Senator Mitch McConnell remained hospitalized on Wednesday as Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear sent him a letter demanding a health update. Beshear’s request put McConnell’s extended absence back in the center of Kentucky politics while the senator remains away from the Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee.
McConnell has been hospitalized since June 14. He heads the Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, served as Senate majority leader, and is set to retire after his term ends in January.
Andy Beshear’s letter
Beshear, Kentucky’s Democratic Governor, asked McConnell to provide a health update in the letter he sent on Wednesday. The step made the state’s uncertainty around McConnell’s condition a public matter again, rather than a question left to private discussion.
The letter matters because McConnell’s absence reaches beyond personal health. He still leads the Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee while his term continues, so the absence falls on a committee seat that remains active even as his retirement approaches in January.
Elaine Chao returns from China
Elaine Chao, the former U.S. labor and transportation secretary and McConnell’s wife, returned home from a trip to China on Wednesday. She said, “The Senator’s health did not warrant an immediate return to the U.S.”
That statement came as criticism had grown over her staying in China after McConnell was hospitalized. Her return closed one part of the story, but it also left McConnell’s own condition without a public update.
McConnell’s health question
The immediate issue now is straightforward: McConnell has not provided the health update Beshear demanded. Until he does, the most important public fact is that he has been hospitalized since June 14 while continuing to hold a Senate committee post and approach retirement in January.
