Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear called on Sen. Mitch McConnell to publicly demonstrate that he remains capable of serving or resign, a day after McConnell’s office said the 84-year-old Republican senator was still not medically cleared to leave rehabilitation.

“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,” Beshear, a Democrat, wrote Monday.

Beshear said McConnell could do so by releasing a short video or calling a Kentucky radio or television station. McConnell on Monday released a still photo of himself with his wife, the second time doing so since he was hospitalized.

“All we’re asking is just a little bit of proof,” Beshear told reporters Monday. “When you run for these jobs, you know you’re giving some of that privacy up.”

Beshear also asked Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., to investigate McConnell’s condition if the senator does not show that he can continue serving.

McConnell’s office declined to comment.

His absence leaves Republicans with one fewer vote in their narrow Senate majority and raises questions about Kentucky’s untested process for filling a Senate vacancy.

Beshear cannot remove McConnell, who is not seeking reelection when his term ends in January. A vacancy would occur only if McConnell resigns, dies in office or is expelled by a two-thirds vote from the Republican-controlled Senate.

Kentucky’s Republican-controlled legislature passed a law in 2024 barring the Democratic governor from appointing a temporary senator and requiring a special election. The law has never been tested, and the seat would remain vacant until a winner was certified.

Legal experts have said the law could face a challenge because the Kentucky Constitution says vacancies in statewide offices “shall be filled by appointment of the Governor.” That language could give Beshear grounds to argue he retains authority to name a temporary replacement.

The timing is increasingly important because Sept. 1 is the practical deadline for holding a special election on Nov. 3, according to Kentucky law.

McConnell was hospitalized after a June 14 fall that briefly left him unconscious and later developed what his office called a mild case of pneumonia. His office said Monday that he was undergoing intensive physical therapy and released a new photo of him with his wife, former Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao.

Beshear said those updates did not establish whether McConnell could perform his duties.

“Even the attending physician’s written statement does not discuss your actual condition, including whether you can speak, reason, or carry out your duties as a senator,” he wrote.

Typically, mortgages for a primary residence have lower interest rates and homeowner’s insurance costs, said Keith Gumbinger, vice president of mortgage website HSH.

Mortgage interest rates are generally 0.5% to 1% higher for investment properties than for primary homes, according to Bankrate. Homeowners also typically pay about 25% more for insurance as a landlord compared with a standard homeowners policy, according to the Insurance Information Institute.

Owner-occupied means “you’re going to live there the majority of the time,” Gumbinger said. But there are limited exceptions, including for military service, parents providing housing for a disabled adult child or children providing housing for parents, according to Fannie Mae.

If a homeowner changes primary residences, they need to inform their mortgage lender that the original property is no longer owner-occupied, Gumbinger said.

For example, when an owner sells a home and makes a profit, they can take a capital gains exemption worth up to $250,000 for single filers or $500,000 for married couples filing jointly, as long as they meet certain IRS rules, including owner occupancy for two of the past five years.

For tax purposes, a homeowner can have only one primary residence at a time.

When a taxpayer owns more than one home, proving which one is the primary residence is “always based on facts and circumstances,” Campo said. For example, a primary residence is typically where an owner spends most of their time, votes, files their tax returns and receives mail, he said.

A 2023 report from the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia found that more than 22,000 “fraudulent borrowers” misrepresented their owner-occupancy status, out of 584,499 loans originated from 2005 to 2017. The data was based on a subsample from more than 15 million loans originated during this period.

Typically, the fraudulent borrowers took out larger loans and had higher mortgage default rates, the authors found.

However, this type of fraud may be “difficult to detect until long after the mortgage has been originated,” the authors wrote.

“There is a difference between the court of law and the court of public opinion,” Jonathan Kanter, a law professor at Washington University in St. Louis and a former assistant attorney general, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” last week when asked about Cook. “In the court of law, this is small ball and very difficult to prove.”

“You’d have to establish…