{"id":3424,"date":"2026-07-14T19:41:03","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T19:41:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=3424"},"modified":"2026-07-14T19:41:03","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T19:41:03","slug":"washington-gerontocracy-meets-its-receipt-check-moment-i-think-we-need-some-transparency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=3424","title":{"rendered":"Washington gerontocracy meets its receipt-check moment: \u2018I think we need some transparency\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Graham, who had turned 71 just two days before dying on Saturday, was far younger than many of his Senate colleagues and appeared to have been in good health. He suffered a tear in his aorta, according to a preliminary report from the medical examiner.<\/p>\n

Read more After donating $48 billion to the Gates Foundation, Warren Buffett is quietly ending one of the biggest philanthropic relationships in history<\/a><\/p>\n

It was the second time in less than a month that emergency personnel were dispatched to the home of a U.S. senator. In early June,\u00a0Mitch McConnell, the former Republican Senate leader, was hospitalized for undisclosed reasons.<\/p>\n

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After weeks of\u00a0increasingly dire speculation\u00a0about his health, he\u00a0finally revealed on Sunday\u00a0that he had fallen and suffered from mild pneumonia. He released a photo, complete with a copy of the day\u2019s newspaper.<\/p>\n

Graham\u2019s death and McConnell\u2019s hospitalization have come amid an ongoing reckoning about the nation\u2019s aging leaders, two years after the disastrous presidential debate that sparked widespread panic among Democrats about\u00a0then-81-year-old\u00a0President Joe Biden\u2019s capacities and accusations of a cover-up.<\/p>\n

Some politicians have continued to obscure details about their health challenges, asking for privacy despite their public positions, and fueling conspiracy theories.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we need some transparency,\u201d Sen. John Cornyn of Texas said Monday. \u201cI wish Sen. McConnell and his team would have done that earlier, I think it would have resolved a lot of questions.\u201d<\/p>\n

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McConnell is admitted to a hospital<\/h4>\n

McConnell, who at 84 is only the third-oldest member of the Senate, was\u00a0admitted to the hospital\u00a0on June 14 with barely any explanation. Aides said he was \u201creceiving excellent care\u201d but offered no details about his condition.<\/p>\n

The dearth of information fueled a wave of speculation about his prognosis, with Laura Loomer, a Trump ally and conspiracy theorist,\u00a0claiming on social media\u00a0that a \u201chigh level source close to the White House\u201d had told her he was \u201cofficially brain dead.\u201d<\/p>\n

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But McConnell, who will retire from Congress at the end of January after serving as the longest-ever Senate leader, said in a statement that he is on the mend. He said a fall had led to his hospitalization and that he was \u201cbriefly unconscious\u201d and treated for mild pneumonia.<\/p>\n

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\u201cYou all know how folks of my generation often hesitate to share the vulnerability that comes with growing older,\u201d he said. \u201cEven in the public eye, I feel that same instinct \u2013 I can\u2019t help it.\u201d<\/p>\n

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That wasn\u2019t enough to put speculation to rest. On social media, many refused to believe the veracity of a photo his office released that included the front page of the \u201cSports\u201d section of The Washington Post.<\/p>\n

Conspiracy theories about McConnell\u2019s health are \u201ca symptom of our times,\u201d said Sen. Rand Paul, who is also from McConnell\u2019s home state of Kentucky. Paul said people should \u201cgive him a break.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople think they have a right to know everyone\u2019s medical problems,\u201d he said, \u201cbut I don\u2019t know, where does it begin and where does it end?\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s medical reports offer limited details<\/h4>\n

The oldest person ever elected president, at\u00a0age 78, has long offered only the rosiest picture of his health.<\/p>\n

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\u201cEverything checked out PERFECTLY,\u201d he boasted after his\u00a0last physical in May, adding that he took yet another cognitive test aimed at detecting early dementia and has \u201caced them all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Kevin Warsh won\u2019t say if the Fed is done raising rates, even as he says the Fed has \u2018no tolerance\u2019 for high inflation and Trump pressure looms<\/a><\/p>\n

His\u00a0past medical reports\u00a0have been criticized for offering limited detail and including statistics that some health professionals have viewed with skepticism.<\/p>\n

When he first ran for president in 2016, Trump declined to release his health records, breaking with longtime precedent. He instead offered\u00a0a four-paragraph note from his doctor\u00a0declaring that he would be \u201cthe healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency.\u201d Rep. Ronny Jackson, White House doctor during Trump\u2019s first term, later drew headlines when he extolled the president\u2019s \u201cincredibly good genes.\u201d<\/p>\n

When he was infected with COVID-19 in the midst of his 2020 reelection campaign, Trump\u2019s doctors and aides withheld key details of his treatment and\u00a0tried to downplay the severity of his illness.<\/p>\n

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And after\u00a0an attempted assassination\u00a0at a Pennsylvania rally, Trump aides kept the public in the dark for days, declining to discuss the extent of his injuries or release medical records after\u00a0assuring he was \u201cfine.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kean Jr. goes absent for months<\/h4>\n

The obfuscation extends beyond the septuagenarian and octogenarian set. New Jersey Republican Rep. Tom Kean Jr. spent four months\u00a0missing without explanation\u00a0before he finally\u00a0disclosed late last month\u00a0that he had been in treatment for depression.<\/p>\n

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He said in a brief floor speech after his return that he had remained silent about his condition because he is a \u201cprivate person by nature.\u201d<\/p>\n

He won an\u00a0uncontested primary\u00a0during his absence, despite missing more than 100 votes in the House, and is running for reelection.<\/p>\n

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The approach stood in contrast to Sen. John Fetterman, a Pennsylvania Democrat, who disclosed his hospitalization for clinical depression the day after he was admitted to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for treatment. He also suffered a stroke while running for office.<\/p>\n

Biden\u2019s stumbles doom his reelection effort<\/h4>\n

Biden\u2019s halting gait, frail appearance and frequent verbal stumbles eventually doomed his 2024 reelection campaign. After a debate in which he frequently lost his train of thought, he chose to withdraw from the race, sparking an unprecedented swap at the top of the Democratic ticket that ultimately paved the way for Trump\u2019s return to office.<\/p>\n

Many others have refused to retire. California Sen.\u00a0Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat, died in office in 2023 at the age of 90, after years of declining health, including a bout of shingles. Though she returned to the Senate after her illness, she appeared frail and confused at times. It was later revealed that her office\u00a0had failed to disclose\u00a0in real time that she had contracted encephalitis while recovering.<\/p>\n

Longtime\u00a0Republican Rep. Kay Granger of Texas\u00a0spend the final months of her more than two decades in Congress suffering from \u201cunforeseen health challenges\u201d that made travel to Washington difficult.<\/p>\n

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Eleanor Holmes Norton, 88, the longtime House delegate for the District of Columbia,\u00a0announced earlier this year\u00a0that she would not run for reelection amid questions about her competency.<\/p>\n

___ Associated Press writers Mary Clare Jalonick and Lisa Mascaro in Washington contributed to this report.<\/p>\n

Read more The four hidden landmines destroying your team\u2019s performance<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

McConnell’s hospitalization, Trump’s health opacity, and now a senator’s sudden death are forcing a GOP reckoning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3423,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[429],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aging"],"yoast_head":"\nWashington gerontocracy meets its receipt-check moment: \u2018I think we need some transparency\u2019 - Cross Country Moving Team<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=3424\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Washington gerontocracy meets its receipt-check moment: \u2018I think we need some transparency\u2019 - 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