Hawley Rebukes McConnell Team Over 1-Month Senate Absence as GOP Loses 2 Key Votes
Updated
Updated · Fox News · Jul 19
Hawley Rebukes McConnell Team Over 1-Month Senate Absence as GOP Loses 2 Key Votes
1 articles · Updated · Fox News · Jul 19
Summary
Josh Hawley said Mitch McConnell’s team owes constituents an explanation for the 84-year-old senator’s condition after he missed more than a month in the Senate following a fall.
That absence has immediate political costs: Senate Republicans are down two votes after McConnell’s hospitalization and the death of Sen. Lindsey Graham, squeezing President Donald Trump’s legislative push.
Hawley said he has been “totally in the dark” about McConnell’s health and argued the missing vote is already hurting measures such as the SAVE America Act and voter ID priorities.
McConnell, first elected in 1984 and now serving a seventh term, said in a recent letter that mobility problems tied to childhood polio contributed to the fall and that doctors have not yet cleared him to return.
The episode also let Hawley revive his call for congressional term limits, even as McConnell says he intends to finish his term and keep Kentuckians updated on his recovery.