Prank missing-person posters featuring Senator Mitch McConnell have been put up around Washington D.C. as his prolonged absence from Congress continues.
The poster features the words “MISSING PERSON” in large red lettering above an image of the Kentucky Republican recovering in a hospital bed. A description lists him as “84 years old. 5’9 feet. Turtle-like.”
The posters were made and distributed by the Save America Movement, a self-described “citizen-led organization focused on defending democracy and restoring common sense.”
In an image shared by the group on X, the poster says: “Known for: Blocking something in the Senate. Distinguishing features: Tortoise like appearance.”
Save America Movement’s co-founder and executive director Mary Corcoran told Newsweek: “The posters are obviously parody but parody built on a disturbing reality: the senior senator (forgive the pun) from Kentucky has been MIA for going on seven weeks. The people he serves deserve more than the occasional suspect proof-of-life photo. And when this is all said and done, every American will deserve to know who knew what, and when and who may have been lying to the public. Accountability is coming.”
Newsweek has contacted McConnell’s Senate office for comment via email outside of regular working hours.
McConnell, 84, has been absent from Congress for several weeks as questions continue around his health. He was admitted to hospital in mid-June after a fall and “a mild case of pneumonia.” On Monday his office released a photo of McConnell smiling alongside his wife, former Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao.
“I’m still working hard to get back to my full schedule of work in the Senate and in Kentucky, keeping up with intense physical therapy per my doctors’ orders,” McConnell said in a statement released by his office on Monday, adding that he was “looking forward to getting back to the Senate and to Kentucky soon.”
“We put those flyers up because this has gotten absurd,” a spokesperson for the Save America group told The Independent. “For more than a month now, the senior senator from Kentucky has not cast a vote, has not appeared for the work of the chamber, and has not, in any provable or functional sense, represented the four-and-a-half million people who sent him there.”
McConnell’s Absence
McConnell was admitted to hospital for treatment following a fall in June. He has since been discharged and is recovering at a rehabilitation center.
In its Monday statement, his office published a note from the Office of the Attending Physician, which said doctors meet with the senator daily to review “all aspects of his rehabilitation care.”
“Since his discharge from hospital care, he has maintained a strenuous course of physical therapy and rehabilitation, including multiple sessions a day designed to rebuild strength and reduce the risk of future falls,” said the OAP, the federal agency responsible for providing healthcare to members of Congress and Supreme Court justices.
McConnell has experienced a series of health problems in recent years. In July 2023, he suddenly stopped speaking and appeared to freeze during a press conference, which drew widespread attention and speculation. Earlier that year, he sustained a concussion in a fall at a Washington hotel, forcing him to remain away from the Senate for several weeks.
He was injured again after tripping outside a Senate lunch in 2024 and was hospitalized with the flu earlier this year. McConnell also contracted polio as a child, an illness he said in a 2020 interview had left him struggling to climb stairs.
Governor Calls for Investigation
McConnell is set to retire at the end of his Senate term in January 2027. But while he is still an elected member of Congress, doubts have been cast over his ability to do the job.
Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, a Democrat, has called on McConnell to demonstrate that he remains able to fulfill his duties in the U.S. Senate, warning that he should step down if he cannot do so.
“As Governor of the state you serve, I am calling on you to directly and verbally address the people of Kentucky and provide proof of your capacity to serve, or resign,” Beshear wrote in a letter to McConnell made public on Monday.
He said that, without such an appearance, he would urge Senate Majority Leader John Thune, to “investigate” McConnell’s condition and “begin the process if warranted” of replacing him. Beshear sent Thune a separate letter setting out the same request.
“It has now been 43 days since news of your hospitalization,” Beshear wrote to McConnell. “During that time you have cast zero votes, engaged in no official activities, and aside from two photos and corresponding statements, have made no effort to communicate with your Kentucky constituents or the nation. Even the attending physician’s written statement does not discuss your actual condition, including whether you can speak, reason, or carry out your duties as a senator.”
Thune told NBC News that he has seen the letter, but that it’s “an issue really that’s between Sen. McConnell and the people of Kentucky.”
“I mean, if the governor wants to, I’m not sure what his prerogatives are in that case,” he said. “But that’s where the issue should be resolved.”
Americans Uneasy About Older Lawmakers
Americans overwhelmingly view the number of older lawmakers serving on Capitol Hill as a problem, according to a CNN poll conducted by SSRS. The survey of 1,225 American adults conducted July 23-27 found that 92 percent were concerned that roughly one-quarter of members of Congress are aged 70 or older, including 58 percent who described it as a “major problem” and 34 percent who considered it a minor one.
The concern crossed political and generational lines: 94 percent of Democrats, 91 percent of independents and 89 percent of Republicans called it a problem, as did 95 percent of adults aged 18 to 34 and 88 percent of those aged 65 and above.
In the same poll, 70 percent of partisan voters said they would feel uneasy or upset if their party nominated a candidate over 70, while 65 percent of Americans said elected officials should disclose medical information that could affect their ability to serve.
Contact Newsweek editors for this story: Ben Kelly, Robert Greenall and Cristina Diciu.
