Country music group The Chicks are wading into the contentious political waters — again.
“We are the chicks. We’d like everyone to know — Mitch McConnell is just fine. He was just backstage doing our hair,” lead singer Natalie Maines said while on stage during the group’s Friday, July 31, concert in Atlantic City, New Jersey. (The group, formerly known as The Dixie Chicks, also included sisters Martie Maguire and Emily Strayer.)
Sen. Mitch McConnell, a once prominent member of the Republican party representing Kentucky since 1999, has been hospitalized for six weeks and counting after suffering a reported fall in his Washington, D.C., home. On Monday, July 27, the 84-year-old’s office shared another photo of the senator as “proof of life.”
“I’m still working hard to get back to my full schedule of work in the Senate and in Kentucky, keeping up with intense physical therapy per my doctors’ orders,” McConnell and the Office of the Attending Physician said in a joint statement at the time. “There’s no place I’d rather be on the first Saturday in August than with the good people of western Kentucky, feasting on pork and mutton. When I first attended forty-two years ago, Fancy Farms was a pretty lonely place to be a Republican. But, my, how times have changed.”
McConnell continued, “Today, western Kentucky is a conservative Republican sea of red. So I hate that I’ll miss the fun this year, but I’m sending my best wishes to the St. Jerome community for a successful picnic.”
Democrats — and some Republicans — have called for the senator to resign amid his extended absence and mysterious health issue.
“As Governor of the state you serve, I am calling on you to directly and verbally address the people of Kentucky and provide proof of your capacity to serve, or resign,” Gov. Andy Beshear of Kentucky, a Democrat, wrote to McConnell that same Monday, per The New York Times.
The Dallas, Texas, country band is notorious for their unapologetic political statements — in May, Maines took aim at President Donald Trump and the controversial and now defunct “anti-weaponization fund” meant to compensate January 6 Capitol rioters who attempted to stop the certification of the 2020 election, in which former Vice President Joe Biden defeated then-incumbent Trump.
“Our democracy is disappearing right before our eyes. This fugly slut is using your gas money to pay the insurrectionists,” Main wrote via Instagram at the time, sharing photos of Trump, 80, and the 2021 insurrectionists. “But don’t worry about it. I’m sure posting selfies will fix everything.”
