Mitch McConnell's Hometown Newspaper Publishes Brutal Pre-Obituary: 'Never Paid for His Sins'

The Louisville Courier-Journal, the largest newspaper in Mitch McConnell's home state of Kentucky, published a scathing "pre-obituary" evaluating the 84-year-old Republican senator's legacy while he is allegedly still alive.

Written by longtime columnist Joseph Gerth, who has covered McConnell's political career for decades, the column, published on Wednesday, July 22, noted that rumors that McConnell is on life support or in a coma had been circulating following his extended public absence.

Following the recent death of South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, Gerth chose to publish the piece now so people could not complain about critiquing a deceased individual.

“That got me thinking about Sen. Mitch McConnell, who was rumored to be dead or on life support or in a coma or whatever and was the odds-on favorite to beat Graham to the gates of h--- in the days before Graham’s death,” Gerth wrote. “And, so with McConnell allegedly on the mend, I figured I’d go ahead and tell you what I think about McConnell now — when no one can complain, ‘How dare you write that about a dead guy?’"

Gerth labeled McConnell the "ultimate shape-shifter," contrasting his early career as a young politician who supported civil rights with his later record.

“He had more guts as a young man than he had as an old man,” Gerth wrote. “It seems somehow fitting for the ultimate shape-shifter, who wrote about accompanying Sen. John Sherman Cooper to see Johnson sign the Voting Rights Act into law, that the court he created was the court that struck down the last remaining significant provision.”

The piece focused heavily on McConnell's structural maneuvering of the U.S. Supreme Court, specifically blocking Merrick Garland's nomination in 2016 and rushing the confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett in 2020.

The column starkly compared McConnell to former President Richard Nixon, calling him "every bit the detestable figure" that Nixon was.

“Unlike Nixon, McConnell never paid for his sins that have damaged our nation’s trust in government, destroyed the country’s ability to have meaningful dialogue and cemented our nation’s politics as an arena in which winning is the only thing that matters,” Gerth wrote.

It also scathingly criticized him for abandoning traditional conservative principles to collaborate with and enable President Donald Trump.

“His biggest failing may be his embrace of a president who he believes is stupid and who he believes led an attempt to overthrow the United States’ government on Jan. 6, 2021.”

“And that is the legacy of Mitch McConnell,” Gerth wrote. “He ends his career adopting the anti-civil rights positions Barry Goldwater supported, handed to him by a despised and distrusted Supreme Court that he created.”

McConnell has been out of the public eye since a June 14 hospitalization caused by what his alleged statement described as a fall and a mild case of pneumonia.

On July 12, McConnell's office released a photograph of him holding a newspaper alongside his wife, former Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, in a hospital bed to quell rumors of his death.

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have publicly called for more transparent video updates on his condition.

The long-serving senator is currently scheduled to retire from his Senate leadership duties in January.

Since the dubious proof-of-life photo, no word or image of the ailing senator has surfaced.