Alarming Revelations from Capitol Hill: Cognitive Decline and Substance Abuse Among Lawmakers
We all know how poorly members of Congress behave and represent the American people, but now lawmakers are dropping damning information allegedly revealing how dire the situation on Capitol Hill really is.
As TGP readers know, several members have shown multiple signs of cognitive decline, and there are two glaring examples that immediately come to mind. The first is late California Senator Dianne Feinstein.
Feinstein held onto office despite being so diminished mentally that she had no choice but to give up power of attorney to her daughter. Then, in December 2024, Texas GOP representative Kay Granger was found in a dementia care home last year after going missing from Congress for six months.
This is on top of the numerous falls we have seen from other elderly politicians like Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY).
Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT) told Politico that up to a dozen of his colleagues are in advanced stages of cognitive decline and have no clue what they are voting on.
“There’s no question that somewhere between six and a dozen of my colleagues are at a point where they’re… I think they don’t have the faculties to do their job,” he revealed.
A Republican lawmaker who withheld his name agreed with Himes that dementia on the Hill was a problem and added this:
“I have a difficult time sometimes telling between the deterioration of members and a handful who are just not very smart.”
Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA) dropped even more disturbing information to Politico: members of Congress are showing up drunk and high as they go to vote.
“I’ve seen one Republican who, unfortunately for you, has to go unnamed, show up drunk a number of times,” he said. There were one or two Dems I thought might be high on something but not drunk.
Himes added that most members were rarely sober when they cast late-night votes, though he never witnessed anyone extremely drunk.
“Every time we do an 11 p.m. vote, a minority of the chamber has a zero blood alcohol content,” he said. “Now, that’s different than voting drunk. I don’t think I’ve ever seen somebody demonstrably drunk on the floor.”
“If you are prone to substance abuse, everything about this job probably makes it worse,” Rep. Sean Casten (D-IL) added.
This is yet another reason why America needs term limits for Congress.
