Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell appeared to freeze for about 30 seconds on Wednesday while speaking with reporters after a speech in Covington, Kentucky.

The incident is similar to an episode McConnell experienced at the US Capitol late last month and is likely to raise additional questions about the fitness of the 81-year-old to lead the Senate Republican caucus.

Wednesday’s episode occurred when a reporter asked the Republican leader if he was planning to run for reelection in 2026. McConnell had to ask him to repeat the question several times, chuckled for a moment, and then paused.

Someone at his side then asked him, “Did you hear the question, senator, running for reelection in 2026?” McConnell did not respond.

Article includes video of the incident.

  • @[email protected]
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    1 year ago

    Sounds kind of like when my maternal grandma had a series of micro strokes for a few months before having the Big One.

    Time to retire, Mitch. For both our sakes.

    • @dhork
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      1091 year ago

      Maybe Mitch and Dianne can agree to retire at the same time

      • @[email protected]
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        1 year ago

        I’m surprised Dianne Feinstein isn’t running again. I thought she would have been stubborn enough to try to stay in office well into her 90s until she achieves lichdom just to troll us.

        • @Hoomod
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          151 year ago

          She is currently 90, and her term isn’t up until 2024. Apparently she isn’t running again, but she might think she is…

        • @hydrospanner
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          11 year ago

          I feel at this point it’s gotta be ego.

          Like…you have so much power that you don’t even sweat elections.

          Maybe it’d be a better course to work with your party, find a worthy successor that you agree on and start preparing the way for them.

          Public functions, etc. get them in the spotlight. Then when the time comes, go out on the campaign trail with them, endorse them, tell your loyal base that the new person will now carry the torch.

          If you pick the right person, in a state that’s so consistently supported you, it shouldn’t be too too difficult.

          Not doing it this way is the elected position equivalent of RGB refusing to retire in the Obama administration and fucking the very SCOTUS (and American people) she claimed to be wanting to serve. Now she’s going to forever have the tainted legacy of having great views, but being too proud to do the sensible thing, and choosing her own ego over her ideals.

      • MelodiousFunk
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        161 year ago

        “Okay, fine. On three… One… Two… … … … …”

        four hours later, we are still not sure if they’re waiting for the other to blink, have bluescreened, or both

    • @[email protected]
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      481 year ago

      All these old fossils need to GTFO. Him, Feinstein, all of em.

      But McConnell in particular has royally fucked this country. No member of Congress should have that much power. But he used it quite effectively for his own ends. So fuck him

    • flipht
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      311 year ago

      Its either happening frequently and just happens to have been caught on camera twice, or it could instead be related to hearing well enough to understand.

      My grandparents were like this. Even if they could hear you, a lot of times it seemed out of context to them because they missed some other important piece.

      • @grabyourmotherskeys
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        511 year ago

        The people handling him knew exactly what was going on there. This happens all the time, I’m guessing.

        Source: youngest grandchild of a huge family.

      • Jordan Lund
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        371 year ago

        You’d think if it were a hearing issue he would just say “Could you repeat the question?” and not stand there like a deer in headlights.

        🦌💡💡

        • @[email protected]
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          121 year ago

          He did ask them to repeat the question, several times, before just standing there blankly.

      • @[email protected]
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        1 year ago

        Schrödinger’s McConnell: competent enough to lead the Republicans in Senate, not competent enough to answer questions about Trump under oath.

      • @[email protected]
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        131 year ago

        Yeah, that’s not a hearing issue. I’ve seen people with hearing issues who zone out because they can’t hear / follow the conversation. But, they’re not at a podium at the time. When that happens they know they can just back out of the conversation and hang out until the conversation is over, or the meal is over, or whatever.

        When you’re at the podium you know you’re the focus of attention and need to respond. You can’t just stand there with a blank look. That looked more like a stroke or a seizure than a lack of hearing.

      • @afraid_of_zombies
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        121 year ago

        Oh it was rough towards the end with my grandfather. He was getting near deaf so it sounded like he was screaming at you all the time and you had to explain everything loudly and slowly, he couldn’t take it easy either. Was still out there running his little carpenter business so he had to communicate with people. To make matters worse, in a way, his mind was fine so he knew that he used to be capable of stuff and could see it all in his head he just couldn’t explain to someone calmly and in a normal voice that he wanted a hammer.

        Of course the big big difference between him and the Turtle is my grandfather wasn’t a bigoted pile of self-serving crap who was utterly useless.

      • @captainlezbian
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        81 year ago

        Yeah idk if auditory processing goes with age but you can also have delays from that.

        That said if this were that you’d think he’d get hearing aids after the last one

      • @[email protected]
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        61 year ago

        Senators are among the most powerful politicians in the US, as well as on the planet, and they know it. They don’t stand there befuddled because they’re socially awkward. If they’re befuddled, it’s because they’re befuddled.

        We are seeing the human version of the Mac’s spinning beach ball. I have a cat with the same problem. I would not nominate her for a seat in the Senate.

    • MrsDoyle
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      91 year ago

      My sister’s absence seizures turned out to be stage four brain cancer. I know he’s an arsehole, but doesn’t he have anyone looking out for him? At all? He needs help.

      • @rambaroo
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        1 year ago

        Did you see the look on that lady’s face? She wasn’t even worried, she was annoyed. That’s the world Republicans want to create for everyone. A Russia-like society where no one gives a fuck about anyone outside their immediate family, because it makes people much easier to control.

        • MrsDoyle
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          21 year ago

          Ugh yes. It was like her gadget had malfunctioned, AGAIN.

    • @[email protected]
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      81 year ago

      I kind of hope he doesn’t retire and goes out in an explosion of bodily fluid on live TV. What a show that would be.

      • terwn43lp
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        01 year ago

        he’s set for a presidential run soon 😂😭

    • BoofStroke
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      41 year ago

      I’m good with him staying on in a state where he can’t fuck us over more. My worry is who then pulls the puppet strings.

  • @Wussy
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    1901 year ago

    Glitch McConnell is at it again!

    • @[email protected]
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      271 year ago

      Timezone difference, they pushed updates to their clients over night, just standard practice.

      But it’s still funny that they force-reboot like Microsoft.

    • @nomecks
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      51 year ago

      Looks like some developer forgot to switch time zones!

    • milkjug
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      21 year ago

      That explains drumpf’s incoherent ramblings, corrupted bios after a failed flash.

  • @eran_morad
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    1261 year ago

    He should step down and fuck off into the sunset, warmly recalling with what little neurological function he may have how he fucked so many Americans. It’s probably best that I not write the rest of what I’m thinking about this piece of shit traitor.

    • @Beaphe
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      571 year ago

      I’m fully rooting for Mitchs dementia. Much the same as I am a big fan of Limbaughs cancer.

      Sometimes nature rolls a nat 20.

      • @WaxedWookie
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        241 year ago

        I figure a nat 20 in this context would be a little more dramatic than simple sundowning… We could shoot for shitting himself on camera, moments of brutally honest verbal diarrhea, endless painful kidney stones…

        Whatever the case, I wish McConnell all the health outcomes he so richly deserves.

        • @hydrospanner
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          61 year ago

          I would also wish him the level of healthcare he’s supported for Americans in general, but we know that he’s rich enough for a proper level of care.

        • @Intralexical
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          11 year ago

          dementia […] cancer

          more dramatic […] shitting himself on camera, moments of brutally honest verbal diarrhea, endless painful kidney stones…

          Interesting to see a few short moments of temporary and trite social embarrassment portrayed as a worse fate than the gradual and drawn-out ablation of everything that you are.

          • @WaxedWookie
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            21 year ago

            The dementia is already underway, these would be bonuses. That said, the verbal diarrhea would probably do the world some good - though it’s not as though the modern GOP has standards for that kind of thing.

    • @Son_of_dad
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      191 year ago

      I think he’s past stepping down, he can’t knowingly do it. He needs family and medical intervention.

      • rigatti
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        141 year ago

        Stepping down? He’s better at falling down these days.

    • @[email protected]
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      1 year ago

      It all seems kind of pointless doesn’t it? You screw over your compatriots only to become a lukewarm wet towel yourself.

  • @Sterile_Technique
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    1141 year ago

    May he receive thoughts and prayers. And no other form of healthcare or support.

    The world will become a slightly better place when he finally dies.

  • @kescusay
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    1 year ago

    That is hard to watch. I hate his guts and everything he’s done and stood for in politics, but it’s still rough to watch a man just fade away like that.

    He needs to retire and stop clinging desperately to power. The stress of it alone is probably literally killing him.

    Edit: Just so we’re clear, here, I’m not offering him sympathy. I have none to give for a monster like Mitch McConnell. The man has done enormous damage to the country, and people like him are why I worry about the future for my kids (both LGBTQ+).

    I was only trying to express that on a gut level, it’s still unpleasant to see someone basically drain away like that.

    • @[email protected]
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      1 year ago

      He lost all potential sympathy from me when he denied Garland and rammed in Barett during an election year before RBG was fucking cold in the ground. That decision and denial of representation has made shockwaves of regression in terms of civil rights, voting rights, women’s bodily autonomy and LGBTQ rights …and that’s what we have gone backward in…so far (birth control and gay marriage being illegal again is coming) and we will feel these effects for several decades way after he’s gone.

      tots and fucking pears, goddamn ghoul.

      • Blackbeard
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        191 year ago

        Yup. SCOTUS is eternally corrupted thanks almost exclusively to one man, and the sooner he’s worm food the better. Hell, even the fucking worms will gag on his bones.

    • @afraid_of_zombies
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      191 year ago

      Umm what stress? No really I am asking. There is no realistic scenario where he will have to choose between medicine or food, face homelessness, have his career destroyed, or really any major setbacks. Also he is probably a psychopath so even if some relative of his gets killed it isn’t going to impact him.

      I am a regular middle class family man. It would take nearly nothing to destroy everything I have. One dark spot on an x-ray, one bad car accident, me and my wife both losing our jobs at once, a kitchen fire. The Turtle’s wealth, pension, power, and lack of emotional attachments means he is shielded from everything. How can someone who can’t lose anything be worried about anything?

      The very worst thing that could happen to him is his party doesn’t have as much power. Which isn’t even really a thing on him, it is on the vile ideas that he has.

      • mommykink
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        -101 year ago

        Um do you say the same thing about artists and celebrities who experience depression or commit suicide from the stress? I don’t disagree with Moscow Mitch being a motherfucker or being undeserving of sympathy, but your comment is equally as brain dead. Constant moving around, traveling, talking to people who (rightfully) are trying to attack you, etc. produces stress on the body.

        • @Nurse_Robot
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          111 year ago

          Not all stress is created equally. Consider Maslow’s hierarchy of needs

    • @[email protected]
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      91 year ago

      I feel the same. Terrible human being. But taking joy in the suffering of others is not something I will do.

      • @afraid_of_zombies
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        1 year ago

        Don’t worry, I will take enough joy for us both. There is no hell, he is going to the same dirt we all are. If I want to feel a bit glad that one less terrible human is around causing problems I won’t feel bad about about feeling bad. Humanity as a whole will be better off the faster he dies. My feelings won’t change when that event happens and express an honest evaluation of the situation.

        Every single teenager girl in America trying to abort her incest fetus with a metal hanger is because of that fucker.

        • @[email protected]
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          1 year ago

          “Your account has been suspended for posting violent content. The suspension —-“

          Just kidding, this isn’t Reddit

      • @[email protected]
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        1 year ago

        Don’t worry I’ll have your share, get fucked Mitch.

        I know McConnell is just a lightning rod for hate for the GOP and as soon as he’s gone some other amoral, sociopathic mercenary will take his place, but damn if he’s not just the worst.

      • @CADmonkey
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        111 year ago

        Convince me that’s a human being.

    • @[email protected]
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      51 year ago

      Whether he clings to power and dies from stress is kind of his decision.

      I don’t enjoy seeing a person, even him, suffering illness. Even as much as I despise that horrible piece of shit.

    • TipRing
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      31 year ago

      My initial response is to feel empathy and compassion when I see this, it’s awful. Then I remind myself how many people have been hurt by him and how many people continue to be hurt by him and my compassion is tempered. I don’t delight in his ailing, but I can’t say I feel the same about this as I would if it were someone else.

      • @[email protected]
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        51 year ago

        He lost “human” status a long time ago. I actually like reptiles and lizards, so I have a better one:

        Ghoul.

    • @[email protected]
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      -171 year ago

      Exactly this ^

      The insane vitriol of some people on here, wishing death to this man, rejoicing in very obvious cognitive decline, it’s harrowing.

      The policy this man has supported and even pioneered is horrific, and frankly he should never have been allowed to push that shit nor would I ever support it, but you can bet your fucking ass I’m not going to be sat here laughing about an old man in clear mental distress or wishing death on him, because I’m not a piece of shit and I actually have some form of morality.

      • dual_sport_dork 🐧🗡️
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        1 year ago

        Don’t worry, though, if the tables were turned Mitch himself would gladly cackle to himself knowing that some policy he enacted resulted in your suffering, so long as it earned him a buck in the process.

        Fuck him. Right in the ear. With a pineapple. On a drill.

        • @[email protected]
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          191 year ago

          Honestly fuck the dude above acting like it’s some superior morals to coddle a scumbag. That’s how you reinforce their behavior and teach generations that being a corrupt piece of shit has no downsides, as everyone has to be nice to them anyway. It’s a lie that keeps masses from revolting against corrupt politicians/rulers/governments etc. Fuck that shit let’s remind those at the top its us at the bottom who support their little lavish lifestyles and can take it away in a damn instance.

      • @captainlezbian
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        221 year ago

        I want him to stop hurting people. If that means voluntary retirement that’s cool. If it means dropping dead or becoming too disabled to continue that’s still preferable to him continuing to hurt people. I wish him a long retirement, specifically I hope it’s the rest of his life long.

        • @[email protected]
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          141 year ago

          Na I hope he has a very painful and suffering filled decline full of mockery so shitstains like him understand they will reap what they sow. Treat them like anything other than that and you create a system that is ripe for abuse as we see today. Enough following the bullshit rules of power that allow corrupt greedy narcissists to remain in power because we should treat them kindly even though they are not treating others the same. That just rewards corruption and abuses of power, and I do not fuck with fascists.

      • @TheMauveAvenger
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        181 year ago

        Utilitarian moral theory is an entire field of ethical philosophy, even if you don’t agree with it. Someone who believes strongly in this could argue that we should have actually killed Mitch decades ago to prevent all of the pain, suffering, and death that he has wrought on this world.

        I think what you meant to say is that you have some form of feeling morally superior.

        • @Intralexical
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          11 year ago

          The same utilitarian ends could have been reached, and should have been reached, in any one of thousands of different ways, years ago, that wouldn’t require this.

          Fuck the ghoul and all he’s done. But just think of the level of political degeneration required to get to the point where a malicious actor gradually being paralyzed by illness in public is your most feasible option for resolving a political problem. I can understand why you would cheer for this, but the reminder that your country is even in such a situation that cheering for it makes any sense at all is itself something that I find horrifying.

          Besides, the entire point of utilitarianism is to evaluate possibilities dispassionately, and choose what results in the most useful outcome and end state. Like the other commenter said, “There is nothing utilitarian about taking ghoulish delight in the suffering of an evil old man”— The entire concept of evil is a more deontological or virtue-based construct— He’s on his way out, great, so celebrate the fact that he’s no longer causing harm, but once he’s gone, he actually doesn’t matter anymore— Contain the damage, tunc damnatio memoriae.

          Idk. I feel for y’all, I guess. In a well-functioning democracy, this should have probably been resolved almost an entire generation ago, and you should barely even have any reason to know his name anymore. Everything about this situation is horrifying, from what he’s done to what’s happening to him now to the fact that he even still matters at all in the first place.

        • Cylusthevirus
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          -11 year ago

          There is nothing utilitarian about taking ghoulish delight in the suffering of an evil old man.

          He’s falling apart and you’re enjoying it because you hate him. At least be honest with yourself.

        • @afraid_of_zombies
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          -51 year ago

          I don’t believe in utilitarian morality. They have no means to calculate, never solved the utility monster problem, it is a single value virtue system, and it ignores how humans work. Especially the last point, if morality doesn’t help humans live a better life it serves no purpose.

          • @Intralexical
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            21 year ago

            Not to mention that the first example that people always go to when trying to explain utilitarianism is always to use it to justify setting a precedent of murder, as long as doing so might feasibly produce benefits for somebody else in the future.

            Plus the future is never certain, while the present is arguably more real in any moment. Consequentialist frameworks in general are basically betting away guaranteed morality in the present in exchange for possible/imagined gains in the future.

            Personally I’ve also found that because everything is just so complicated, depending on what axioms you start with in a consequentialist perspective, you can also not only justify but make it compulsory to do literally any awful and disastrous things both to yourself and to other people.

            (Plus you necessarily end up having to introduce some sort of a concept of a “causal event horizon”— How far forwards into the future you are willing and able to try to predict events in order to evaluate the consequences of actions— If you actually try to apply and use utilitarianism or any consequentialist framework— Which means that your ethics change depending on your computing power, plus you’re in constant and actually agonising pain because having to always try as hard as you can to feel the consequences of future outcomes as far in advance as possible is fucking excruciating. … or maybe that was a specific situation (but still, what use is ethics if it just mutilates you as soon as difficult questions need to be asked?))


            Utilitarianism: The preferred ethical system for edgy youth, sheltered academics, idealistic extremists, and B-movie villains since the 19th century! …I say this having previously positioned myself somewhere between those categories.

            I do tend to think deontology is just delusion, and virtue is just ego, though— … Human “philosophy”, and academics: Maybe some dead old dudes being paid by Kings and Churches to sit around doing nothing but think weren’t actually the best qualified to empathise with how people actually live, and understand what is the right and wrong way to do it— The incentives for sounding good in a clean and neat published paper can hardly be expected to align with the incentives of actually being applicable to the messiness of reality, can they?


            Just don’t hurt people, Ffs— (And define “hurt” rigorously in terms of game theory and preserved options for autonomous constructive personal growth and equitable power dynamics, epistemology and the preservation of knowledge and feeling plus metaphysics and the preservation of identity and self, and thermodynamics and the avoidance of unconsensual entropification, if you need to)— just don’t hurt people; it shouldn’t be that complicated…

      • @[email protected]
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        121 year ago

        For fucks sake, it’s not some superior morals to allow a corrupt abuser to die or suffer for the agony they caused. It’s a lie to keep a power systems masses docile and in check. It’s even worse morals to know what this guy does and hope for the best for him instead of him dropping dead. Fuck that, and fuck all this shit that allows corruption to remain unfettered because oh we need to be kind to the fascist narcissistic egotists or what we have to deal with them like we always have. You should be aware of how they act and be ready to address that shit from day one when it’s called out. We know we need chemo to kill a tumor why the fuck are we acting like we should be feeding it and nurturing these shit stains who are actively cannibalizing the human races ability to survive over greed. Cut the tumor out or fucking irradiate it to death. Any fucking fascist peice of shit should be getting the same treatment. You don’t want to be mocked and laughed at as you die in old age? Well than start by giving a fuck about others first and maybe we will return the favor. I treat others based on how they treat others, fuck around like a shit stain get laughed at and paraded around like the shit stain you are.

  • @NABDad
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    761 year ago

    That’s the look you get on your face when you’re standing at the podium and look out to see a skeleton wearing a robe and holding a scythe pointing at you from the back row.

  • @abigscaryhobo
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    751 year ago

    After reading all the comments about wanting his life to be over and the counters about feeling bad for him etc. I think ive come to a conclusion on how to ethically handle him.

    I’m going to laugh. I’m going to laugh at how foolish he looks having a stroke on stage. How despite all of the terrible things he has done to this country on a socio-economic level trying to line his pockets and stay in power, he is standing up there, feeble and barely coherent, looking like he simultaneously shat himself and forgot his name, I’m going to laugh.

    Because if he wants any semblance of dignity, any ounce of respect, he needs to admit that he is done and bow out.

    “But he is still human, have some empathy” No, why should I? This man has engineered tearing the country apart so he can put his grubby hands all over it and smear it in his own grease. And he is still trying to keep doing it!

    What I see up there is an old man trying to walk across the freeway, with a dozen people telling him not to. And he is not only ignoring them but lifting his nose high and walking out into the road anyway. So when I see that mack truck hit him like it did on that stage, I laugh.

    • @Intralexical
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      121 year ago

      “The grace of God knows no bounds. But my mercy has some practical limitations.”

    • @[email protected]
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      331 year ago

      illustrates the love his party members have, keeping him working even after he’s had a stroke on tv twice.

      • @hoch
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        161 year ago

        Not only that, but to ask him about his reelection plans.

        Get this man into a nursing home.

        • @Beaphe
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          71 year ago

          No matter what, he’ll be sure to recover enough to start posting on Twitter, like Herman.

  • @[email protected]
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    631 year ago

    Last comment was deleted, so I guess I’ll repost it with edits.

    Couldn’t happen to a nicer piece of shit.

    Lot of folks trying to take the high road here out of compassion.

    This guy single-handedly fucked democracy sideways for at least a generation. The reverberations of his Supreme Court shenanigans are going to be responsible for the deaths of thousands.

    I hope he spends the rest of his days confused and shitting himself.

  • Lightor
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    621 year ago

    I love how republicans will say Biden is too old and make fun of him while also down playing this BS…

    • themeatbridge
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      41 year ago

      “I never killed anybody, but I have done just the same thing. I have had a great deal of satisfaction over many obituary notices that I have read. I never got into the habit of killing. I could mention the names of many that it would please me if I could read their obituaries in the paper in the morning,”

      Clarence Darrow