Is it Mitch or is it AI?

[struggle4progress]

[kimbutgar]

1. My thought also!

[Celerity]

16. It is not AI, see post 15

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100221371783#post15

[rickyhall]

2. That's a very good question.

[mwmisses4289]

3. Lol!

[FullySupportDems]

4. Oh, I just saw something from X

I ought to get a link. I don't go there. I was shown the post.

But apparently someone found a photo of McConnell from 2023 that looks exactly like the new one, except for the newspaper. I don't want to post false info so I'll leave it at being a rumor. It would be something if true.

[CrispyQ]

10. The image on the right was a couple of months ago.

[FullySupportDems]

11. I can't make much from that, his expressions are different

We'll see

[CrispyQ]

22. Really? I think he looks very different! Like at least a few years worth of difference.

In the picture on the right, his hair is completely white, his face is puffier, his jowls are droopier, & his skin is gross & splotchy. The jowls would need plastic surgery to fix those.

[FullySupportDems]

24. I didn't mean to disregard your impression

I don't wear reading glasses as much as I should

[CrispyQ]

26. I think it's more that I'm at that age where I notice big changes over short amounts of time.

[FullySupportDems]

30. The only thing in life you can count on is change

No pun intended, I'm not that quick!

[Celerity]

17. No, see post 15. The fake is the so called 2023 pic.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100221371783#post15

[Random Boomer]

20. Fake 2003 photos

Someone here on DU posted an obviously fake "2003" photo. There's a lot of garbage flying around.

[badhair77]

5. He looks awfully perky.

[struggle4progress]

6. No matter how long I stare at him, he doesn't move

That's usually not considered a really good sign for a hospitalized old guy

[msongs]

7. amazing how media fall for this without having live video with an independent third party there

[orthoclad]

8. Yeah, typed "statement", weird picture.

No proof at all, but they make it sound like they talked with him.

Oligarch media.

[LessAspin]

9. Graham confirms

It's Mitch

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

[LessAspin]

12. All joking and internet sleuthing aside..

This will be easily proved or disproved in time.

A still picture of Mitch McConnell from a hospital chair and a written statement is NOT proof of life or competency.

— Texas Paul (@realtexaspaul.com) 2026-07-12T23:09:25.613Z

[Celerity]

15. You are wrong. The AI pic is the so-called 2023 pic. I have posted on this multiple times.

The new photo is not AI:

https://openai.com/research/verify/



https://sightengine.com/detect-ai-generated-images



https://wasitai.com/



The so-called 2023 photo is an OpenAI construct:

https://openai.com/research/verify/

[hookaleft]

18. So sorry. It fooled me.

[Random Boomer]

21. It's obviously a fake if you look at it critically

The supposed 2003 photo has some immediate tells for a Photoshop and/or AI fake.

If you compare it to the hospital photo of Mitch and his wife, you'll see a strong side lighting source. This would be consistent with an interior setting with a nearby window, such as you would find in many hospital rooms.

The poolside photo, however, has that same strong side light even though they are seated outside on a sunny day. The lighting source would be the sun above. Even if they were sitting in under an umbrella, there would be a diffuse lighting on all sides, not a strong side light.

[hookaleft]

19. How did they do that???

google shows that it was a picture taken in 2023??

[Bluetus]

27. Are we saying that the "2023" photo is actually AI

built from the picture that McConnell's office just released? Obviously the photos have a common origin. All the wrinkles in McConnell's shirt are identical. SO which one is fake?

Isn't there a way to determine if the "2023" photo was actually posted in 2023?

[Hugin]

25. You'd think a US Senator and his wife could afford more than one shirt each.

Maybe the whole point of releasing the photo was to stir the muddy waters.

[Celerity]

29. The so-called 2023 pic (the pool pic) is an OpenAI construct, as I have shown with a link to back that up.

[Hugin]

31. I always rely on your background research, Celerity.

It’s usually flawless.

[Celerity]

32. Thanks. And when I was wrong on an OP years ago that had 100 plus recs, I made another OP admitting I was wrong.

There rarely is accountability (especially at a reputational level) nor the self-admittance of error in re the multitude of false (often major) claims over the years. That goes for posters who continue to push the debunked claims after they have been debunked or simply moving on to other feel-good but false claims.

Debunking things or simply disagreeing on things that many people WANT to be true, things that align with their wishes, is a thankless task, as people do not take well to having a personal ox gored.

2 perfect examples are

1. The continuing 'This Will Hold'-style BlueAnon 2024 election denialism (with the denialist claims also being an attack on Biden and Harris, as people making the claims are, by their own logic, saying that Biden and Harris were either too inept to stop it despite having thousands of legal and election professionals in their resource quiver, and/or were in on the steal themselves).

and then

2. The tortured-logic-employing and ultimately false claims and attempts to try and paint the Charlie Kirk assassin (Tyler Robinson) as a RW MAGAt.

[SoFlaBro]

13. Fuck that turtle-faced crumb bum. He's a shitty MAGA turd. Piss on that fucking turd.

[Buckeyeblue]

23. Regardless. If he is well enough to be in rehab he's well enough for a couple independent sources to visit him

Or even a doctor's statement. A picture of him with his wife and a newspaper don't really tell me anything.

[Brother Buzz]

28. Andy Borowitz would never, ever, publish any AI crap!

Mitch's recovery is really coming along
https://www.facebook.com/reel/849893947979360