Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear is directly asking Sen. Mitch McConnell, the state’s most powerful figure in Congress, to disclose more about his condition after three weeks of silence from the 84-year-old since he was hospitalized in Washington.
The letter released Wednesday from Beshear, a Democrat who is considered a potential presidential candidate in 2028, to the former Senate Republican leader says “Kentuckians have grown increasingly concerned about the current state of your health and well-being, and ability to hold office.”
McConnell, whose physical condition has visibly declined in recent years, was hospitalized June 14. He has not released a public statement, photos or videos since. Aides have disclosed nothing specific about his condition, other than to say last week that McConnell “continues to improve, and is working closely with his staff on Kentucky and Senate matters while the Senate is out of session.”
That lack of detail has fueled rampant speculation about his prognosis and whether he will return to the Senate when it reconvenes next week. The firestorm was enough that Republican Senate leaders on Tuesday made public statements saying they had talked to McConnell and that he was alert and discussing current events.
McConnell is retiring at the end of his term in January, and the campaign to elect his successor already is underway. Kentucky’s Senate succession law, which Republican legislators have twice changed during Beshear’s tenure, does not give the governor a role in picking a temporary successor should McConnell’s seat become vacant before his term ends.
Under the latest change in 2024, if the seat becomes vacant before Aug. 3, there would be a special election to pick a replacement, perhaps held concurrently with the general election in November. The special election winner could take office nearly immediately. The general election winner would be sworn in as part of the new Congress in January.
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That's all fine, but none of that relates to what I was responding to.
I was responding to this:
HIPAA would definitely require the hospital to prevent a democratic senator from going into the hospital with a camera.
Even if they got to the lobby with the camera, they damn sure shouldn't be permitted to point the camera at any patient regardless of whether he was a traitorous scumbag senator or just a regular person.
Just about everyone in the USA goes into the hospital with multiple cameras in their pockets.
Taking pictures of people in the hospital without their consent is probably against the law, but it's definitely not a violation of HIPAA on the hospital's part if someone (not employed by the hospital) does it.
What we're talking about is someone going into a patient's room in which the patient presumably doesn't want them there. The hospital would definitely have a responsibility to prevent that.
Definitely. Not a HIPAA violation though.
I think it would be if the hospital did nothing and just let someone walk in with a camera and take pictures of a patient. They have a responsibility to control access to information because of HIPAA.
However, if someone does it and the hospital tries and fails to stop it, it wouldn't be a HIPAA violation.
I think it would only be a HIPAA violation if the intruder was able to take pictures of paperwork or PII that was visible and left by hospital staff.