\n \u201cI am addressing this letter to Senator McConnell under the assumption that he is capable of reading and responding verbally, and not incapacitated by means of consciousness or cognition. If the Senator is unable to respond for either of those or other conditions, consider this letter a demand for his Senate staff to be honest and transparent with the people of Kentucky,\u201d Beshear writes in the letter, written on state government letterhead and obtained by CNN.\n <\/p>\n
\n McConnell\u2019s office released a statement earlier on Monday in which McConnell says he wants to get back out in Kentucky but is not yet medically cleared to leave a rehab facility. His statement included an update from the Office of the Attending Physician, which serves the medical needs of members of Congress.\n <\/p>\n
![\"This](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/image002-20260727160317537.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n Beshear, who is considering a run for president in 2028, says that\u2019s not enough.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cEven the attending physician\u2019s written statement does not discuss your actual condition, including whether you can speak, reason, or carry out your duties as a senator. I understand anyone\u2019s desire for privacy, but when you run for office and serve as one of a state\u2019s two US senators, you willingly abdicate much of your personal privacy,\u201d Beshear wrote.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cAs 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,\u201d he continued.\n <\/p>\n
\n In many states, the governor is empowered to fill a Senate seat before a special election is held, but the state\u2019s Republican-dominated legislature has taken steps in recent years to reduce Beshear\u2019s power.\n <\/p>\n
\n In 2021, the Kentucky legislature passed a law requiring the governor to appoint a replacement from a list of candidates provided by the outgoing senator\u2019s party. Then, in 2024, they went even further and removed the governor\u2019s ability to name a replacement at all, requiring the office to only be filled by a special election.\n <\/p>\n
\n However, it\u2019s possible this law violates the state constitution, which gives the governor broad power to fill vacancies in \u201call offices for the State at large.\u201d Complicating the matter further is the 17th Amendment to the US Constitution, which gives state legislatures the power to allow governors to appoint temporary replacements.\n <\/p>\n
\n University of Kentucky law professor Joshua Douglas called it a \u201ccontradiction,\u201d which may have to be resolved by the courts.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cThe 17th Amendment [says] the legislature may authorize the Governor to appoint a temporary replacement, the Kentucky Constitution says the Governor appoints, and the Kentucky legislature says there must be a special election,\u201d he said in an email to CNN.\n <\/p>\n
\n It\u2019s also possible the seat just remains empty until the start of the next term. While the new law says the governor \u201cshall\u201d call a special election, it doesn\u2019t appear to require him to do so within a certain period of time. McConnell did not seek reelection this fall.\n <\/p>\n
\n Beshear sent a copy of the letter to Senate Majority Leader John Thune, along with an additional letter calling on him to investigate what is happening and force McConnell\u2019s Senate staff \u201cto be honest and transparent with the people of Kentucky.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cPer our research, a vacancy in the Senate occurs when a senator dies, resigns, or is expelled by a vote of the Senate itself. If Senator McConnell is unwilling to voluntarily show that he still has the capacity to serve, I will insist that you as the Majority Leader of the Senate fully investigate his condition, report to the American people, and begin the process if warranted,\u201d Beshear wrote to Thune.\n <\/p>\n
\n McConnell, 84, has had multiple falls and health episodes in recent years that have led to hospitalizations, but the one which began on June 14 was the longest. On July 7, Thune was one of several Republican leaders who put out statements attesting to a phone call that his spokesperson said was \u201ca lengthy and substantive conversation that covered a variety of topics, including national security.\u201d\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear has a message for Sen. Mitch McConnell: Either the state\u2019s senior senator should explain…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":788495,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-788494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/788494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=788494"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/788494\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/788495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=788494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=788494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=788494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}