Top US Senator Mitch McConnell breaks silence on health-related absence
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Senator Mitch McConnell said he is still recovering from a fall and from pneumonia.
PHOTO: KENNY HOLSTON/NYTIMES
- Senator Mitch McConnell revealed his hospitalisation was due to a fall causing brief unconsciousness and a mild pneumonia, dismissing rumours of more serious health issues.
- His absence has raised concerns for the Republican Senate majority, and he has not given a return date, currently in rehabilitation.
- McConnell, 84, has had ongoing health problems and will retire in January, with Kentucky law requiring a special election if he resigns early.
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WASHINGTON – US Senator Mitch McConnell, the 84-year-old former Republican leader of the Upper Chamber, revealed on July 12 that his weeks-long hospitalisation had been due to a fall after losing consciousness, with a subsequent bout of pneumonia.
The extended absence of the veteran Kentucky senator had raised much speculation in Washington over his actual condition, and compounded problems for his party’s narrow Senate majority.
McConnell was admitted to hospital on June 14, with his office repeatedly saying afterwards that he was “receiving excellent care”.
In a statement on July 12, the senator acknowledged “honest questions” that had been raised about his absence.
“Surviving childhood polio meant spending my entire life with mobility challenges. They haven’t exactly gotten easier to manage with age. And last month, I took a fall which landed me in the hospital,” he said, adding that doctors confirmed that he had not broken any bones or suffered a concussion.
“I didn’t have a heart attack or a stroke. I don’t have any tumors or hemorrhages. But I was briefly unconscious and was taken to the hospital,” he said, dismissing rumours of a near-fatal health episode.
He said that while hospitalised, he also “had to deal with a mild case of pneumonia”.
The senator did not offer a timeline for his return to Congress, having last voted in early June.
“On the advice of my doctors, I won’t be able to return to the Senate floor to vote quite yet,” he said, noting that he had been moved to a rehabilitation centre.
The statement was accompanied by a photo of the senator sitting in a medical bed and holding the July 12 Washington Post newspaper, with his wife, former US transportation secretary Elaine Chao, next to him.
McConnell’s health has been under close scrutiny for years.
He was hospitalised in 2023 after a fall that left him with a concussion, later froze twice during public appearances, sprained his wrist in another fall in 2025 and spent more than a week in the hospital earlier in 2026 after flu-like symptoms.
McConnell is not seeking re-election and is due to retire in January.
But if he were to resign before then, Kentucky law would require a special election rather than allowing Democratic Governor Andy Beshear to appoint a temporary successor.
Before the sudden death of Senator Lindsey Graham this weekend, Republicans held only a narrow 53-47 majority in the Upper Chamber.
With McConnell’s extended absence and Graham’s replacement yet to be appointed, Senate Majority Leader John Thune has very little room for missing votes or defections as he tries to advance spending Bills and other legislative priorities before November’s midterm elections. AFP
