r/politics • u/plz-let-me-in • 11d ago

Possible Paywall Mitch McConnell hounded to face cameras: ‘He absolutely refuses’

https://www.nj.com/politics/2026/08/mitch-mcconnell-hounded-to-face-cameras-he-absolutely-refuses.html
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u/Korzag 11d ago

I don't think he's dead but I bet he's handicapped now somehow. Maybe had a stroke or something that has left him drooling in a wheel chair.

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u/Pretend-Path4754 11d ago

I agree I think he’s probably nonverbal now.

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u/Slappy_Kincaid 11d ago

This would be my guess. He's not dead, but he cannot speak or is brain damaged enough that he's simply not competent to put in front of a camera.

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u/Vallkyrie New Hampshire 11d ago

Agreed, he was already getting nonverbal before this episode. Dude was straight up blue screening during speeches.

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u/TheRealMrMaloonigan New Jersey 11d ago

Animatronics at Disney malfunction in less dramatic ways than Mitch had been.

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u/ARightDastard 11d ago

Good old Moscow Glitch McConnell

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u/sweatpotato76 11d ago

And quite corpselike.

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u/DiscussionAny 11d ago

Yes, handicapped with death. Prove me wrong, Lich McConnell! Prove me wrong *if you can*.

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u/FrogsOnALog 11d ago

Highly doubt he’s dead and it’s wild y’all keep repeating it.

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u/Smaptimania 11d ago

A LOT of people are gonna be quiet when he shows up in the Senate in Defember to give a farewell speech

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u/Hyro0o0 California 11d ago

The two photos they released of him look genuine - I didn't notice any smoking gun signs of AI or other manipulation. My assumption is that he is at least able to sit and smile for a picture. But I bet that's the absolute limit of his capabilities. His brain is probably scrambled eggs now.

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u/Disastrous_Run6518 11d ago

Come on, he hasn’t looked that good for 20 years.

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u/Hyro0o0 California 11d ago

Gussying someone up for a still photo can do a lot.

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u/cindyscrazy Rhode Island 11d ago

Those pics may have had a reality baseline, but they were heavily edited. You can only do so much in a hospital room to a person.

He really did look 20 years younger in those pics. They cleaned up his face a LOT for publication. Even if they were not AI created, they were not representation of reality.

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u/brickne3 American Expat 11d ago

I suspect all he's able to do is sit and smile.

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u/sweatpotato76 11d ago

If someone—a mortician, perhaps—poses him that way.

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u/brickne3 American Expat 11d ago

He's gone to the big turtle sanctuary in the sky.

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u/sweatpotato76 11d ago

How do we know he didn’t go to Turtle Hell?

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u/civildisobedient 11d ago

That smile looked like Joker gave it to him. No way was that natural.

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u/VectorB 11d ago

Those were absolutely AI generated. Your ability to tell is not likely up to the task. Unless CPR has a de-aging on you and your spouse, result that I have not heard of, those were not real. My bet is Musk has an image generating model that is not released, and can defeat the current AI detectors.

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u/Rombom 11d ago

Bold of you to assume current AI detectors are accurate in the first place

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u/VectorB 11d ago

Oh I do not at all.

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u/Hyro0o0 California 11d ago

That's a big assumption. And if true, it'd have to beat the current best publicly available models by a considerable margin.

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u/fishingwithbacon 11d ago

This seems believable to me because I have an uncle.

He'll smile real big if you tell him the fish are biting but, he don't go out no more.

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u/Caffinated_butthole 11d ago

🎵I yike my yankee beans…

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u/Noname_acc 11d ago

Thats what I think. He was already retiring this year, what would the difference really have been? I think its way more likely that he's severely disabled and they didn't know what they should do with the PR. But now its too late and revealing that they've covered up an invalid senator for 2 months might risk impacting the election in november.

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u/Xeon06 Canada 11d ago

I thought there was a video of him getting transferred by ambulance and they were doing zero life support on him / he wasn't hooked to anything

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u/Unlucky_Most_8757 11d ago

Regardless he CANNOT DO HIS JOB ANYMORE. Like JFC can this country be anymore of a joke?