Barking up the wrong tree on the McConnell photo.

[Jirel]

About that Mitch McConnell “proof of life” photo that everyone is going on about being AI, staged, photoshopped, etc. - they’re all barking up the wrong conspiracy theory tree. The photo is real. Yes, of course it was staged by his staff, but it’s unaltered. Let’s take a moment for nuance, and understand what’s going on here.

1) The newspaper. It is fresh, unopened, unread, and “casually” placed in his hand in a position like he’s holding a napkin to (a) suggest that he’s fully capable of keeping up with daily written information, and (b) be identifiable by Internet sleuths as that specific day’s paper. BTW, they could’ve done a photo of him with it opened, reading it, which would’ve been a far more convincing shot. That is, if he were capable of reading it or holding it open steadily and looking down in a focused manner like he was reading it. It may be just a choice to look “casual” for the camera, but maybe not.

2) Notice that he’s in a nursing home - oops, I mean rehabilitation facility - chair, but for some reason he is being propped up with multiple pillows. THAT is an important plot point.

3) Check the facial expression. Eyes are pretty vacant, and the smile is lips-only, maybe even exaggerated. Where have you seen that smile before? How about in confused elders in a nursing facility who are asked to pose for a photo? We know he already had neurological issues, as demonstrated by his absence seizures in front of the media, commonly referred to as “freezes.” A serious infection does nasty cognitive things to elders who have cognitive decline already.

4) Much has been made of how Elaine looks 10 years younger, suddenly. This is a red herring. Even as an amateur, I can make myself or someone else look a decade younger using certain makeup products. I’m sure they had a good makeup artist involved. Why make the effort? Because her “youth” in the photo changes the narrative. If she looked older, tired, worried next to him, you could see this pic looking like an average elderly nursing home patient and elderly spouse. Her vibrancy next to him is meant to rub off on Mitch. “He’s sick for the moment, but this is a dynamic late middle-aged, dynamic DC power couple! See?”

5) Elaine’s hand… Can’t tell, but is she posing that way to demonstrate that she loves her husband, or to help prompt him to focus on the camera?

There’s plenty of subtext here, but it’s not what so many people still want to believe after a week plus of “dead McConnell” memes and speculation.