‘Daily Show’ Star Torches Missing Mitch: He’s Not Coming Back

Photo Illustration by Victoria Sunday/The Daily Beast/Getty Images/Comedy Central/HBO Daily Show co-anchor Josh Johnson, 36, believes Mitch McConnell, 84, is gone forever.

The MAGA senator from Kentucky has been missing in action for nearly two months due to a mysterious health issue.

He and his team have attempted to shut down speculation with bizarre photographs, vague statements , and sheer avoidance of questions.

But five-time Emmy nominee Johnson doesn’t buy their muddled story.

“Everyone who thinks that he has passed will be right eventually,” Johnson told Obsessed: The Podcast .

“I personally think that man’s been gone.

I don’t see a world where he does a back handspring in front of the media.

I think that there’s a reason that we haven’t seen him.

If someone is not in as bad of a condition as the public says, you just release an audio recording.

Truly anything!” Johnson received his fifth Emmy nomination this year for Outstanding Variety Series for The Daily Show , where he’s worked for almost a decade, first as a staff writer, then a correspondent, and, since 2025, a rotating anchor.

His debut HBO stand-up special, Symphony , dropped in May and was met with rave reviews .

But it is on his personal YouTube channel where Johnson has found his most unlikely success, putting out a new hour of topical material every week and racking up millions of views each time.

For instance, when Johnson performed a show on July 12, the day after South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham died, he immediately addressed the senator’s death on stage: “When I woke up and saw that Lindsey Graham had passed away, I was like, ‘That’s a very weird way to spell Mitch McConnell.’” Johnson rewrote a large portion of his set to accommodate the unexpected news, molding the structure of his performance to address the situation.

“When you see the Fox News notification, whatever Senator passed away, you’re like, ‘Yeah, of course,’” he said.