It was business as usual for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) on Thursday as he tried to quash speculation about his health and ability to serve out his term following his highly-publicized medical episode.
McConnell went straight back to work after the Wednesday afternoon incident. He was seen going back and forth from his leadership office to the Senate floor throughout that evening for National Defense Authorization Act amendment votes. While on the floor, he went back and forth between standing while leaning on a desk and sitting down. The minority leader also made time to stop by a Major League Baseball dinner to deliver a brief speech before returning to the Capitol for late-night votes.
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On Thursday morning, McConnell spoke from the Senate floor regarding the need for increased defense production and met with business leaders from Lexington, Kentucky, in a Capitol meeting room. Later on, he met with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (D-NY) leadership office, located a short walk from where he works.
The top Senate Republican ignored questions from reporters as he walked around the Capitol. He also attended votes throughout the day and into the evening as the Senate passed the NDAA, mingling with colleagues on both sides of the aisle who offered him well wishes.
Sens. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Brian Schatz (D-HI), Peter Welch (D-VT), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Ben Ray Luján (D-NM), Mark Kelly (D-AZ), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), and Jack Reed (D-RI) were among the Democrats spotted embracing McConnell on the floor Thursday night, none of whom advertise themselves as fans of his.
Republicans, naturally, did their part in checking up on him as well.
“I had an extensive conversation with him today on the floor. He was absolutely fine and as smart as ever, no difference,” Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) told the Washington Examiner on Thursday about McConnell. “And during the evening last night, he was on the floor, chatting, voting.”
McConnell, 81, had just begun speaking to reporters about the NDAA Wednesday when he suddenly froze, looking straight ahead with a blank stare for 18 seconds. Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY), the Senate GOP Conference chairman and a former orthopedic surgeon, walked up to the lectern to ask McConnell if he was OK. Barrasso and a McConnell aide then helped walk the Republican leader to his office down the hall, where he stayed for a few minutes before returning to take questions from reporters.
The Kentucky senator told colleagues later on that his doctors had warned that he could experience lightheadedness as a result of injuries sustained during his March fall. That fall, which took place at a Washington, D.C., hotel, left the minority leader with a serious concussion and several broken ribs. McConnell returned to the Senate six weeks after the incident looking frail, though he has still maintained a full schedule.
The March fall was far from McConnell’s first serious medical challenge. The seven-term senator is a polio survivor. He walks with a limp and has long struggled with stairs and other obstacles as a result. He also fractured his shoulder after falling in August 2019 while home in Kentucky, which required surgery.
The GOP leader would only respond to questions about the freeze-up by noting, “I’m fine,” a statement a McConnell aide pointed to when reached by the Washington Examiner for comment on the incident on Wednesday.
The top Senate Republican and his team maintained that line in the 36 hours since the freeze-up, with a McConnell spokesman saying in a statement that “Leader McConnell appreciates the continued support of his colleagues, and plans to serve his full term in the job they overwhelmingly elected him to do.”
The lack of candor is not entirely surprising. McConnell, the longest-serving Senate leader in U.S. history, is revered as one of the greatest political operators in the last century. The GOP leader has always been careful about how he presents himself to the press and larger public, especially given that showing any signs of vulnerability could lead to questions about his power.
McConnell’s closed-mouth approach is part of what made seeing him in a rare moment of public distress so jarring. The incident followed a series of falls, two of which were not revealed to the public until after the Wednesday episode.
The first slip occurred in February, while McConnell was in Helsinki, Finland, to meet the Finnish president. The second took place earlier this month at the Ronald Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C., while disembarking from a flight that was canceled.
“He seems to bounce back pretty quickly,” Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND) told the Washington Examiner on Thursday of the Republican leader. “I’m glad we have a long recess for all of us to take a little bit of a break and for him to rest up some more. Sometimes I wonder if he came back a little too quickly from the last fall. But, you know, he was fine. In fact, today at lunch, he was quite engaged and listening to the discussion and engaging in it himself rather spontaneously.”
Barrasso, a member of McConnell’s leadership team, said on Wednesday that he had “been concerned since the first time he was injured a number of months ago, [and] I continue to be concerned” about his condition.
Still, the Wyoming senator rejected the notion that McConnell’s condition was worsening, saying he had “no new concerns.”
“He’s made a remarkable recovery,” Barrasso said. “He’s doing a great job leading our conference. He was able to answer every question that the press asked him.”
Barrasso’s leadership colleagues toed the same line, expressing their confidence in McConnell’s ability to do the job and insisting he remains in control of the conference.
“I take him at his word,” Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) told reporters Thursday. “Apparently, he was dehydrated, got a little lightheaded, but now he’s fine.”
“He said he’s fine, and I take him at face value,” Sen. John Thune (R-SD) said. “You heard him respond to questions yesterday. He was very crisp in his answers.”
Cornyn and Thune are seen as McConnell’s most likely, and most interested, successors.
“He’s doing fine, amazingly. He seems to be back, answering questions. I’ve talked to him a couple times, and he seems right on,” Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), who also serves in leadership, told the Washington Examiner Thursday evening.
Republicans outside of leadership also said they view McConnell’s imminent retirement as an unlikely prospect.
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“He’s fine and will continue to lead the party,” Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) said of McConnell. “I don’t anticipate any change.”
“I’m not gonna speak about anybody’s health,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) explained. “The leader is here. He’s voting, and he is present. And that’s what we’re asking from him.”
