A senior Republican senator has suggested that the “proof of life” image released by Mitch McConnell in an effort to quell concerns about his health may not be recent.
McConnell, 84, shared a picture of himself holding a newspaper and said a fall had left him “briefly unconscious,” breaking weeks of limited communication from his office about his hospitalization and prolonged absence from Capitol Hill.
In the image, McConnell is seen sitting upright in a hospital bed next to his wife, former transportation secretary Elaine Chao, while holding the front page of Sunday’s Washington Post sports section.
However, Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin said during a Monday evening appearance on Real America’s Voice that “sources” had told him the photo of McConnell was older.
“I just heard from some other source that was an older photo, so I really don’t know,” Johnson told host Eric Bolling.
“I haven’t talked to Mitch, um, I sincerely wish his family well. I hope he can recover,” Johnson continued. “Listen — it’s sad to watch people age, no matter who that person is.”
The image has fueled widespread online speculation, with thousands of social media posts dissecting the picture and some alleging that the Sunday newspaper McConnell is holding was digitally altered.
The Washington Post published an analysis Monday night concluding that the photo’s metadata — the digital information embedded in the file — indicates the image was in fact taken on Sunday.
Mitch McConnell sits up in a hospital bed beside his wife, former transportation secretary Elaine Chao, holding the front of Sunday’s Washington Post sports section
Ron Johnson of Wisconsin said that ‘sources’ told him the photo of McConnell was old
The Washington Post published an analysis last night which found that the metadata on the photo – the digital footprint coded into the image – shows that it was indeed taken on Sunday
The above photo posted online shows garbled text in the sports section of the paper, suggesting that it was doctored. However, others cautioned that AI has been used to zoom in on the photo, and in attempting to ‘upscale’ the image it simply generates random text
A column in the Sunday sports page of the Washington Post, left, and the paper seen in McConnell’s Trump hand, right, which users pointed out appears to be consistent
An independent digital forensics expert also said that there is no evidence that the image is fake.
Viral posts amplifying claims the McConnell photo was doctored showed a zoomed-in picture of the paper in his hand which showed garbled text in the sports section.
But others cautioned that AI had been used to zoom in on the photo, and in trying to ‘upscale’ the image, the technology simply generates random text.
Other zoomed-in pictures of the paper show that its layout appears consistent with Sunday’s paper.
Johnson and McConnell have served together for more than 16 years and often clashed, with Johnson siding with Trump over the former Senate leader.
Johnson backed off the remarks hours later, posting on X that viewers should ‘beware of clickbait’ and watch the full interview. He then wished McConnell a full recovery.
McConnell was admitted to a hospital on the morning of June 14 following a medical emergency at his Washington, DC, home.
Paramedics responded to a report of an unconscious person believed to have suffered a ‘cardiac arrest,’ with a medic reporting ‘CPR in progress’ at the address.
McConnell claimed that he has been absent from the Senate for weeks because he ‘fell’ at his Washington, DC, home
The senator was not named on the call, and his office has instead claimed that he had a mild case of pneumonia and had not suffered a stroke or a heart attack.
McConnell said his doctors have told him he cannot return to the Senate floor yet, though he said he is still working with his staff on Kentucky business.
McConnell’s statement landed less than 24 hours after the sudden death of Senator Lindsey Graham, 71, and days after Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, a Democrat, publicly pressed for information on his condition.
Republican leaders are now short of votes on a floor where the margin was already thin, with Graham gone and McConnell absent.
No timeline has been given for the Kentucky senator’s return to Capitol Hill.
Speculation over McConnell’s health intensified after Trump loyalist Laura Loomer claimed an unnamed White House source told her he is ‘brain dead’ and ‘not coming back’ to work.
