Why the media lets Republicans keep medical woes a mystery

[marmar]

( Salon). Here we go again with the extraordinary, taxpayer-funded disappearing acts of Republican politicians.

A headline in the Louisville Courier-Journal crystalized the state of affairs on Capitol Hill: “As Tom Kean returns, Mitch McConnell‘s absence now DC’s biggest mystery.” Reporter Lucas Aulbach noted that the 84-year-old former Senate majority leader has missed more than 20 votes since mid-June after being hospitalized for unspecified reasons. As rumors about his condition continue to fly online, McConnell’s office has offered scant information since.

Then there is Rep. Tom Kean Jr. of New Jersey, who simply disappeared for four months. The 57-year-old New Jersey Republican last cast a vote in the House on March 5 before vanishing from Washington, D.C., and his home district for over 100 days. For months, his staff offered only the vaguest references to a medical issue, stonewalling reporters and leaving the voters of New Jersey’s seventh congressional district completely unrepresented. The absence was so mysterious that even some of his staff reportedly did not know the specifics, only that he was “under a doctor’s care.” Yet Kean also managed, during this period, to raise campaign funds and reportedly trade stocks. The moment he returned to Capitol Hill, his schedule featured five separate high-dollar fundraising events, including one booked for the very day of his return.

....(snip)....

McConnell, for example, has a history of public episodes — freezing mid-sentence, apparent cognitive lapses — that the press reports on in the moment and then allows to fade into the background. Donald Trump’s first term was marked by mysterious hospital visits and opaque explanations about his physical condition, including rushed trips to Walter Reed that never received a full account. When he contracted Covid-19 in 2020, his condition was wrapped in disinformation. Now, at 80-years-old in his second term, he remains largely insulated from sustained scrutiny about his health. .........(more)

https://www.salon.com/2026/07/02/why-the-media-lets-republicans-keep-medical-woes-a-mystery/