Throughout a routine Wednesday press convention, Republican Senate chief Mitch McConnell, 81, left tongues wagging after he froze mid-sentence for almost thirty seconds earlier than aides escorted him away from the microphones.
It was simply the newest in a string of health-related incidents the senator has suffered this yr, which marked the longest-ever tenure of a Senate chief. In March, after McConnell tripped and fell on the Waldorf Astoria in Washington, he spent 5 days within the hospital and greater than per week in a rehab facility coping with a concussion and damaged rib. All in all, he spent almost six weeks away from the Senate.
Additionally of word: Simply days earlier than the March incident, McConnell stumbled and fell within the snow on his option to a gathering with the Finnish President in Helsinki, CNN reported Thursday. And late Wednesday night time, NBC Information reported that McConnell tripped and fell once more earlier this month whereas disembarking from a aircraft in DC. Each of those stumbles had beforehand gone unreported.
When McConnell returned to the rostrum Wednesday, he dodged a query about whether or not the latest episode was associated to his concussion, merely saying he was “positive” and that he was capable of proceed fulfilling his duties. His reticence with regards to his personal well being is hardly shocking: One Republican senator, talking anonymously to NBC Information, mentioned that McConnell “doesn’t handle” his medical points even in closed-door GOP conferences.
However there’s purpose to imagine the incident may level to one thing extra critical. Two neurologists who spoke to The New York Instances after the incident mentioned the 2 almost certainly causes of the episode had been a partial seizure or a form of mini-stroke referred to as a “transient ischemic assault.” McConnell aides have declined to say whether or not he’d been examined by a physician.
McConnell’s well being points underscore the challenges confronted by a quickly ageing Senate. This spring, California Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein, who final month celebrated her ninetieth birthday, spent over two months away from her duties whereas recovering from a bout of shingles. At instances, she has proven important indicators of attainable cognitive impairment, resulting in requires her resignation.
The median age within the Senate is at present 65.3, up from 62.4 in 2017 and over seven years older than the median Home age, which has fallen lately. Greater than half of the Senate’s Republicans are older than 65, in comparison with 46 p.c of Senate Democrats. In america, the total retirement age is 67.
As for McConnell, quite a lot of pro-Trump conservative media figures and activists, who’ve lengthy despised the Senate minority chief, referred to as for his instant resignation Wednesday. However the Kentucky Senator laughed off a query about his potential substitute.
Nonetheless, the senator’s apparent frailty signifies that a retirement or retreat from Senate management is definitely a risk. That situation would probably spark off a three-way succession race between Senate Republican Whip John Thune, Wyoming Senator John Barrasso, and former Senate GOP whip John Cornyn. Barrasso, an orthopedic surgeon who helped escort McConnell again to his workplace on Wednesday, mentioned the Senate GOP chief is “doing an awesome job main our convention and was capable of reply each query the press requested him right this moment.” Cornyn likewise mentioned Wednesday that he’d assist McConnell “so long as he desires to stay as chief.”
Succession can be pretty easy in McConnell’s house state. In 2021, the GOP-dominated Kentucky legislature overrode Democratic Governor Andy Beshear’s veto to move a regulation mandating that McConnell’s substitute must come from his personal social gathering. McConnell publicly supported the invoice, which prompted hypothesis that he was planning on leaving the Senate earlier than the tip of his present time period, which runs till 2027.
“I am not going wherever. I simply bought elected to a six-year time period, and I am nonetheless the chief of my social gathering within the Senate,” McConnell mentioned on the time. “So, this can be a hypothetical. However I had watched this through the years within the Senate, as numerous vacancies had been crammed, and I believed this was the easiest way to go.”
