings added, "I told him we want to see him back at work as soon as possible."
Twenty minutes on Iran, Ukraine, Maine, and Teddy Roosevelt. The man allegedly flatlined and came back to life, and his idea of a recovery conversation sounds like a particularly ambitious Senate committee hearing. Most people who survive cardiac arrest are lucky to mumble their own name. McConnell is apparently conducting informal foreign policy briefings from a hospital gown.
Now, Jennings is widely considered a credible and trustworthy voice in conservative circles, so there is no real reason to doubt what he is reporting. That said, let us take a moment to appreciate the full picture here. McConnell has spent the last few years collecting health incidents like frequent flyer miles. Brain freezes on live television. Falls that resulted in injuries. And now a reported cardiac arrest that required CPR to bring him back. The man's body has been sending him retirement brochures for years, and he keeps throwing them in the trash.
For anyone unfamiliar with the medical reality, cardiac arrest is not a heart attack. It is when your heart stops beating entirely. The survival rate is not great for young, healthy people, let alone an octogenarian senator who has already had a rough couple of years physically. The fact that McConnell is reportedly holding coherent 20 minute phone conversations about geopolitics would be genuinely impressive if confirmed.
But the key word there is "if." We have not heard directly from McConnell himself, and we have not gotten an official medical update. All we have is a phone call relayed by a friend on social media. That is not nothing, but it is also not a press conference with his doctors.
Time will tell how this story develops. In the meantime, somewhere in a Kentucky hospital room, Mitch McConnell is apparently debating the finer points of Senate history with anyone who calls. The Grim Reaper apparently showed up, and McConnell tabled the motion.
Read more conservative news commentary at: USA Journal News
