Ocasio-Cortez on McConnell absence: ‘This is not normal, at all’

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Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) expressed shock on Tuesday about Sen. Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) continued absence from Congress.

“I mean, this is — I don’t even know how this is legal. I really don’t even know how this is legal at this point. And it — I just find it shocking,” Ocasio-Cortez said, talking to a reporter outside the U.S. Capitol. “And how is everyone pretending this is normal? This is not normal. This is not normal, at all.”

She also raised the months-long absence of Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (R-N.J.), without naming him.

“First of all, how is it that we have sitting elected members of Congress going missing for months at a time when, especially right now when the margin — margin in the Senate are razor-thin, the margins in the House are razor-thin,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “Every single person’s absence here has country-altering implications.”

Ocasio-Cortez acknowledged that medical situations arise but said, “There’s a line here, and I think almost everyone can agree that it’s been crossed.”

Her comments arrive after weeks of speculation about McConnell’s health and whereabouts following his hospitalization on June 14.

McConnell, 84, who has not cast a vote in the upper chamber in over a month, finally addressed the public’s concerns on Sunday with a statement and photograph from the hospital alongside his wife.

The senator explained his absence as resulting from a fall and a minor case of pneumonia.

“As much as it frustrates me, this process takes time. And on the advice of my doctors, I won’t be able to return to the Senate floor to vote quite yet,” he wrote in a Sunday statement shared with The Hill.

However, McConnell’s explanation has been met with persistent doubt.

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) on Monday scrutinized how recently the McConnell photo may have been taken. He later backtracked on the remark.

The senator’s ongoing hospitalization, coupled with the recent passing of Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), poses a threat to the Trump administration’s agenda, particularly the $1.5 trillion defense spending package.

With the absence of McConnell, who chairs the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense that controls Pentagon spending, passing the package would require unlikely Democratic support.

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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Lindsey Graham

Mitch McConnell

Ron Johnson

Tom Kean Jr.

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