Mitch McConnell Has Been Missing for 75 Days—With No Updates

It’s been at least 75 days since Senator Mitch McConnell has been seen in public. Yet on Thursday—despite McConnell supposedly being weeks into an intensive rehabilitation routine—his team blatantly refused to provide a progress report.

The last time his office shared details regarding the 84-year-old’s health status was three weeks ago, on August 6, when a press release seemingly penned by McConnell himself explained that he had been discharged from a rehabilitation center to continue his recovery at home.

“On the advice of my doctors, I’ll maintain an intensive regimen of physical therapy from home during the state work period, and I’ll continue to engage with my staff and colleagues on important Senate business,” the statement read.

Two days later, a man entering McConnell’s front door accidentally offered a glimpse inside the senator’s home, revealing boxes for MCombo lift recliners, a line of electric power-assist chairs that help people with limited mobility sit down or stand up.

However, three weeks later, McConnell’s team is still refusing to relay information about the senior party member’s health outlook. When asked by HuffPost’s Jennifer Bendery to elaborate on McConnell’s condition or his anticipated timeline to return to the Senate, McConnell spokesperson Stephanie Penn said Thursday that she had “nothing to add” to the August 6 statement.

The Kentucky Republican has been missing in action since he was found unconscious and rushed to the hospital on June 14. For weeks, McConnell’s office has refused to explain his extended hospitalization or elaborate on his eventual return to Capitol Hill.

The first interruption in the total media blackout happened on July 12, when the senator’s office shared a photo of McConnell sitting upright in a chair beside his wife, holding a copy of that day’s Washington Post sports section in his lap.

A statement released by his office alongside the image, written in the first person so as to suggest it was delivered by McConnell himself, specified that he had dealt with a “mild case of pneumonia” during his time in the hospital. He clarified that he had not broken bones, suffered a concussion, or had a heart attack or stroke.

Weeks later, McConnell’s team provided another still image of the senator, though it only added to the brouhaha as the American public clamors for more evidence of life from the sitting lawmaker.

President Trump won’t commemorate the twenty-fifth anniversary of the September 11 attacks in New York because he wouldn’t be allowed to make a speech.

The New York Times reports that Trump has decided to stay in Washington, D.C., and mark the event at the Pentagon, as the annual commemoration in New York historically hasn’t allowed politicians’ speeches and won’t make an exception for Trump. Vice President JD Vance will represent the administration in New York instead.

Trump also plans to fly to his golf course in Doonbeg, Ireland, the next day, and taking Air Force One from airports in New York or New Jersey could cause bigger traffic headaches in the region than from Andrews Air Force Base near Washington.

Initially, White House officials told organizers in New York and Washington that he was going to visit the memorial at Ground Zero. Since 2012, however, politicians have been barred from speaking at the event, as the area’s custodian, the National September 11 Memorial and Museum, has sought to keep the annual anniversary solemn and apolitical.

Trump is not known for being solemn, and his speeches throughout the years have not always been appropriate for their audiences. In a 2017 speech at the Boy Scout Jamboree, Trump ranted about political grievances and how great he is. Last year at the United Nations, he told the assembly that some member countries are “going to hell.” In May, he fell asleep in the Oval Office after bragging to kids about his plans for the Iran war, in what was supposed to be a ceremony announcing the presidential Fitness Test.

September 11 was one of the most tragic events in American history, and Trump doesn’t want to go to Ground Zero because he won’t be getting enough attention. That might be good because he wouldn’t respect the gravity of the event, but it also sends a message he’s not taking it seriously. At the Pentagon, Trump will get to rant, rave, and attack everyone he hates for as long as he wants, even though family members who lost people in the 9/11 attacks will be in the audience.

Wyoming’s Republican Governor Mark Gordon is sounding the alarm about the Trump administration’s “aggressive” and “irregular” elections monitoring.

Speaking at a canvassing board meeting Wednesday, Gordon expressed concerns about the Department of Justice’s surprise efforts to monitor election sites in the state during primary elections last week, WyoFile reported.

“To my knowledge, the U.S. Attorney was unaware of it, and it sounded like the behavior of the observers was a bit aggressive,” Gordon said.

“It just was irregular, and I have asked the attorney general to start looking into, you know, kind of the nature of the visits and all that sort of stuff,” he said.

It’s typical for federal observers to monitor elections, but Gordon claimed that the behavior of those at last week’s voting seemed to overstep the authority Congress had granted to them. “I’m not saying anything went wrong or anything else, and I certainly think the conduct of this election was phenomenal,” he said.

“I feel very strongly about federal government coming in and taking our guns,” Gordon said. “I don’t like that. And I don’t like federal government coming in and taking our votes either.”

In a statement to WyoFile Wednesday evening, Debra Lee, the chief election officer for Laramie County, recounted two monitors’ behavior after they arrived at a polling station in Wyoming’s most populous district. Lee said she was not aware that they were coming, and they did not offer credentials until requested.

The two monitors arrived at the busy polling station and asked staff questions that appeared to be “outside the scope of federal voting rights laws,” including questions about poll worker training and new election equipment. They also asked to examine their tabulators, according to Lee.

When Lee discovered the monitors intended to interview voters in order to “assess compliance with federal civil rights and voting rights laws,” the election official denied their request. “We do not allow interviews to be conducted in polling places,” she said.

“This was a poorly managed exercise and one that showed complete disregard for our state laws and administration of our elections,” she concluded.

The controversy follows a set of primary elections where candidates claiming elections are safe as is did extraordinarily well in Wyoming.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s administration “misappropriated” $10 million from a state Medicaid settlement to lobby against weed.

According to a Florida grand jury report, which was first obtained by CBS News, the money moved from a state Medicaid settlement, to a charity tied to the governor’s wife, Casey DeSantis, to a pair of dark-money PACs, and finally into a campaign to help kill a marijuana legalization ballot measure opposed by the governor.

It is not clear who directed the transfer of funds, which were meant to help low-income children receive health insurance, the grand jury noted. As a result, it found “insufficient evidence to charge anyone criminally.”

“Nobody will take responsibility for deciding the $10 million of taxpayer money would go to Hope Florida,” the jury concluded. “While we can’t prove who is responsible, we can plainly see that taxpayer money was misused for political purposes and we would like to see changes made to prevent this from happening again.”

The grand jury’s report is dated January 28, 2026, and is still officially sealed.

The Hope Florida Foundation is the fundraising arm of a charity, Hope Florida, started by Casey DeSantis in 2021. The organization intends to connect low-income families with churches and local groups to keep them off public assistance. In its own words, Hope Florida goes “beyond government to create a pathway for Floridians to live up to their God-given potential and accomplish the American Dream.”

The $10 million transferred to the charity was initially part of a Medicaid settlement between the state of Florida and Centene Corporation, a for-profit health care company, over claims of over-billing. In February 2023, Centene Corporation offered to pay the entire $67,048,611 settlement to the state. More than a year and a half later, the settlement was split up: “On September 27, 2024, State of Florida officials agreed that Centene would pay $57,048,611 to the State of Florida and $10,000,000 to Hope Florida Foundation, Inc.,” the grand jury’s report read. “Within days, the $10,000,000 was transferred to other organizations for political purposes because money was spent on a political campaign and went to the Republican Party of Florida.”

According to the grand jury report, “after the money was transferred to Hope Florida, it was quickly funneled from there into two political action committees”—$5 million to Secure Florida’s Future and $5 million to Save Our Society From Drugs, both “dark money” groups that are not required to release detailed financial reports. The two groups then used the cash to bankroll Keep Florida Clean, another PAC created specifically to oppose a ballot initiative to legalize marijuana. Although the marijuana amendment was popular across the state, it ultimately failed.

The report goes on to implicate a series of officials in Florida state government who may have had knowledge of the transaction, including Republican Senate candidate Ashley Moody, who was the state’s attorney general at the time. Moody allegedly “authorized” her chief deputy, John Guard, to sign the settlement agreement diverting $10 million to Hope Florida.

When asked about the grand jury’s report on Thursday, DeSantis claimed the only crime that was “apparent was whoever leaked the grand jury report.”

Representative Max Miller is needling his former father-in-law, Senator Bernie Moreno.

The embattled Ohio Republican representative issued a veiled threat against Moreno at the Cuyahoga County family court Wednesday, claiming that his marriage to Moreno’s daughter had revealed things that he believed the senator would like him to “remain quiet about.”

“I was a part of that family for a very long time,” Miller told Mother Jones’s Abby Vesoulis on video. “There are certain things that he would like me to remain quiet about, and I respectfully have, and I will always intend to do that because that’s not my business to share. But it’s politically motivated.”

The comment came right after a hearing in Miller’s contentious custody battle over his two-year-old daughter. Miller initially declined to speak with reporters, but then decided to cut his attorney off mid-sentence to voice the warning.

“No, no,” Miller’s lawyer could be heard saying in the background of the clip.

Emily Moreno, Miller’s ex-wife, alleges the congressman physically hurt her and their toddler. In court filings and police reports, Moreno has accused Miller of throwing her against a wall, leaving an “obvious grab mark on her upper arm”; throwing scalding water on her (an incident that Miller refuted as “horseplay”); and having “held a gun to her head.” Moreno also recounted an instance in which their daughter told her, “Daddy kill you.”

Medical records submitted during the couple’s custody dispute cited several injuries to their young daughter, as well, including a broken collarbone that Moreno claimed occurred during Miller’s care.

In other instances, Miller allegedly withheld his daughter’s favorite toy from her, and accidentally published audio recordings alleging his drug abuse as well as naked images of his daughter in misguided attempts to prove his own innocence.

It took the Ohio senator weeks to get publicly involved in the dangerous affair affecting his daughter and granddaughter, but Bernie Moreno finally denounced Miller earlier this month, writing in a post on X that the Donald Trump–backed Republican should “not serve in the House of Representatives.” At least five other senators have also urged Miller to drop out of his respective House race.

Miller has categorically denied the allegations and sued his ex-wife for defamation in May. He was never charged with a crime, and the Department of Children and Family Services did not find evidence to substantiate allegations of child abuse, according to court filings.