Karen Finney, Kaitlan Collins, and Scott Jennings (Photo: Screen capture)
A truly awkward moment unfolded on Thursday night during a panel discussion between Democrat Karen Finney and Republican Scott Jennings on Kaitlan Collins' CNN show.
Jennings, who worked previously for Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), was quick to boast that he'd spoken to his old boss for "20 minutes" to check on him after an incident landed the senator in an ambulance in early June.
“I spoke to my old friend Mitch McConnell this morning, the senior Senator from Kentucky. He’s still recovering in the hospital. We talked for just shy of 20 minutes ... about IRAN, UKRAINE, the unfolding situation in MAINE, my visit to the TR Presidential Library and even a little bit of Senate history. I told him we want to see him back at work as soon as possible,” Jennings wrote on X at the time.
That same day, CNN host Kasie Hunt asked Jennings to call McConnell live on the show, but he refused.
While the senator has produced two photos as a kind of "proof-of-life," he hasn't been seen in videos or even a call-in to a Fox News show.
Collins asked Jennings whether he'd spoken to McConnell since the call in early July and Jennings confessed he had not but said he was in regular contact with the Senate staff.
“Scott, can I ask you, because you actually were invoked the other night on the show about your former boss, Senator Mitch McConnell. Have you spoken to him recently on the phone?” asked Collins.
“Uh, no, I haven’t spoken to him,” Jennings said. “I talked to him early on. And I’m in touch with his office, but I haven’t spoken to him recently.”
Finney held up her cell phone and asked whether they should FaceTime him live on air.
“We could – should we – do we want to FaceTime him?” Finney asked to dead air. “No? Ok.”
There was an awkward silence as Jennings stared blankly at the cameras for several blinks.
“Okay," Collins jumped in.
"On that note, Scott Jennings, Karen Finney, thank you both for being here," she continued before going to commercial.
McConnell has been in George Washington University Hospital in Washington D.C. "recovering" from what he said was a "fall."
In the 9-1-1 call revealed weeks after the incident, someone from McConnell's home on Capitol Hill said that he was in “cardiac arrest” and that CPR was being administered until EMS arrived. That detail sparked a series of bizarre incidents that left folks scratching their heads.
According to McConnell, he suffered a fall severe enough to knock him unconscious. However, he said that he didn't have a concussion or break any bones.
The most recent photo produced by the senator's office shows him sitting in a hospital chair with his wife beside him. The statement said that McConnell was keeping up with physical therapy but isn't ready to return home yet.
The CNN incident happened as "MISSING" fliers popped up on Capitol Hill asking if anyone had seen McConnell.
One of the hometown reporters who's covered McConnell for decades said that the senator is likely "just being a little cranky and pugnacious here in the twilight of his career."
