https://nicholasjorcutt.substack.com/p/the-news-is-reporting-what-mitch

The News Is Reporting What Mitch McConnell Looks Like. I'm Telling You What I See.

The Fractured Line, by Nicholas J Orcutt, Sep 29, 2026

I’m not sure how many of you out there realize this, but I’ve become an ulcer for a lot of politicians. I’m kind of proud of that fact too. It means that I am actively doing my job and pushing for change. It is also absolutely fucking beyond me that I’m in this situation.

Consider the other day, for example. I heard that AOC was having a meeting of students vs. billionaires in Ithaca, NY. That is about an hour and fifteen minutes from where I live. I’ve been actively trying to get in front of AOC for a while now, so I figured I could use it as an opportunity to hand her my bill proposal.

I reached out to the event and explained that I’m a journalist and I was looking to see if they were going to do a press gathering before or after the event. They said no, but that they would be happy to put me on the press list. I agreed, and suddenly I’m a credentialed member of the press.

Yes, it was actually that easy. Yes, it surprised me too.

So, there I stood, in the press box with TV reporters and newspaper journalists. Most of the press were actually incredibly nice. I thought for sure I would be the odd one out. I figured there was no way that they wouldn’t see instantly that I’m not like them. Yet, none of that happened.

Unfortunately, I was never able to get to AOC. Not that I’m giving up, but that was a dead end. While I was waiting after the event in hopes that I would actually be able to get in front of her, one of the reporters there asked me about me. I explained to them that I write for The Fractured Line. I explained that I was there to try to put a bill in front of AOC that would save EMS and the providers inside of it.

The reporter thought it was wild how I had gone from a paramedic to a writer. He didn’t think he had ever heard of someone going from working on an ambulance to working in a newsroom. He said that he could absolutely see how it works, since my perspective is so different than anything else in news and journalism.

That stayed in my head on the drive home. Part of me had thought he was being a dick when he made the comment. Part of me thought I had wasted an opportunity to hand him a copy of my bill proposal. Mainly, I considered what he had said. Unlike every other person standing in that press box, I was the only one who saw things the way I did.

None of the people in that press box know what it is like to be woken up at 3 a.m. because a 70-year-old woman took a headfirst trip down a flight of stairs and is struggling to live. None of the people in that press box have put a breathing tube down someone’s throat in order to keep them alive while on one knee in the back of an ambulance. None of them have ever done chest compressions on an infant while moving at 70 mph.

While driving back to Syracuse, I started to actually use what I can do that none of these other journalists can do. This all popped into my head while I was listening to a news story about Mitch McConnell. I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I couldn’t shake the image I had of this man out of my mind.

I came home and started digging through my notes about what had happened to him a few months ago. I pulled out the 911 call, and I went through the information that was public about his health. I started pulling articles and news reports. I even made a few phone calls to a few people who may actually have spoken to him or his staff in person.

Everything I found said the same thing: the lie that is Mitch McConnell needs to be talked about. Everything coming out about the man is an absolute lie and propaganda, and because no one is looking at him from the eyes of a paramedic, no one is actually going to say out loud what is actually happening with him.

Let’s fix that.

On September 14th, the first video of Mitch McConnell since the reported arrest was public. It was a video of his staff bringing him out of the residence in a wheelchair. They pushed him into a wheelchair van. While they were bringing him out, he had an unnatural smile on his face and was seen with a thumbs up.

It is also noted that he continued to smile with his thumb up while in the van, staring at the back of the driver’s seat. Almost like his hand was stuck in that position. If I walked into a house and found a patient presenting like this, I would tell you without question that there is absent mentation.

His gaze seemed to be fixed, and his expression seemed to be one of bewilderment. Most oddly about the presentation, I’m noticing that McConnell’s lips don’t move. Neither does his left hand. His staff reported that he had weakness from everything he experienced a few months ago.

They are lying.

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I watched more videos of McConnell. I scrubbed through every single video I could find of the man. He has spoken twice in public since June. Both times his lips didn’t move while he spoke the word “aye.” Because his lips wouldn’t move, the first vote he made was so quiet that it couldn’t be heard and he had to repeat it. Understand that he was unable to clearly say a sound.

He does show movement in his eyebrows, and he does seemingly have control of his right hand. Except every single time that there was someone speaking near him, the movements of his head to look in the general direction are slow and purposeful. His eyes never fully track. There are clear signs of a man reacting to noise, and not words. This is consistent with someone who has suffered from severe TBI.

The reason why I took special notice of his mouth is for a simple purpose. Being able to make a smile takes special neurological nerve control. Yet his default position seems to be in a constant smile. That isn’t a natural state for anyone.

You know a common treatment post-stroke in people with a facial droop? Botox. They inject the good side, to stop it from moving, so both halves match. Botulinum toxin type A (BoNT-A) injection in the nonparalyzed side has been used since 1987 for the treatment of asymmetries caused by facial paralysis and has shown promising results and improvement of quality of life; however, only a small minority of injectors feel able to treat this condition.

This is used to mask the facial asymmetry. Mask it. Not fix it.

It’s used acutely, right after the event. After administration of a single dose of botulinum toxin A on the nonparalyzed side of 18 patients with acute facial paralysis, marked relief of facial asymmetry was observed in 8 patients within 1 month of injection. It’s actually a preferred treatment for patients too sick for any other treatments. Especially in patients with medical problems that limit the medical or surgical treatment options.

An 84-year-old, post-arrest, post-pneumonia, in inpatient rehab is that patient.

According to the official reports from his staff, Mitch never went into cardiac arrest. They say he fell and was unconscious. They are also completely full of shit. You know how I know that they are full of shit? I listened to the medic get on the radio and call for CPR in progress. He called for a supervisor. That means that not only was CPR in progress, but they had almost no hope of getting him back. The medic needed extra hands. That’s not because of a fall.

It’s also worth noticing that the man who reportedly spoke to Scott Jennings for 17 minutes (which I assume would be how all of us would know we were in hell) was unable to say a single word to the press. The man who releases long press statements isn’t capable of clearly stating the word “aye”?

I’ll be completely honest with all of you. If I had never heard of Mitch McConnell before, and had I had no idea of who he is or what he is about, I would actually feel terrible for him. As I watch him be carted around, he looks like a wild animal being prodded by small children. He watches the world around him the same way an infant watches the world around them.

The problem I have with all of this is that I do know who Mitch McConnell is. I know all about the man who brazenly refused to fund school lunches for kids because he didn’t believe in handouts. I know all about the man who has spent his political career furthering the interests of corporations and billionaires and claiming that any protest to that is anti-American. There seems to be a sense of justice that the man who has caused untold harm and damage to the American people would be put on display like a puppet.

A journalist may just see an old man who is trying to get better. A medic will tell you without any doubt that we are watching a TBI trying to power a body that failed long ago.

Stay loud, stay informed, stay dangerous.

-Nicholas J. Orcutt

You just read something power didn’t want written.

No outlet assigned this story. No editor approved a budget for it. It exists because readers fund an independent operation with no paywall, no owner, and no one to answer to but you.

The ONLY reason this old, near-comatose man is able to be paraded around is because of the health insurance WE provide for him.

If this were any of us, we'd be in a nursing home continuing to die.