Whoopi Goldberg, cohost of The View, criticized the ongoing secrecy surrounding Sen. Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) health, arguing that the lack of transparency is “damaging to the nation.”
“We’ve gotten to a place where people are trying to hold on because they don’t want to miss the power that their group has or that their party has,” Goldberg said during the “Hot Topics” segment on The View Wednesday. “They’re holding on in ways that we’ve never seen them do before.”
McConnell has been hospitalized since June 14 after emergency dispatch responded to a 911 call at his Washington, D.C., home for an unconscious person in cardiac arrest. Though his office has not confirmed whether the call was related to his hospitalization, it is said that he is “receiving excellent care” and “continues to improve.”
Although McConnell has been hospitalized for more than three weeks, his office has released few details about his condition.
“Now there are certain things, Reagan had all kinds of issues, which we didn’t find out until much later,” Goldberg said. “This is damaging to the nation because we want people to tell us, we all get sick, but we need to know that you’re still capable and you can do your job. Nobody else can get away with this.”
McConnell has faced a series of health setbacks in recent years, including a concussion and a broken rib suffered in a 2023 fall, recurring leg stiffness, and a hospitalization earlier this year for flu-like symptoms.
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Amid questions about McConnell’s health, Goldberg argued that no lawmaker should feel obligated to remain in office out of concern for their party’s political fortunes.
“We also owe it to them to say, ‘Listen, we don’t care party wise, we want to know your health is OK,’” Goldberg said. “That’s something we have to do, we have to make that one of the things we change, that no one should be able to stay in because they’re afraid that their party is going to lose a seat. We can’t do that, that can no longer be part of what is going on.”