Mitch McConnell made his way back to the Senate on Monday, ending a 92-day absence that had kept Washington guessing about the health of one of its longest-serving Republicans. His return, however, brought a new wave of commentary from conservative CNN contributor Scott Jennings, who has spent months defending the senator against skeptics.
Scott Jennings reacts after Mitch McConnell returns to the Senate following a 92-day absence
The Kentucky lawmaker came to Capitol Hill in a wheelchair after his June 14 hospitalization. For nearly three months, McConnell’s team offered little beyond a pair of brief photos to confirm he was recovering, a scarcity of updates that only heightened public curiosity about his condition.
Jennings, a longtime McConnell ally who has known the senator since he was a teenager in Kentucky, shared an X post from McConnell explaining his time away, in which the senator said he was “not quite back to 100 percent.” Jennings paired the post with a “Ryan Howard Taking Notes” meme, seemingly poking fun at those who had questioned his previous comments about McConnell’s recovery.
He followed up with another post noting, “Oh look McConnell voted tonight and was the deciding vote to move ahead with one of Trump’s judicial nominees.” Jennings, who once worked as a political adviser to McConnell, said he had stayed in touch with the senator by phone throughout his absence.
According to The Daily Beast, he revealed McConnell called him on the morning of July 7 for a conversation lasting around 20 minutes, and that the two spoke again on August 11, when McConnell was doing rehab at home. Jennings said at the time he expected McConnell back in the Senate by September 14, when the chamber returned from break. All in all, despite McConnell’s return, concerns over his health lingered as other senators handled most of the talking during his short time on the floor.
