Amid his prolonged absence from the U.S. Senate after he was hospitalized last month, Kentucky Republican U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell said he will not attend the Fancy Farm Picnic this weekend.

McConnell’s office shared a statement from the 84-year-old senator Monday, along with a new photo of him and his wife, former Secretary of Labor and Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao, taken on Sunday.

“I’m still working hard to get back to my full schedule of work in the Senate and in Kentucky, keeping up with intense physical therapy per my doctors’ orders. Unfortunately, that means I won’t be able to make it to Fancy Farm, Kentucky this Saturday,” McConnell said in a statement.

The annual church fundraiser in Graves County has become a longstanding Kentucky tradition for elected officials and campaigning hopefuls. McConnell has regularly attended the event since his 1984 election.

Republican and Democratic candidates, including Senate candidates Republican U.S. Rep. Andy Barr and former Democratic state Rep. Charles Booker, have said they will attend the picnic Saturday.

McConnell said he appreciated the “continued well wishes, and I’m looking forward to getting back to the Senate and to Kentucky soon.” Monday morning, the Lantern had asked spokespeople for McConnell if he would attend the picnic and when he would return to the Senate.

“There’s no place I’d rather be on the first Saturday in August than with the good people of western Kentucky, feasting on pork and mutton,” McConnell said. “When I first attended 42 years ago, Fancy Farm was a pretty lonely place to be a Republican. But, my, how times have changed. Today, western Kentucky is a conservative Republican sea of red. So I hate that I’ll miss the fun this year, but I’m sending my best wishes to the St. Jerome community for a successful picnic.”

The Office of the Attending Physician said the senator “continues his recovery from a fall at

home in June.”

“OAP physicians visit with the Senator every day, discussing all aspects of his rehabilitation care,” the statement said. “Since his discharge from hospital care, he has maintained a strenuous course of physical therapy and rehabilitation, including multiple sessions a day designed to rebuild strength and reduce the risk of future falls. His bout with childhood polio continues to be a significant factor in his mobility. He is not yet medically cleared to leave the rehab facility and return to the office.”

Earlier this month, McConnell released a photo of himself and Chao and said he was moving from hospital to “a rehabilitation center where I’ll keep regaining my strength.”

Kentucky’s Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear, who also isn’t attending the picnic this year, has faced many calls nationally to declare McConnell’s seat vacant. However, legal experts have previously told the Lantern Beshear has no authority to take any action on McConnell’s seat until the senator has resigned or died.

>>1526015
He's absolutely dead and Republicans are hiding it so the democratic governor won't be able to appoint a replacement

Republikings are much stronger and healthier because we nd have God on our side. He is coming back before November. Liggy piggy faggy bitch always tears

>>1526015
In a just world everyone playing Weekend at Mitch's would go to prison for election interference, identification theft, and fraud for accruing pay and benefits for a corpse.

>>1526015
I like how he can't be seen in a hospital gown so they make him put on a new wrinkled Wal Mart shirt

You just KNOW that bastard put a condition in his will demanding that he be used to ratfuck the political process one last time.

When it comes out that Mitch has actually been dead for a month, anyone complicit in the coverup should go to prison.

It's fraud at the minimum but also perverting government.

>>1526018
How? Send some people to check on him. Your own people, not his. Do we not even know what hospital he’s at?

>>1526123
Feinstein was a vegetable for over a year and you didn't say a word

>>1526162
This is just an extension of the left being unable to meme, meme.
When Ginsberg was on her last legs and was in and out of the hospital this was what /Pol was doing. And they did eventually end up hiding her death for a couple days.
The left cannot meme so they steal.
All-in-all I got my wish though. Lindsey Graham, and Mitch will no longer be in politics.
We deserve better Republicans.

esl shill is talking to himself again

How do I make this conversation between other people about me?
Oh I'll claim they're all the same person, a paid shill who I argue with, so he must be arguing with himself because everyone knows this board is just 2 people, me and the notorious "esl shill"

Honestly the US gotta add an upper limit for age. Even 70 is alr.

>>1526123
>perverting government.
Infamously the worst of all crimes.

>>1526162
Feinstein was a daddy corpo loving Jew who I sure called out. Death to MAGA. DEATH TO NEOCONS. DEATH TO ISRAEL.

>>1526188
Yeah im with you there. No retiring in place for Senators or Congressmen.

>>1526015
Ok so genuinely can senators just fucking bail for their entire term without consequence? There has to be some limit to how long someone can be out before they get removed.

>>1526209
MIGA faggots: "Forever is a type of limit"
Also: "Its a limit if it only applies to dems too"