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Mitch McConnell health update: Scott Jennings spoke to Senator ‘for 20 minutes’ amid ‘brain dead’ rumors
CNN's Scott Jennings said he spoke with Mitch McConnell for nearly 20 minutes, confirming he's recovering in hospital, countering viral “brain dead” claims.
Amid major backlash from the far-right social media, led by influencer Laura Loomer, claims circulated on social media Monday that Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell is purportedly "brain dead" and his staff is allegedly "hiding it."
Despite a near-tight-lipped stance from the Senator's office since his June 14 hospitalization, CNN's Scott Jennings provided a breaking update on the Senator's health.
Jennings said that he spoke to "friend," the Senator for "just shy of 20 minutes." McConnell told him that he is still hospital and recovering, Jennings said in a post on X Tuesday.
“I spoke to my old friend Mitch McConnell this morning, the senior Senator from Kentucky,” the CNN anchor wrote. "He’s still recovering in the hospital.
"We talked for just shy of 20 minutes … about IRAN, UKRAINE, the unfolding situation in MAINE, my visit to the TR Presidential Library, and even a little bit of Senate history. I told him we want to see him back at work as soon as possible.
What Triggered Brain-Dead Claims
Mitch McConnell's wife has been in the news since his June 14 hospitalization. His staff had said at the time that the 84-year-old Senator was "recovering." But questions were raised again after he missed a Senate vote later in June.
Days later, TMZ reported an EMS call from the office of the Senator in which a resident at the Senator's address was given CPR after a cardiac arrest on the day of McConnell's hospitalization. There was no clarity on whether the person who was administered CPR was McConnell.
Laura Loomer Spreads Bizarre Rumor
On Monday, Laura Loomer, a far-right activist and investigative reporter, claimed that a "top-level White House" source told her that "Mitch McConnell" is allegedly brain dead. She went on to allege that his staff is hiding the reality of his situation despite the Senator being hospitalized for over three weeks now.
High level source close to the White House tells me 'Mitch McConnell is officially brain dead. He's not coming back,'” Loomer wrote on X.
In a follow-up, she added: “Mitch McConnell is being kept 'alive' by life support machines, but my White House source told me McConnell is in organ failure, and as I reported, source told me he has allegedly been declared a vegetable (brain dead) by doctors and the White House has been told 'McConnell isn't ever coming back.' Officially brain dead, organ failure is accelerating, life support machine is keeping him 'alive' but his brain is officially dead, and his wife Elaine Chao has fled the country to China.
"I wonder if she brought any of his documents or briefings with her to China.”
The claim, subsequently, went viral on social media.
