Phil Bryant will appoint someone to fill the seat temporarily. He was counted as a yes vote.Ĭochran, who is the senior senator from Mississippi and chair of the influential Appropriations Committee, was first elected to the Senate in 1978. Roger Wicker, also of Mississippi, yelled and gestured to draw the clerk's attention to Cochran, who continued to stare ahead. When his name was called in a roll-call vote, nearby Sen. CNN reported that Cochran, after speaking to reporters, entered the Capitol through a metal detector, something senators are not, and have never been, required to do.Ĭochran did vote for the Republicans' tax plan in December, but he stood at the back of the Senate chamber and appeared dazed. He “appeared frail and at times disoriented,” as Politico put it. When he returned to the Senate in October, several publications reported on his apparent ill health. Cochran, in a tweet and through staff, said he was not, in fact, hospitalized, but was at home recovering from a urological issue. There have been whispers for several years that Cochran’s health was declining, but they became public discussion again last fall, when President Donald Trump said that the Senate had been unable to pass an Obamacare repeal in part because Cochran was in the hospital and unable to cast a vote. My top concern has always been my constituents in Mississippi," Cochran said in the statement. I’ve done my best to make decisions in the best interests of our nation, and my beloved state. “It has been a great honor to serve the people of Mississippi and our country. “I regret my health has become an ongoing challenge," Cochran, who is 80 years old, said in a statement, adding that he will stay on for the next few weeks in order to finish up a spending package that will keep the government from shutting down at the end of the month.
Thad Cochran will resign effective April 1, due to ongoing health issues, the Mississippi Republican announced Monday.
0 kommentar(er)
