'This is not normal': AOC unloads on McConnell's prolonged absence
Sen. Mitch McConnell's disclosure of new details about the medical issues that have kept him away from the Senate has sparked fresh scrutiny on Capitol Hill, with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., questioning whether his prolonged absence is "legal at this point" even as Republicans insist he'll return when the Senate needs him.
"How is everyone pretending this is normal?" Ocasio-Cortez said to Fox News Digital. "This is not normal. At all."
"How is it that we have sitting elected members of Congress going missing for months at a time?"
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The Kentucky senator broke his silence on his previously undisclosed medical conditions that have kept him absent from the Senate since he was first hospitalized on June 14. He posted to social media claiming that his childhood fight with polio contributed to the fall that left him "briefly unconscious" and hospitalized last month, and then was hit with a "mild case of pneumonia" in the midst of his recovery.
"Leader McConnell is tough as nails," Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., said. "This guy survived polio. For days on end, he went through therapy. People have no idea how tough he is. "
McConnell's silence fueled online speculation about his condition, with unsubstantiated rumors ranging from cardiac arrest to claims that he had died.
"When you're not very forthcoming with a lot of information, whether it's personal or professional information, you do leave the conclusion up to conspiracy theorists," Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., said. "And people's imagination is far greater than reality almost every time."
Even after McConnell released his statement on his medical absence, including a photo of him with his wife in the hospital, rumors circulated about the senator, claiming he could be in a vegetative state.
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The statement also did not address specifically when McConnell would return to the Senate, only stating that he would not "be able to return to the Senate floor to vote quite yet."
But Republican senators seemed confident that McConnell would return to the Senate floor for key votes, with Cramer even claiming GOP leaders have been in "regular" contact with him throughout his absence.
"Enough of our leadership have regular conversations with him for me to be comfortable," Cramer said.
"I don't have any doubt if there was a vote for a Supreme Court justice tomorrow that he'd find a way to be here for that," Marshall said. "I think he'll be here when we need him, and I just would never count him out. He'll be back."
McConnell, 84, is set to retire next year at the end of his term, but has promised he will be "finishing the job" he was elected to do until then.
"I think that Mitch McConnell has always been exactly who he is right now," Cramer said.
"He's not the most transparent person in the world. He thinks strategically, tactically. He thinks about what serves the institution best — what serves his political ambitions and his political priorities."
Ocasio-Cortez told Fox News Digital that while medical emergencies can often be inevitable, she believes there needs to be some regulations pertaining to the length of absences, as well as potentially some legislation passed to prevent lawmakers from being able to be absent for long periods.
"Listen, things do happen," Ocasio-Cortez said. "People get into medical incidents. If you're in the hospital, you're in the hospital. But I do think that there should be some sort of... there's a line here. And I think almost everyone can agree that it's been crossed."