Mitch McConnell has fallen over inside a Senate office building.
The 83-year-old was being asked a question by a reporter when he lost his footing inside the basement of the Russell Senate Office Building on Thursday.
The Kentucky senator was helped to his feet by an aide and a Capitol Police officer. He was able to wave briefly at the camera and then continued walking without any assistance.
The elderly lawmaker has suffered several falls in public since 2019, the latest in February when he collapsed twice in one day at the Capitol.
The falls have been attributed to the ‘lingering effects of polio in his left leg’ after he suffered from the disease as a child.
McConnell has also suffered at least two ‘freezing’ episodes in public during which he abruptly paused mid sentence for about 30 seconds.
Brian Monahan, the attending physician of Congress, said in September 2023 that these were not evidence of a stroke or a seizure, but referred to the effects of a concussion he had suffered after a fall in March 2023.
McConnell has been contacted for comment.
Mitch McConnell was being asked a question by a reporter when he lost his footing inside the basement of the Russell Senate Office Building on Thursday
Mitch McConnell, 83, was being asked a question by a reporter when he lost his footing inside the basement of the Russell Senate Office Building on Thursday
The episodes have fueled quiet concern and intense speculation about McConnell’s ability to remain the GOP leader.
He has become visibly slower in his speech and stride, and he had lost weight.
First elected in 1984, he is Kentucky’s longest serving senator.
