During a media gaggle in Covington, Kentucky, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) appeared to experience a scary medical episode , trailing off, remaining unresponsive, and freezing in front of reporters while staring out into space.

This is the second time in just a matter of weeks that McConnell has suddenly stopped speaking during a public event. Last month, he remained silent for an agonizing 19 seconds before being escorted away from cameras and reporters by Wyoming’s Sen. John Barrasso, a physician.

It’s quite clear that the 81-year-old is unwell, and the legacy media were quick to report on his undeniably terrifying mental decline.

“McConnell Freezes Up a Second Time While Addressing Reporters,” the New York Times announced . “Sen. Mitch McConnell appears to freeze again at a Kentucky event,” NBC News reported . “Why Mitch McConnell’s second freeze is more concerning than the first,” MSNBC argued .

Meanwhile, social media was alight with calls on both sides of the political aisle for the seven-time senator to retire.

Unfortunately, this sorry spectacle highlights two of the most fundamental problems with the American political system.

The first problem is the ever-present comedy of hypocrisy.

You will witness both Democrats and Republicans openly calling for McConnell’s immediate retirement, admittedly for a variety of reasons, ranging from personal concern to political hatred. But regardless, these calls for retirement are all based on clear evidence that the senator is unable to perform in his role.

However, why is the same not true for multiple Democrats whose mental fitness makes McConnell seem like a teenage member of Mensa?

California Sen. Dianne Feinstein is 90 years old and is practically decomposing in front of our eyes, Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman can’t piece together coherent sentences, and the president of the United States is stumbling from one confused interaction to the next, including referring to his own Department of Transportation secretary as Pete “Booty Juice.”

Yet not only are the legacy media and the Democratic Party uninterested in their own leaders’ collective mental decline, but they will actually run defense for their diminished capabilities — if any capabilities existed in the first place.

The second problem is the constant influence of power and greed.

It’s impossible to ignore that high-profile roles in American political life come with financial benefits (both deserved and corrupt), with entire families often benefiting from positions of authority. Retirements in these situations not only affect the individual, but the spouses, siblings, and extended family who will suddenly lose access to the piggy bank that is the Washington, D.C., swamp. Then there's the apparent addiction to power that motivates our nation’s collection of narcissistic political leaders.

This reality is made worse by the fact that ethical politics is an endless prisoner’s dilemma, where doing the right thing may result in punishment, while doing the wrong thing usually results in reward.

If you retire, your party risks losing political influence. It may not happen immediately — for example, the Kentucky legislature passed a bill in 2021 that would prevent Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear from replacing McConnell with a Democrat — but any change comes with risk. And in the world of razor-sharp margins, risk is a nasty word.

Why take a risk with someone who is mentally fit when you can continue to phone it in with a corpse?

We can all hope that politicians on either side of the aisle realize the damage they are doing by continuing to roll out figures incapable of solving a child’s puzzle, let alone representing their constituents in government.

But I won’t be holding my breath.

Ian Haworth is a columnist, speaker, and host of Off Limits . You can follow him on Twitter at @ighaworth . You can also find him on Substack .