Scott Jennings Calls on Hospitalized McConnell To Release Statement Because People Think He’s ‘Dead’ 

CNN commentator Scott Jennings advised Sen. Mitch McConnell’s to give a public update on the senator’s condition to quell rumors about it.

McConnell, 84, has been in the hospital since June 14, when paramedics received a call about an unconscious person who had apparently endured cardiac arrest at the senator’s home. His office has neither said why he is in the hospital nor given a timetable for his possible return to the Senate. That lack of transparency has fueled speculation that McConnell is unconscious or possibly even dead.

Jennings said on Tuesday that he had spoken with his longtime friend via phone for nearly 20 minutes about current events. On Friday, CNN issued a statement clarifying that Jennings’ anecdote is not the network’s reporting.

On Friday’s edition of The Source, Kaitlan Collins asked Jennings if McConnell is aware of the speculation about his health.

“Conspiracy theories are prolific, as you’ve seen on social media,” Collins said. “Are they aware of that? Is he aware of that?”

“I don’t know how much of that he is personally aware of,” Jennings responded. “He’s never concerned himself much with internet chatter or conspiracy theories or frankly, what people think of him all that much.”

He then suggested that McConnell’s staff put out a statement because “everybody sort of seems to think he’s either dead or incapable of chatting”:

But I have told the people in his office that I am in regular contact with that I think some of the narrative around this is being driven by people who, frankly, are posting untrue, unhinged conspiracy theories, and that’s some transparency here, would make a lot of it go away.

To be honest with you, I was surprised when he called me, and one of the reasons I put out my tweet when I did my post, sorry, when I did, was that I just thought, hey, everybody sort of seems to think he’s either dead or not capable of chatting. And since I had talked to him, I thought that was valuable information.

Now, when he plans to go back to work, I have no idea. I don’t know anything about his medical records. I’m not his doctor. I’m not in his family, and I’m not in a position to make any pronouncements about that. My advice has been a statement to the people of Kentucky on the day of or before the Senate goes back into session, would be highly appropriate.

On Wednesday, a reporter asked President Donald Trump if he had any information about McConnell’s health.

“I have no idea,” Trump said. “I have no idea how he’s doing.”

Watch above via CNN.

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