Good evening. I’m British Chris, and this is Raw America.
Mitch McConnell’s office released a new photo of the senator along with a new statement in hopes of calming speculation about the 84 year-old senator’s health, but it’s having the opposite effect. The White House is now asking the Supreme Court to fast-track a plan that could upend how millions of Americans vote this November. A MAGA congressman from Texas is now facing his own House Ethics Committee investigation. And in Ohio, a new effort is underway to make sure voters don’t forget the domestic abuse allegations dogging a Republican congressman running for another term.
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Mitch McConnell’s New Photo Falls Flat as Americans Ramp Up Demands for Video
The office of Republican Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky released a new photo on Monday. It shows the 84-year-old seated and smiling, while his wife, Elaine Chao, sits by his side. It’s the second such photo in two weeks. And it’s convincing almost nobody.
McConnell hasn’t appeared in public in more than six weeks, and he has yet to appear on video or even do a phone interview with the press. Just two nearly identical staged photos.
Gun violence prevention activist Shannon Watts wrote on social media that photos of McConnell propped up in different colored shirts aren’t proof of life. Former Obama adviser Dan Pfeiffer wondered why McConnell still won’t talk to a reporter or record a simple video message. Republican-turned-Trump critic George Conway agreed, arguing that five seconds of video would settle the whole thing.
Even MAGA voters are skeptical. Some self-identified supporters of President Donald Trump compared the photos to the movie “Weekend at Bernie’s,” where a dead man gets propped up to look alive. One self-described conservative said the man in the photo doesn’t even look like Mitch.
In its latest statement, McConnell’s office quoted an unnamed physician who said the senator is doing physical therapy but still isn’t medically cleared to come back to the Senate. Meanwhile, unmarked Capitol Police SUVs have been parked outside the hospital for days.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune says he’s spoken with McConnell several times, and several other Senate Republicans have made similar comments. But the vast majority of GOP senators remain quiet about their colleague’s condition since he was hospitalized on June 14. Trump hasn’t commented either, even as McConnell misses dozens of votes on everything from the Iran war to housing and even confirmation votes for judges.
Trump Asks Supreme Court for Permission to Disrupt Midterms with 100 Days to Go
The White House is now asking the Supreme Court to let a controversial executive order take effect before voters cast their ballots this fall. That order would require the U.S. Postal Service to only deliver mail ballots only to people listed on a new federal “citizenship list” built by the Trimp administration.
A federal appeals court already upheld a ruling blocking that plan in roughly half the country. Democratic officials from 23 states and Washington D.C. sued, arguing the Constitution clearly grants the power to run elections to states and Congress, not the president.
Now, the Justice Department wants the Supreme Court to allow the administration to begin implementing the changes while litigation plays out. Solicitor General John Sauer — who is one of Trump’s former criminal defense attorneys — called the lower court’s blocking of the order “indefensible” and is demanding for a quick decision, since any new rules would need to be in place by August to count in November.
This comes right after the president gave a primetime national address rehashing his debunked claims about the 2020 election. Noncitizen voting, which Trump’s order claims to prevent, is already extremely rare and already a felony. A response to the appeal is due August 3rd.
MAGA Congressman Now Under Ethics Committee Investigation
The Republican-controlled House Ethics Committee announced Monday it’s investigating Congressman Lance Gooden of Texas after getting a referral last month from the Office of Congressional Conduct. The committee hasn’t yet detailed the scope of the probe or offered details on what ethical violations Gooden is accused of committing.
Gooden has represented Texas’ Fifth Congressional District for seven years and has been one of Trump’s most reliable allies in Congress since his first term. He was one of 147 Republicans who voted to overturn the 2020 election, and he voted against impeaching Trump after the January 6th insurrection.
Gooden was defiant in his response, saying the allegations were bogus. Gooden was previously investigated in 2021 for failing to disclose a dozen financial transactions worth potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars. It’s not clear yet if the current investigation is about those transactions.
Gooden is the second Texas Republican to face a House Ethics investigation this year. The first, Tony Gonzales, resigned from Congress earlier this spring following allegations of an affair with a former staffer who later set herself on fire.
GOP Congressman’s Domestic Abuse Allegations Threaten His Reelection
A political action committee called Battleground Alliance is now making 100,000 robocalls targeting Republican Congressman Max Miller’s Ohio district over domestic abuse allegations made by two women: his ex-wife, Emily Moreno, and his ex-girlfriend, former White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham.
The robocall tells voters Miller is counting on them to forget what the two women said about him, and urges them to keep those allegations in mind when they vote in the midterms.
The PAC has the backing of major labor unions like the SEIU and the Communications Workers of America, and it’s targeting 40 districts nationwide, including two districts in the Buckeye State. Max Miller’s campaign says the calls are vile and false, and he demanded that his Democratic opponent, Brian Poindexter, disavow them.
But Miller’s own legal strategy may be what’s kept this story in the headlines. His court filings and ongoing defamation lawsuit against Grisham keep putting the allegations back under the spotlight right as voters prepare to head to the polls. The Today in Ohio podcast noted there’s now so much controversy surrounding Miller that voters may simply decide to vote for someone else entirely.
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