Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell appeared to freeze for about 30 seconds on Wednesday while speaking with reporters after a speech in Covington, Kentucky.

The incident is similar to an episode McConnell experienced at the US Capitol late last month and is likely to raise additional questions about the fitness of the 81-year-old to lead the Senate Republican caucus.

Wednesday’s episode occurred when a reporter asked the Republican leader if he was planning to run for reelection in 2026. McConnell had to ask him to repeat the question several times, chuckled for a moment, and then paused.

Someone at his side then asked him, “Did you hear the question, senator, running for reelection in 2026?” McConnell did not respond.

Article includes video of the incident.

  • empireOfLove@lemmy.one
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    1 year ago

    Sounds kind of like when my maternal grandma had a series of micro strokes for a few months before having the Big One.

    Time to retire, Mitch. For both our sakes.

    • agent_flounder@lemmy.one
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      1 year ago

      All these old fossils need to GTFO. Him, Feinstein, all of em.

      But McConnell in particular has royally fucked this country. No member of Congress should have that much power. But he used it quite effectively for his own ends. So fuck him

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      Its either happening frequently and just happens to have been caught on camera twice, or it could instead be related to hearing well enough to understand.

      My grandparents were like this. Even if they could hear you, a lot of times it seemed out of context to them because they missed some other important piece.

      • grabyourmotherskeys@lemmy.world
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        The people handling him knew exactly what was going on there. This happens all the time, I’m guessing.

        Source: youngest grandchild of a huge family.

      • Jordan Lund@lemmy.one
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        1 year ago

        You’d think if it were a hearing issue he would just say “Could you repeat the question?” and not stand there like a deer in headlights.

        🦌💡💡

      • Spendrill@lemm.ee
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        Schrödinger’s McConnell: competent enough to lead the Republicans in Senate, not competent enough to answer questions about Trump under oath.

      • merc@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        Yeah, that’s not a hearing issue. I’ve seen people with hearing issues who zone out because they can’t hear / follow the conversation. But, they’re not at a podium at the time. When that happens they know they can just back out of the conversation and hang out until the conversation is over, or the meal is over, or whatever.

        When you’re at the podium you know you’re the focus of attention and need to respond. You can’t just stand there with a blank look. That looked more like a stroke or a seizure than a lack of hearing.

      • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Yeah idk if auditory processing goes with age but you can also have delays from that.

        That said if this were that you’d think he’d get hearing aids after the last one

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        1 year ago

        Senators are among the most powerful politicians in the US, as well as on the planet, and they know it. They don’t stand there befuddled because they’re socially awkward. If they’re befuddled, it’s because they’re befuddled.

        We are seeing the human version of the Mac’s spinning beach ball. I have a cat with the same problem. I would not nominate her for a seat in the Senate.

    • MrsDoyle@sh.itjust.works
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      My sister’s absence seizures turned out to be stage four brain cancer. I know he’s an arsehole, but doesn’t he have anyone looking out for him? At all? He needs help.

      • rambaroo@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Did you see the look on that lady’s face? She wasn’t even worried, she was annoyed. That’s the world Republicans want to create for everyone. A Russia-like society where no one gives a fuck about anyone outside their immediate family, because it makes people much easier to control.

    • Sharkwellington@lemmy.one
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      I kind of hope he doesn’t retire and goes out in an explosion of bodily fluid on live TV. What a show that would be.

    • BoofStroke@lemm.ee
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      I’m good with him staying on in a state where he can’t fuck us over more. My worry is who then pulls the puppet strings.

    • Evil_Shrubbery@lemm.ee
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      Timezone difference, they pushed updates to their clients over night, just standard practice.

      But it’s still funny that they force-reboot like Microsoft.

    • milkjug@lemmy.world
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      That explains drumpf’s incoherent ramblings, corrupted bios after a failed flash.

  • eran_morad@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    He should step down and fuck off into the sunset, warmly recalling with what little neurological function he may have how he fucked so many Americans. It’s probably best that I not write the rest of what I’m thinking about this piece of shit traitor.

    • Beaphe@lemmy.world
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      I’m fully rooting for Mitchs dementia. Much the same as I am a big fan of Limbaughs cancer.

      Sometimes nature rolls a nat 20.

      • WaxedWookie@lemmy.world
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        I figure a nat 20 in this context would be a little more dramatic than simple sundowning… We could shoot for shitting himself on camera, moments of brutally honest verbal diarrhea, endless painful kidney stones…

        Whatever the case, I wish McConnell all the health outcomes he so richly deserves.

        • hydrospanner@lemmy.world
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          I would also wish him the level of healthcare he’s supported for Americans in general, but we know that he’s rich enough for a proper level of care.

        • Intralexical@lemmy.world
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          dementia […] cancer

          more dramatic […] shitting himself on camera, moments of brutally honest verbal diarrhea, endless painful kidney stones…

          Interesting to see a few short moments of temporary and trite social embarrassment portrayed as a worse fate than the gradual and drawn-out ablation of everything that you are.

    • mayonaise_met@feddit.nl
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      It all seems kind of pointless doesn’t it? You screw over your compatriots only to become a lukewarm wet towel yourself.

  • Sterile_Technique@lemmy.world
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    May he receive thoughts and prayers. And no other form of healthcare or support.

    The world will become a slightly better place when he finally dies.

  • Madex@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    Americans stop voting old white dudes and ruining the rest of the world please.

    • Razp@lemm.ee
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      Just stop voting old dudes period. A white old dude is as unsuitable to govern as a non-white old dude.

      Vote for younger and more progressive generation.

        • NuPNuA@lemm.ee
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          I don’t think we have anyone in McConnells or Feinsteins states in parliament right now. Maybe in the Lord’s as it’s lifetime peerages but they probably don’t turn up anyway.

      • Crabhands@lemmy.ml
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        Bingo. The problem here is old, not white or men. Only white, or only men is a separate problem, which is maybe what they meant.

        • InternetUser2012@midwest.social
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          I’ll disagree. Old is part of the problem but the huge majority of the problem is OLD AND WHITE. Literally America’s biggest issue. If you don’t think so, you’re either a troll or you live in a bubble.

          • Jax@sh.itjust.works
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            If you don’t think so, you’re either a troll or you live in a bubble.

            Weird, on a totally unrelated note: what do you think is driving the burgeoning popularity of white supremacists across the U.S.?

            Just curious what your take is, considering you’ve clearly thought about this topic.

            • over_clox@lemmy.world
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              Have you not noticed how many towns and cities across the USA are designed? White people tend to live in the northern part of the city, while darker people tend to live in the southern part of the city.

              That’s not by accident, the city planners design it that way, and they have different regulations and taxes and shit depending whether you live north or south of the highway or tracks…

    • RDAM_Whiskers@lemmy.ml
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      I don’t fuckin want them either. It’s our fuckin boomers who want to take everything to the grave with them.

    • Pulptastic@midwest.social
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      1 year ago

      Kentucky is going to Kentucky. Hold my beer while I burn the state to the ground. I lived there and it was disheartening how many people vote against their self interest.

      • Chunk@lemmy.world
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        Because to most people in Kentucky keeping America safe from Hillary Clinton is more important than healthcare, abortion access, or school funding. Those voters have shown us their priorities, time and time again, and they truly care more about culture war nonsense than anything else.

        • kool_newt@lemm.ee
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          Keep in mind though, that it’s not that the people of Kentucky are inherently bad or stupid, they have been intentionally poorly educated, miseducated, and are heavily propagandized. Many of these people are effectively trapped, surrounded by messages of hate and religion and they are taught to blame their problems on specific others. This is done on purpose so that they are easier to manipulate into voting as needed to maintain power structures.

        • TechnoBabble@lemm.ee
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          They’re just voting for the only party who pretends to care about them.

          Democrats have spent almost no energy on making rural voters feel included.

          If you saw everything you’ve ever known decay into the shambles of globalization, then some orange guy comes and starts yelling about how he’s going to fight for your way of life, while the other guy is talking to the people who have been shaming you for decades, who do you think you’d vote for?

          If we want a better future, we’re going to have to get over all this hatred towards our neighbors. Waving your hands around a map and saying “fuck allll these (rural) people” isn’t going to work anymore, because China/Russia know exactly how to exploit that hate.

  • Lightor@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I love how republicans will say Biden is too old and make fun of him while also down playing this BS…

  • Murais@lemmy.one
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    Last comment was deleted, so I guess I’ll repost it with edits.

    Couldn’t happen to a nicer piece of shit.

    Lot of folks trying to take the high road here out of compassion.

    This guy single-handedly fucked democracy sideways for at least a generation. The reverberations of his Supreme Court shenanigans are going to be responsible for the deaths of thousands.

    I hope he spends the rest of his days confused and shitting himself.

  • abigscaryhobo@lemmy.world
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    After reading all the comments about wanting his life to be over and the counters about feeling bad for him etc. I think ive come to a conclusion on how to ethically handle him.

    I’m going to laugh. I’m going to laugh at how foolish he looks having a stroke on stage. How despite all of the terrible things he has done to this country on a socio-economic level trying to line his pockets and stay in power, he is standing up there, feeble and barely coherent, looking like he simultaneously shat himself and forgot his name, I’m going to laugh.

    Because if he wants any semblance of dignity, any ounce of respect, he needs to admit that he is done and bow out.

    “But he is still human, have some empathy” No, why should I? This man has engineered tearing the country apart so he can put his grubby hands all over it and smear it in his own grease. And he is still trying to keep doing it!

    What I see up there is an old man trying to walk across the freeway, with a dozen people telling him not to. And he is not only ignoring them but lifting his nose high and walking out into the road anyway. So when I see that mack truck hit him like it did on that stage, I laugh.

  • kescusay@lemmy.world
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    That is hard to watch. I hate his guts and everything he’s done and stood for in politics, but it’s still rough to watch a man just fade away like that.

    He needs to retire and stop clinging desperately to power. The stress of it alone is probably literally killing him.

    Edit: Just so we’re clear, here, I’m not offering him sympathy. I have none to give for a monster like Mitch McConnell. The man has done enormous damage to the country, and people like him are why I worry about the future for my kids (both LGBTQ+).

    I was only trying to express that on a gut level, it’s still unpleasant to see someone basically drain away like that.

    • DoucheBagMcSwag@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      He lost all potential sympathy from me when he denied Garland and rammed in Barett during an election year before RBG was fucking cold in the ground. That decision and denial of representation has made shockwaves of regression in terms of civil rights, voting rights, women’s bodily autonomy and LGBTQ rights …and that’s what we have gone backward in…so far (birth control and gay marriage being illegal again is coming) and we will feel these effects for several decades way after he’s gone.

      tots and fucking pears, goddamn ghoul.

    • agent_flounder@lemmy.one
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      Whether he clings to power and dies from stress is kind of his decision.

      I don’t enjoy seeing a person, even him, suffering illness. Even as much as I despise that horrible piece of shit.

    • Talkurt@reddthat.com
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      I feel the same. Terrible human being. But taking joy in the suffering of others is not something I will do.

      • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world
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        Don’t worry, I will take enough joy for us both. There is no hell, he is going to the same dirt we all are. If I want to feel a bit glad that one less terrible human is around causing problems I won’t feel bad about about feeling bad. Humanity as a whole will be better off the faster he dies. My feelings won’t change when that event happens and express an honest evaluation of the situation.

        Every single teenager girl in America trying to abort her incest baby with a metal hanger is because of that fucker.

      • Chthonic@slrpnk.net
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        Don’t worry I’ll have your share, get fucked Mitch.

        I know McConnell is just a lightning rod for hate for the GOP and as soon as he’s gone some other amoral, sociopathic mercenary will take his place, but damn if he’s not just the worst.

    • Navarian@lemm.ee
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      Exactly this ^

      The insane vitriol of some people on here, wishing death to this man, rejoicing in very obvious cognitive decline, it’s harrowing.

      The policy this man has supported and even pioneered is horrific, and frankly he should never have been allowed to push that shit nor would I ever support it, but you can bet your fucking ass I’m not going to be sat here laughing about an old man in clear mental distress or wishing death on him, because I’m not a piece of shit and I actually have some form of morality.

      • SmoothIsFast@citizensgaming.com
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        For fucks sake, it’s not some superior morals to allow a corrupt abuser to die or suffer for the agony they caused. It’s a lie to keep a power systems masses docile and in check. It’s even worse morals to know what this guy does and hope for the best for him instead of him dropping dead. Fuck that, and fuck all this shit that allows corruption to remain unfettered because oh we need to be kind to the fascist narcissistic egotists or what we have to deal with them like we always have. You should be aware of how they act and be ready to address that shit from day one when it’s called out. We know we need chemo to kill a tumor why the fuck are we acting like we should be feeding it and nurturing these shit stains who are actively cannibalizing the human races ability to survive over greed. Cut the tumor out or fucking irradiate it to death. Any fucking fascist peice of shit should be getting the same treatment. You don’t want to be mocked and laughed at as you die in old age? Well than start by giving a fuck about others first and maybe we will return the favor. I treat others based on how they treat others, fuck around like a shit stain get laughed at and paraded around like the shit stain you are.

  • Furbag@lemmy.world
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    Put these fucking geriatrics out to pasture already. That includes Feinstein as well. Shameful that this dude is being paraded around in front of media when he’s barely coherent. It’s shit like this that makes it very evident how long the Silent Generation and the Baby Boomers have clung desperately onto power long past the age that they should have handed over the reins to the people who will actually have to live with the consequences of their decisions.

    Where are all the Republicans deriding “Sleepy” Joe Biden? What are your thoughts on Mitch McConnell the stroke victim? Would you vote him back into office again if he or whoever was puppeteering his desiccated corpse decided to run again?