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Mitch McConnell provides proof of life, reveals fall led to hospitalization after weeks of silence

US senator Mitch McConnell on Sunday revealed for the first time that a fall led to his hospitalization, breaking the silence about the Kentucky Republican’s condition after weeks of mounting speculation about his health.

The statement included a smiling picture of McConnell with his wife, Elaine Chao, a tacit response to speculation online that he had died or was incapacitated. McConnell held a copy of Sunday’s Washington Post sports section in his hand.

Mitch McConnell provides proof of life, reveals fall led to hospitalization after weeks of silencehttps://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jul/12/mitch-mcconnell-hospitalization-fallOpen linkView original on lemmy.world
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240 replies

Typically, if someone were asked to prove they were alive and well, there’d be far more effort to do so than we’re seeing.

2
lemmy.world

Why a photo? Video is cheaper than chips: record a 10 second video where he says "hello."

6
lemmy.world

Didn't a report say the EMT's were performing CPR?

Im sure performing cpr on an 84 year old leaves them withou any injuries/bruising/broken ribs...

9
bluesheepreply
sh.itjust.works

When I was taught CPR they said that, if you do apply the needed amount of force that you will almost certainly break a rib. Ain't no way in hell a 84 year old will survive CPR without a broken rib

5

Thats what I remember from the CPR classes I took, including one where I broke the dummy. 😬

3

He is constantly in a wheel chair so how did he fall? Do they need to add a seatbelt to his wheelchair?

3

Fuck off already, scumbag. The world will be a better place without you in it!

2
lemmy.world

I looked into the timeline and there are still some unanswered questions. McConnell was hospitalized after his fall on June 14, 2026. Elaine Chao reportedly left for China on June 17, 2026, and the “proof of life” photo with her was posted on July 12, 2026.

when was that photo actually taken? The original photo file and metadata haven’t been released, so nobody outside his team can verify the date or time it was taken.

25

If it's such a big fucking deal you'd think there'd be a very simple fucking way to verify it.

In EITHER CASE, is he fit for office? I don't fucking see him in it!

12

when was that photo actually taken?

Does this help?

1

What do you mean? They awkwardly photoshopped a recent newspaper page into the photo. That should be more than enough proof!

3

Well, he's in a hospital. Maybe he just saw a little kid die and it lifted his spirits.

3
lemmy.world

I just want to step back and appreciate the absurdity that, regardless of the cause, voters have absolutely no way to even initiate a replacement process for a senator that has failed to even show up in public (let alone do his job) for a month.

134
lemmy.world

Yes, and McConnell's not the only one. Thomas Kean, a Republican representative for NJ, just came back after four months of total silence about where he was or why he was gone, for example.

We're only hearing from McConnell now because if he had not done something to end the speculation about whether he was even alive, Gov. Beshear would have called a special election to fill his seat out from under him.

What REALLY grinds my gears, though, is that the ones doing it are Republicans, the ones repeatedly voting against those same protections for any one of us that might also have cause to be absent from work: they vote against universal healthcare, they vote against minimum paid leave, they vote against the entire social safety net at every chance they get.

The bastard smiling in that bed might as well be holding a piece of paper in his hand that says fuck you I got mine because that's exactly what it's a picture of.

98

the ones repeatedly voting against those same protections for any one of us

At least they're consistent: "I've got mine, so fuck you."

11
prolereply
lemmy.blahaj.zone

I'd probably be depressed too, if I was a Republican politician.

I'd probably fucking kill myself.

6

Thomas Kean, a Republican representative for NJ, just came back after four months of total silence about where he was or why he was gone, for example.

I wonder how the weather was in Moscow...

5
nocturnereply
slrpnk.net

Imagine not going into work for a month, no call no show for a month, and still having a job, and getting paid for that month while you were MIA.

40

pretty sure you have to tell your coworkers when you are leaving and when you plan to come back even in Europe... and you still have to be alive to draw a salary, probably?

8

You can really go on vacation for a month without telling anyone you are leaving?

3
lemmy.ml

Say what you will about Lindsey Graham, but it was fucked up for them to drain his life energy to revive McConnell like that.

103
TigerAcereply
lemmy.dbzer0.com

Kinda rare they used him for that. Usually they use anyone who isn't white, straight and/or rich.

10
lemmy.zip

straight

We're talking about Lindsey Graham here.

32

Yeah, I don't believe he is well. At his age, a fall and CPR aren't going to let him live that much longer if the news reports are correct.

Then again, in a fascist country, we can't trust the news, so who the hell knows.

15

In my time spent as a nurse, and I guess also just as a person alive for 45 years, elderly people taking a fall is the beginning of the end. The cascade of events that occur as a result of the initial fall is tantamount in my view to terminal cancer. That’s the end. There is no substantial recovery and problems compound.

Stay upright out there!

5
lemmy.ml

"Sure."

Get a inperson interview and we'll believe it

176
lemmy.world

I dunno. The timing is kinda sus, Lindsey leaving and Mitch coming back at the same time.

Hmmm.

98

Lindsey was one of Mitch's horcuxes. The turtle had to emerge lest others be found and destroyed.

17
lemmy.world

The fact he held up a newspaper is such a cliché I'm inclined to call bullshit. They allow phone calls in the hospital too and even video calls. 🤨

67
FuglyDuckreply
lemmy.world

Right. and it looks kinda... off, too. Like. I dunno. these fucks can't be trusted with anything.

Edit: someone showed why down below...)

37
M137reply
lemmy.today

As much as I want to believe it's AI or edited, I really don't see what the commenter is talking about. The text is in no way less clear or "gibberish" than the rest of the photo at that zoom level. It also fits the actual text very well.
We shouldn't and don't need to go down to conservative right-wing nut-job conspiracy levels. All that does is give them more credibility and fuel to use.

I'm not saying I fully believe he's alive but nothing pointed our by that commenter makes any sense.

2
lemmy.world

You can confirm through a bit of Google Fu, that that is the corner of the 2026-07-12 sports section of the Washington Post. However every copy of the image ive seen is grainy or low-res enough and Photoshop exists that I would also require video evidence before rejudge the situation.

20
lemmy.world

I definitely respect your need for proof, especially in this situation: I think we could all do with more than a simple photograph when it comes to a lying liar who lies facing a governor who is itching to call a special election to replace him if he doesn't issue some kind of proof of life right now.

However, the WaPo page itself is probably legit. The article directly links to a fairly hi-res image of that page on the WaPo site. Paragraph 5:

The statement included a smiling picture of McConnell with his wife, Elaine Chao, a tacit response to speculation online that he had died or was incapacitated. McConnell held a copy of Sunday’s Washington Post sports section in his hand.

18

I'd believe the page is legit, but they could have had anybody hold that up and then used AI to make that person look like a turtle. (And then post-processed the image to make it grainy and low-res to hide the flaws.)

6

Had a copy photoshopped under his hand would be more accurate.

1
lemmy.world

If there was ever a time to use AI to cover the truth, it would be now.

33

I've seen posts all over from people using AI to generate similar photos.

it can't be ruled out.

Graham happened to fast and unexpectedly for them to weekend at bernies him, but they've had plenty of time to prep for McConnell.

11
infosec.pub

I feel like they used AI when Trump first had the face droop and needed to make that speech. Was that confirmed?

Edit: droop, not drool

7

Notice that ever since then he's had the droop.

Maybe half of his face suddenly stopped believing his bullshit.

4
saigotreply
lemmy.ca

I'm only casually following us politics but what would the advantage of delaying announcing his death be (and why wouldn't the same apply to Lindsey Graham).

3

It's about trying to maintain as much control over the senate as possible before the midterms hit. If he really died there would have to be a special election for a temporary senator. If it were a Democrat win, it might be hard to displace them as there's rarely movement of who sits in a senate seat.

6
lemmy.world

Inasmuch as this is only a single still, posed photo that was released along with a written statement via McConnell's Senate web page I wouldn't put too much stock in it.

Beyond the word of a handful of Republicans that say they have talked "with" him, McConnell still has not verifiably actually spoken to or with anyone since his hospitalization in mid-June.

27
HumanBeingreply
mastodon.social

@BioDriver @ChunkMcHorkle Still no proof. It looks like an old picture and about 7 years ago I said all it takes is a photochopped picture for magas to believe anything and that's been ongoing.

14
BioDriverreply
lemmy.world

Oh I absolutely agree that it looks like photoshop, but I’m saying if he’s claiming to be alive then the KY Gov should try scheduling a face to face meeting

9

@BioDriver Yep. You were totally clear. I agree that Beshear needs contact with the live body. In the meantime, he's dead based on all the lies circulating from the wh and chao.

7
lemmy.world

It's a good thing lindsey graham died, or else the collective disappointment over this fucker living would've sent the U.S. into open revolt

...shit

14

Is much rather the US just openly revolt. Get it over with already and stop dragging everyone through this shitshow with them

4

I wonder what odds they give at Kalshi because I know this fucker is dead.

2
lemmy.world

Photos mean precisely fuck-all in today's world, unfortunately.

56
deftreply
lemmy.wtf

Agreed I honestly think it might be AI there's something weird about it to me but I don't wanna say it too loud. I'll wait until he's on video, alive. Until then I believe he'll be dead by August 5th

15
PhoenixDogreply
lemmy.world

Realistically, who lays in a hospital bed after being there for weeks for testing and observation, wearing a dress shirt and jeans?

10

I thought they said he was in rehab which would make sense.

Except then I'd expect to see a video of him talking, assuming he still can.

2

I'm not saying there is no reason to continue questioning whether he is fit for office, but that is a hospital chair, not a bed.

5

Note that thanks to AI upscaling, real photos end up looking a bit AI even right in the phone, particularly if you 'digital zoom' hard enough.

2

Lol I mean it's more like the lighting, the lack of visible hands, the lack of visible anything. It's just a bland picture of a smiling turtle. It feels weird to me.

But also he always looked like that and Charlie Kirk's neck just did that as well.

8
lemmy.world

In the days of AI I'm not sure a photo counts. How about a live interview?

71
lemmy.world

I think that's a very fair question, not least because of all the Republicans swearing they had twenty minute conversations with him by phone in the last few days.

If he can talk on the phone that long, then how is it that we only have one posed still photograph?

30
rayyyreply
lemmy.world

He’s dead Jim. See Monty Python’s dead parrot sketch. Button down shirt in a hospital?? Where is the IV that everyone has in a hospital. Angles are all wrong. That photo is Ai as hell.

12

He looks fresher and healthier than he's been in the past twenty fucking years.

NOTHING SUSPICIOUS ABOUT THAT.

10
Ann Archyreply
lemmy.world

I know he's a conservative evil fucking parasite, I do know that.

Edit: I have the same feeling like when you were a teenager and you bought oregano thinking it was weed and one of your pals is like no no just smoke some more maybe it'll just take some time to kick in.

BITCH you got scammed.

5

@anarchy79 I agree with you that they're parasites.

I never had anyone try bringing me oregano to smoke. But I understand your analogy that it takes time to kick in for most people. I've seen this comin' since the early 2000s when white ppl would be freaking out about the demographics showing they were going into a minority.

Reports were coming out about fascism getting us since around 2010. Saw those, too.

I'll take the bite out of the apple. How do you believe I was scammed?

2

You’re absolutely wrong about him. He’s an evil PILE of shit, not a piece! 

22

She was so concerned about her husband's health she left the country.

8
lemmy.world

Once they invent airplanes that allow a person to go from China to the US, this picture would be believable.

4
lemmy.world

That's cute. Dude is in jeans and the 911 video shows him unresponsive. Be real

8

"I'm sure they'll come back with the drugs any moment now. We paid them, after all!"

4
sh.itjust.works

What the fuck was his wife doing in China meeting with the top CCCP leaders?

15

No it's not. The paper is the WaPo sports section from a day or two ago and the lettering matches well with that and the crunchy pixels. The newspaper might be photoshopped into an old pic or there's some other fuckery but the text on the paper matches. (Also that kind of check pattern on Mitch's shirt is hard for current commercially available LLMs but wouldn't put it past them to have access to something fancy.)

3
Impleaderreply
lemmy.world

Jeans in a hospital bed. No buttons on her shirt (except the collar). Weird wall perspective between them. Not a single IV pole or monitor in sight. The newspaper text is garbled. And what kind of hospital bed has wooden armrests and no handles or adjustment buttons? This is some phony shit.

8
reddthat.com

Not a bed, it’s a chair. I've seen plenty like them in hospital and nursing home rooms.

The buttons on her shirt are covered by another panel of cloth; I'm sure there's a name for it in the clothing industry but I don’t know what.

15

Lol I love having fun with theories as much as the next guy but it’s very clearly just poor quality. The original newspaper I’ve just seen says “ Noskova Claims title in all-Czech showdown “ which I can even pretty clearly see it does say “ all Czech shutdown ” at the bottom. I would love for someone to prove me wrong and show me an AI that’s even capable of replicating something that convincing, it can’t put a real newspaper in there with accuracy like that no way. The room does kinda look like the backrooms but I’ve seen lots of clinics like this,i t is the USA after all.

What I do think is fake is how cognizant his statements are. No way he’s this sharp anymore and just like Biden they are playing up how not-braindead he is behind closed doors.

4
Impleaderreply
lemmy.world

This is what I’ve seen floating around

Could just be post-processing I guess.

3
lemmy.ml

Lol the bottom one is clearly the original ran thru an AI filter and interpreted by it wrong. The original one is a real WaPo sports section I don’t believe AI could replicate a blurry one so well. If the original was completely AI generated it would look like this.

7

Can you post the original article for comparison?

Edit: nvm got it!

1
lemmy.world

What does the actual paper say for that headline? That's the whole point of holding that day's paper, so others can compare to see if it's the same paper, not just some paper with that day's date on it.

4

Uh

I'm not even on the AI conspiracy wagon but that don't seem to match up.

Edit: hmmm... Maybe? If I squint?

In any case, I doubt they'd use AI. They know people will look at it through a loupe.

2
lemmy.ca

Jfc....look at the edge of the real newspaper photo: sharp 90 corner, look at Mitch's paper: rounded corner. They used the real page as the reference for AI generation. Text is slop.

-1

But Eralean rhinns alic be ali- carcia aberodermc could be a real headline.

0
Ann Archyreply
lemmy.world

Anyone have the original for comparison?

I don't believe it because they wouldn't be that sloppy. I can photoshop todays paper into the hand of Cthulhu and I don't even need AI.

It sure looks fucking weird though. Ngl.

Honestly I don't see how any of that could resemble English prose.

Genuinely, does anyone have the paper? Because it feels like people don't.

Edit: ok it's posted below.

2
mcvreply

In the real newspaper, the last two lines are "in all-Czech showdown", and the photo does look like it says that. It may have been photoshopped, but it wasn't AI garbled.

1

If that picture is genuine, then Mitch McConnell has had a stroke, and it's severe enough that he's still unilaterally paralyzed. Maybe he wasn't found for some time.

Look at his face. His left side (the side toward the woman) is sloughing. It also explains why she holds his left arm so inconspicuously. Old turtle face would fall over, if she didn't support him.

9
sopuli.xyz

It seems weird in this time when short videos and call-ins to news shows are common ways for legislators to communicate to release a hostage picture instead.

"Hi this is Mitch McConnell and I just want to thank everyone for their well wishes and express my sadness at the passing of Lindsay Graham [or some other recent event]."

Why do the least proof possible in the weirdest way possible unless you really don't want to be speaking on video?

27
lemmy.world

If he had a stroke and can't talk I think that also might trigger a special election. Who knows though, I'm leaning towards ai. There's no way he looks like that right now

16
lemmy.world

I mean unless Lindsey Graham's life force really revived him

2

i doubt there would be much mileage left in the organs of a dead 71yo kinky closeted alcoholic, even for this geriatric old (assumed) soon-to-be corpse of a turtle man

2

Gotta work on the design for a silent woodchipper some more first so the machinery doesn't drown him out on the recording.

4

Mitch is no different from most workers. Even he wants to stay quiet and keep those paycheques coming before he has to go on leave or disability. The only thing is, he voted against that shit for others.

13
lemmy.world

one of his colleagues, the Democratic senator Cory Booker, offered his “thoughts and prayers” to the former Republican majority leader, but added: “This is just unfortunately an issue of politics in general: people don’t know when to gracefully step aside.”

Fucking lol. It's been time for the vast majority of Congress to step aside and let actual representatives of the people take power. That goes double for most Democrats, who put up more of a fight against the "radical left extremists" then they do against literal fucking fascists and genocidal Nazis tearing this country apart. I'm frankly surprised Booker managed to get Netanyahu's cock out of his mouth long enough to give such a lengthy statement.

28
stoyreply
lemmy.zip

As a foreigner, the whole infighting in the Dems about the "radical left" is just so fucking stupid.

The "radical left" is just a fairly mellow social democracy candidate.

Looking at the political spectrum, the stupidest part of the Dems, is the group of "compromisers", who are compromising with the Republicans.

They are a group of people standing next to a massive group of violent fascists, shaking and screaming their heads of at a small group of friendly people building a library 100 miles away, telling them to go away.

8

It's because politics are dominated by the priorities of the wealthy. It's by design. Successful candidates of the people are a literal political rebellion against the way the system is supposed to work, at least according to those in power.

3
lemmy.today

Can’t verify it. But I’ve seen reports the pic used is a couple of years old. He looks better now than he did 2 months ago.

11
KneeTittsreply
lemmy.world

Here is the original picture of him and lady Lindsey, they just AI'd his wife overtop. Its a fake.

0

A fall huh? No cardiac arrest? No CPR? Fuck off already, we know he’s dead.

25

If we.could throw Pelosi, Booker, and Russell Vought in there with them that would be great.Maybe a big die off of boomer assholes that just need to fucking go.

2
lemmy.world

Look at the headline text. It's gibberish.

Compare the text to the level of detail on the player's face. Compare it to the level of clarity of the lines on his shirt.

The third line of text on the headline is the worst. Not even close to the correct words.

The corner of the player photo is curved too. Since when do news papers print that way? That's also suspicious, but not a definitive tell.

21

There are four lines of text in the headline: One word, two words, three words, one word. That's reflected perfectly accurately in the McConnell photo. You can even see the hypen-capital-C in "-Czech."

Digital cameras fib about their pixel counts, and they cannot, by nature, resolve anything accurately at the level of individual output pixels. The photo from the paper looks better because it's in color, and the output of digital imaging sensors gets up-scaled in color, under the assumption that the image they're resolving is in color.

We've entered an age where it's not remotely crazy to be skeptical about the provenance of images like this, I can't blame you for your suspicion. But I don't think it's fake.

71

The words in the headline have the right outline and position. The paper looks exactly as pixelated as his shirt. The corner of the photo looks diagonal because that's where the paper is folded. I don't see evidence of fakery in any of these things.

There could be AI face replacement going on but there's no evidence for that either. The photo is not a great way to prove life when the Internet's full of high quality fake images and videos, but it doesn't look especially suspicious either.

21
lemmy.world

Upvoted. I'm not sure I agree with you yet because of the perfect plaid in his shirt and the lack of obvious fault in the pixelization throughout, but I absolutely respect the receipts you brought.

Also, his wife is smiling. I'm not absolutely sure it's because he's alive, but okay.

20

There's a lot of very small details that AI would have messed up. Like the background stuff in the picture seems to match okay. But AI is getting better, or they could have had a good photoshop expert. The lettering is due to the camera resolution, I don't see anything off in word placement or length anywhere.

If it's fake, then they'll flub up soon enough somewhere else in continuing it.

26
zikzak025reply
lemmy.world

If he was dead, what they would do is get someone else in a photo like this and edit the head with AI to that of Mitch McConnell. The rest of the photo can be genuine and exhibit no signs of AI editing, and AI could probably simulate just his face realistically enough to be believable.

On that note, one of the most unbelievable things is that he's smiling, which he truly does not do.

So I would guess 1 of 2 things: either that is not Mitch McConnell we are seeing, or that is him and he is suffering some pretty severe brain damage.

As much as I want to jump on the "he's dead" bandwagon, I am more inclined to believe the latter just because it seems more believable and that's the impression I get from this photo. Just the expression on his face and how meekly he is holding the newspaper there lead me to think that he's really not all there anymore. But the Republicans wouldn't want that bit of information to come to light either, as he would still be considered "incapacitated" and unfit for office, so they probably still want to keep anyone from speaking with him. The longer they can keep up the charade, they can just have someone else essentially vote for him like the Dems did for Dianne Feinstein before she died.

23
OwOarchistreply
pawb.social

Could also just prop his corpse up into position, with limbs held up by wires. A talented makeup artist/mortician could easily make his face look alive for one still photo.

5

Possibly, but that sounds like way more effort than simply using digital tools to achieve the same outcome.

1

Good comment. To support your theory of injury to the brain, look carefully at the photo. (If you're on desktop you can click on it to get a better view.) In my own layman's opinion, his pupils do not seem to be well aligned, and there may be some ptosis that the direction of his gaze is minimizing.

They could be aligned and I'm just looking at it wrong, but a direct facing look would have gone a lot further to prove sentience, IMO.

5

Physical newspapers use shitty font/dpi, part of why it's huge.

It's weird he's grasping like that, but that's the important bit. It's an instinctual grasping response even infants have, and people only grab everything in reach when their higher facilities are compromised.

For the last year he's been freezing in public, long before this "fall", his brain is shutting down and accumulating damage

15
feddit.uk

The photo isn’t curved. Thats the indentation from where he’s gripping it.

11

The corner of the photo looked rounded because the paper bends due to him grabbing it

10
0ndeadreply
infosec.pub

Yeah, they took this photo months ago, and planned on photoshopping in any paper they needed. Kentucky GOP has been preparing for this eventuality.

EDIT: looks like he’s missing some fingernails

5
0ndeadreply
infosec.pub

Ok, that makes sense. The grasp is weird. Like shoving a paper into a dead man’s hand.

5

It's a grasping response...

One of the things they check new orns for, shove something near a baby and they grab it. The hand is a sign that his brain is done cooking, his eyes may be open, but there's no higher function going on. And he's probably juiced to the gills to get this picture

13
0ndeadreply
infosec.pub

Why is that baseball player Homer Simpson yellow?

0
piefed.social

McConnell held a copy of Sunday’s Washington Post sports section in his hand

I can barely see anything at all...

16

I guess he's supposed to hold it business casual to make it less of a hostage photo.

4

It's not, given the weird effect around the finger, the sports page is clearly photoshopped in. Fucking amateruish job too.

-4
lemmy.zip

Why we have to retire at 6x but politicians don't? Brain and cognitive function deteriorates same way as the body.

11

Why we have to retire at 6x but politicians don’t?

In a lot of fields, there's a mandatory minimum retirement age but no maximum. For example, I'm in my 70s, still working full-time, and am still doing just fine at work. I'm in a business where, at my salary level, if you're not a high performer, you're very quickly kicked out.

Mandatory max retirement age makes best sense in jobs involving manual labor or the need for fast reflexes. That kind of jobs are becoming less common over time. For the rest, performance should be the criterion, not an unreliable proxy for it such as age.

Brain and cognitive function deteriorates same way as the body.

It's a game of worsening odds, but brain rot is not inevitable. Neither of my parents showed any signs of mental decline, and they lived into their late 80s/early 90s. I'm a strong chess player, and I have a clear memory of having my ass handed to me by my grandfather when he was nearly 100.

And on the other side of that equation, I lost a brother-in-law to early-onset dementia when he was in his late 50s. He was symptomatic by 50. Like I said, the odds worsen with age, but luck is involved.

Setting a mandatory age based on assumed mental capacity is a policy based on prejudice. The real problem we have is the seniority system, and a tolerance for non-performing incumbents. And no, term limits aren't the magic quick fix either.

7

You don’t have to retire. (Unless you’re an airline pilot or other specific occupations, and nothing’s stopping you from getting a different job.)

1
fizzlereply
quokk.au

I'm not a mod and my opinion does not carry any authority, but I think there's an argument to be made against editorialising titles under any circumstances.

If you allow editing titles so long as it doesn't change the meaning, then that opens a whole subjective debate about what changes change the meaning.

If it doesn't change the meaning, then what's the point of the change?

4
lemmy.world

It's AI/shopped. Who the fuck holds up a newspaper to prove they're alive?

I have NO evidence for my claim, but I won't believe anything without multiple angles; a photo isn't proof of anything any longer to me.

p.s. I think government AI manipulation is probably 10 years or so ahead of civilian capabilities.

15
paraphrandreply
lemmy.world

Holding up a newspaper is standard “this photo is from today” sort of stuff.

21

For kidnappings. Not for photos of politicians in hospital.

1

If it was AI he would've been standing, probably at home.

I think government AI manipulation is probably 10 years or so ahead of civilian capabilities.

I doubt that very much. In Bond films in the 60s in might have been plausible that spooky government agencies had the resources to develop secret spy stuff using tech that wasn't really accessible to the public. However, in the current era the government really only has access to the same kind of industrial capabilities everyone else does. So, they could drop $1m on having a special effects agency make something, but they don't have abilities beyond what we see in movies for example.

0

So he uses the "I'm old" card to assuage fears that he is too old to do the job. Hope he learns how many people want him dead before he croaks

15

Mitch to lindsay: lets go together. No accountability.

Lindsay: ok (jumps)

Mitch: sucker lol (leaves)

12

At that age a major fall is lethal. It may not kill right away, but recovery is hard and their bodies just can't handle it. Even if he is alive I don't think he will last much longer.

12

"In his hand" does some heavy lifting there. I've seen victorian corpse photoes more convincing than that, except maybe for open eyes. And that's the best they could do with his barely animated body?

8

The rascally senior was recently seen enjoying a weekend at his place surrounded by his friends. Sporting a fashionable combo of sunglasses and a blue jacket he was somewhat quieter than usual but present wherever the action was.

8

I can only imagine if he's been in hospital for that long he either had a fractured hip or became delirious

4

We need another picture where we can see both of her hands. Until then, I choose to believe she's Weekend-At-Bernie'sing him.

6

Musk, unrelated: "yes, with enough accurate electrical stimulation I could make a freshly dead body dance like a muppet made of meat. Why do you ask?"

6
lemmy.world

Must be nice to get confirmation that your senators are still alive

4

I've been saying for YEARS. Moscow Mitch is a Necromancer. How else you think he lasted this long? Why do you think his fingers look like that?

Lindsey didn't die. HE WAS CONSUMED to feed Mitch's life aura.

4

Was it a written statement? If it was, I still think he's totally incapacitated if not dead.

3

Lemmy has decided on a narrative to believe so no evidence will be enough. Couldn't be that a video would reveal the actual state of his health so they went with a picture. No, obviously it's a deepfake. If they release a video that'll be a deepfake or a body double.

If they were in a position to get away with lying so brazenly with a fake proof of life they wouldn't need to bother with the pretense.

I wish I had the brain disease that made me willing believe anything as long as it serves a convenient narrative. Seems more fun.

-3
lemmy.world

Or, you know, McConnell himself could readily put all the whispers to rest.

It's not like reporters have never interviewed someone in a hospital before, and if he really did talk with all those Republicans that swear he did in the last few days, twenty minutes at a time apparently, then he should have enough stamina to issue a few words to the public personally. If he can sit in a chair, he can sit in a wheelchair.

This is not live. It is a still, posed photograph issued by McConnell's office along with a written press release, which would have been fine in say 1876, but technology has moved forward. Why the leap backward?

When a sitting Senator who is facing the possibility of a special election because everyone, including his own state's governor, thinks his seat is probably vacant, I don't think it's too much to ask that he say a few words to his constituents, LIVE, in a publicly verifiable manner.

3

Couldn’t be that a video would reveal the actual state of his health so they went with a picture.

He was barely presentable in front of a camera before this happened. Obviously he's in rough shape and they don't want to reveal how rough.

2
lemmy.zip

Brain deteriorates the same way as the body, old people shouldn't be in the Congress.

0

For SOME people it's true but not for all. For instance Bernie Sanders is evidence of that.

5
feddit.nl

Wtf are you smoking?

This isn't a screenshot of a tweet. This is The Guardian.

13
lemmy.dbzer0.com

Video or it didn't happen. Must be press conference with reporters present.

I bet that fucker "dies" after the special election deadline.

4

No, journalists can verify these things without video. That's their job. That's the difference between The Guardian and New York Post

2

I meant to speak to the guardian - They accepted this bullshit at face value.. This is the media being complicit...

1
shredderfood.net

I meant the guardian should stop posting unverified bullshit. They're acting like Mcconnells PR team...that's not their fucking job.

1

Yeah, I agree with you. In the age of moving pictures when almost everyone has a video camera and mic in their pocket, why are we being forced to rely on a single posed photograph that can't talk?

2