Fox News contributor Joe Concha on Saturday demanded that Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) either get back to work or resign, as speculation about his health continues since his June 14 hospitalization and subsequent absence from the public eye.
“I’ll say it,” began Concha during a discussion on “The Big Weekend Show.”
“If he does not come back in September, he needs to step down. Enough of this already.”
He continued, “How many months has it been since we’ve even heard from him directly? I don’t want to see ‘proof of life’ photos from a hospital bed anymore. He needs to get in front of a microphone and prove that he can do this job. And if he can’t, he needs to step aside. Period.”
It’s been exactly 12 weeks, as of Sunday, since McConnell, 84, was hospitalized and slightly longer since he last appeared on the Senate floor.
His office has provided only a slow drip of health updates since.
McConnell, in a statement shared by his office in July, announced he was hospitalized due to a fall and, while in the hospital, had a “mild case of pneumonia.” He said he was later moved to a rehabilitation facility.
The senator, in a statement later that month, said he had not yet been “medically cleared” to leave the facility and get back to his taxpayer-funded work.
It’s now been a month since the last update from his office: that McConnell was discharged from the facility and would continue his recovery at home.
On Thursday, Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) said McConnell’s staff told him he’s expected to return to the Senate on Sept. 14, despite McConnell’s spokesperson telling CNN a day earlier there were “no scheduling announcements” at the time.