There was a national reckoning after the 2024 presidential campaign about federal officials — Joe Biden and his White House, specifically — hiding important health information from the public.
But the hiding hasn’t stopped. If anything, it appears to be getting worse.
Increasingly, some very high-profile public officials seem to have concluded that constituents and the broader public simply aren’t entitled to basic information explaining lengthy absences from their jobs. And their staffs are enabling them.
Republican Rep. Tom Kean of New Jersey recently returned to the House after spending more than 100 days away with no explanation at the time, ultimately citing depression. Now, questions are building about the also-mysterious and now-weekslong absence of GOP Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.
The former Senate majority leader has been missing from the chamber since being hospitalized on June 14. But his office has repeatedly declined to say why he was hospitalized, including when reached by CNN on Tuesday.
