A Republican Congressman Disappeared for Months

And Nobody in Washington Seems to Care.

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For nearly four months, a sitting member of Congress — representing one of the most competitive battleground districts in the country, in the middle of an illegal war and an economic gut-punch — simply vanished. No explanation. No public schedule. No votes. Tom Kean, New Jersey’s 7th District, last cast a vote on March 5th. He missed well over 140 votes after that. And almost nobody in Washington or the corporate press seemed to give a damn.

Now he’s back. And the explanation is that his doctors recommended hospitalization for depression.

Let me be very clear about something before I say anything else: depression is real. I’ve lived it. It took real work to climb out of that hole, and I know exactly how it wrecks you — mentally, physically, all of it. I’m genuinely glad Kean got care. I mean that. Nobody should be shamed for getting treatment for a mental illness, and the more public officials who are honest about that struggle, the better — it opens the door for other people to get help too.

But here’s the thing. Kean isn’t just some guy. He’s a member of Congress. And that comes with a different standard.

You do not get to disappear for four months, with no explanation to your constituents, while the country is dealing with an illegal war and an economic calamity, and just expect everyone to shrug it off when you resurface. If you didn’t show up to your job for four months with zero explanation, you’d be fired. And good luck finding another job after that. That’s not partisanship. That’s the two-tier system in this country in one clean example — the people who are supposed to answer to us operate by a completely different set of rules than the rest of us do.

And I want to be honest about something else: I’m skeptical. Not of depression as a diagnosis — of these people’s honesty in general. This crowd lies about everything, constantly, reflexively. I hope this story is exactly what he says it is. But given the track record of the people currently running this country, forgive me for not taking anything at face value anymore.

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I should also note that dealing with depression didn’t stop Kean from abusing his office to do more insider trading. Apparently nothing will stop these guys from profiteering off taxpayers. And that’s become one of the defining features of American politics: the people with the most power have convinced themselves the rules simply don’t apply to them. They disappear. They enrich themselves. They lie. They abuse public office. And then they act genuinely offended when anyone suggests there should be consequences.

Here’s what actually disqualifies Tom Kean: It isn’t that he got depressed. It’s that he wasn’t honest with the people who elected him, that he disappeared during one of the most consequential stretches in recent American history, and that the entire time he was getting taxpayer-funded care, he was voting to gut the exact system that gives regular people access to that same care. Kean voted for the so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill” — the one that guts Medicaid, the single largest funder of mental health services in this country, and that let ACA tax credits expire, sending premiums up more than a hundred percent for millions of families. He voted to make it harder for his own constituents to get the kind of help he needed and received. The people writing the rules rarely have to live under them themselves.

So no — he shouldn’t lose in November because he had depression. He should lose because he wasn’t honest, because he was absent when his district needed him most, and because he spent his career voting to strip away the very safety net he leaned on himself. Forget party for a second. That’s disqualifying on its own.

And this isn’t just a Kean problem. This is a Washington problem. We have a generational leadership crisis in this country — a Congress full of people clinging to power well past the point they should’ve handed it off, members literally dying in office because nobody will step aside, and almost total silence about the health of the people running the country. Joe Biden’s inner circle lying to the public about his decline for a year and a half is a huge reason Donald Trump is sitting in the White House again right now. And right now, Trump himself is visibly, obviously declining — medical experts have said as much — while his people trot out comparisons to NFL players and lie about his weight and his cognitive state like we’re all supposed to just believe it. That boy ain’t right, and everyone around him knows it.

It’s the same mindset you hear when Mike Johnson defends members of Congress trading stocks because they have to “support their families.” Members of Congress already make far more than the median American household. Millions of families survive on forty or fifty thousand dollars a year without access to insider information. The problem isn’t that Congress can’t support itself. The problem is that too many people in Congress have forgotten they’re public servants, not a protected class.

We need real transparency about the health of the people who hold power over our lives. Not because getting sick is shameful — it isn’t — but because these are people with enormous responsibility, who are susceptible to manipulation and burnout just like anyone else, and the public has a right to know if the person making decisions about war and the economy is actually capable of doing the job. The same standard should apply to every abuse of public trust. If you misuse power, lie to the people you represent, or use public office for private gain, there should be consequences. And this isn’t about vengeance. It’s about making sure no one is above the standards everyone else is expected to live by. Without that, power just keeps rewarding itself.

And this can’t just be a Democratic talking point. Republicans need to hold their own accountable here too, or nothing changes.

If you’re reading this and you’re struggling — with depression, anxiety, whatever it is — I mean this sincerely: reach out. I’ve been in that hole. I know how dark it gets. You are not alone, and getting help is never something to be ashamed of.

But getting help and being honest with the people who trusted you with power are two different things. Tom Kean failed at the second one. That’s why he should lose.