Botschaft des Gouverneurs von Kentucky, Andy Beshear, an Senator Mitch McConnell: Geben Sie mehr über die Gesundheit preis oder treten Sie zurück

(From the article): ““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. 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,” Beshear writes in the letter, written on state government letterhead and obtained by CNN.

“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. I understand anyone’s desire for privacy, but when you run for office and serve as one of a state’s two US senators, you willingly abdicate much of your personal privacy,” Beshear wrote.

“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,” he continued.”

Imagine if the roles were reversed. Mitch would have acted in craven party interests long ago

He has proved he’s not the candidate the Democrats need.

Either Beshear is allowed to see McConnell alive and functional in person or he declares him dead.

This is actually a good play. He likely knows he is incapacitated and he knows litigation is to come no matter what course of action he chooses, so issuing this demand letter before he acts is wise. Expect nothing from McConnell camp and then Beshear to act under presumption of death or incapacitation and then litigation galore.

While this does look toothless to readers, Beshear is creating a legal paper trail to document good faith before replacing McConnell.

How confident are we that Kentucky voters would not replace Mitch with a republican in a special election? Even if it is Massie, he still votes for Trump’s agenda.

McConnel still being alive but not voting in the Senate is a better outcome.

Dead men tell no tales

All it takes is one single Senator to submit a Petition of Expulsion in the Senate to force Mitch to vacate his seat due to not being alive.

People who want Beshear to replace McConnell immediately are making a mistake. Right now McConnell can’t vote. That means the Republicans lose a solid vote and probably can’t pass anything. Replacing him gives the Republicans that vote back.

It is _better_ for McConnell’s seat to stay fucked for as long as possible. Beshear is doing the right thing by making political hay about it without actually giving the Republicans the seat back.

(I assume the mistake people are making is thinking that Beshear could appoint whomever he wanted to a vacant seat. He can’t. He would have to replace McConnell with somebody from a list _provided by the Republicans_. Which obviously would be full of MAGA types.

And that’s assuming the courts find the law requiring him to do a special election instead of an appointment are invalid. Which they may not, it’s fuckin‘ Kentucky.

The hate Beshear is getting on this issue is a complete misreading of the situation.

This entire comments section proving that MAGA doesn’t have a monopoly on political stupidity.

Would any expert here care to weigh in on why Republicans would be concealing McConnell’s death when there’s an election for this seat in three months? How do they stand to benefit from preventing a special election?

Beshear’s authority to appoint someone to fill the seat is dubious at best, and even if he did appoint someone, Republicans would simply refuse to seat them.

Voters gave Democrats almost no institutional power. Your neighbors barricaded your street to prevent the fire department from putting out your house fire, and you’re getting mad at the fire fighters and not the people who barricaded the street.

Stop bitching online that Democrats don’t have a magic button to stop things and put that energy into volunteering for Democratic campaigns at the federal, state, and local levels.

There’s no reason for Beshear to do anything. An empty McConnell seat is the best case scenario here, great for Dems in the Senate. Whether he has the power or not, he shouldn’t intervene in something which is to the benefit of Democrats. Plus, McConnell and his staff likely have legal and judicial challenges and strategies ready for any maneuver he tries. Just let the seat stay vacant.

Mitch: (via his spokesperson): „Yeah, we’ll respond fully to your request on Aug. 4.“

honest question… why don’t the democrats in the state just go to the hospital he is supposedly at?

Threatening the GOP does nothing. The only thing that would get them to respond is to tell people that unless McConnell’s condition is disclosed within 24 hours, Beshear will choose McConnell’s replacement as granted by the Kentucky constitution.

Public officials are held to a different standard when their health affects their ability to serve. Voters deserve transparency and clarity.

Mitch McConnell is dead.

Why isn’t everyone filing missing person reports, call for wellness checks, or just going to wherever he supposedly is and see him???

Just give him 48 hours to make a PUBLIC appearance or else immediately start the process to hold the special election. Enough is enough. If he’s well enough to take those PR photos (which is 99% certain to be AI generated anyway, but that’s what they want to portray him as being), he’s good enough to do a public meeting even if its short. You can’t have it both ways and have him bad enough to isolate himself from the world but healthy enough to do his job. No one is buying that shit.

Start the special election process NOW. IF he hasn’t shown himself publicly within that 48 hours, take that as his blanket resignation and carry forward. They’re going to pull the plug on him anyway as soon as the deadline passes, so force them to admit it sooner than later.