They never heard of a plantain?

IIRC, the governor can’t just name a replacement. They would have to call a special election. This special election would have allowed Thomas Massie to run, and potentially become the incumbent for the midterm election. This is why they have held off on announcing his death for so long

Though, now it is too late to call one, so they have no more reason to keep the charade going. Even if they announce his death, the seat will remain vacant and the midterms will decide who takes the seat.

This is my understanding of the situation.

Just get the facility staff to fudge the paperwork. No need for elaborate nonsense. It isn’t like they are just going to allow any random person to come and check the corpse’s liver temp.

All they have to do is announce it, get staff to fudge the paperwork to look legit, then they embalm the body for the funeral or cremation and the evidence is gone.

There is also the possibility he is clinically dead (no brain activity but still has biological activity) but not physically dead (no biological activity whatsoever) and they are just going to have his wife conveniently decide to pull the plug. Then there is no need to fudge the numbers.