Mitch McConnell.Photo: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc/Getty
One day after Senate Minority LeaderMitch McConnellstopped speaking mid-sentence during a press conference, a new report claims the Kentucky Republican has takenat least three falls in recent months.
CNN reports that McConnell, 81, fell in February in Finland, during a trip with a U.S. delegation to meet with the Finnish president in Helsinki. According to the outlet, McConnell tripped on a snowy day while exiting a car, but brushed himself off and kept walking.
GOP Sen. Ted Budd confirmed the incident to CNN, noting that it was an icy day but adding, “All of us are concerned.”
After that incident,McConnell spent nearly five days at a hospital, with a spokesperson saying at the time that his medical team discovered that the senator had suffered a minor rib fracture during the fall, along with a concussion that caused him to remain in the hospital “for a few days of observation and treatment.”
And according to CNN, McConnell also tripped and fell recently, in July, while he was getting off a plane at Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C., but returned to the Capitol to resume work the same day.
Eventually, McConnell returned to the microphone, where he answered questions about what had just occurred.
“Could you address what happened here at the start of the press conference and was it related to your injury from earlier this year where you suffered a concussion?” one reporter asked — a reference to the Republican’s March incident.
“I’m fine,” Sen. McConnell responded.
When the reporter then asked, “You’re fine? You’re fully able to do your job?” McConnell responded: “Yeah.”
Later in the day, McConnell spoke to reporters inside the Capitol, telling them PresidentJoe Bidenhad called to check in and joking, “So, the president called to check on me. I told him I got sandbagged.”
The quip was a reference to a recent fall Biden himself took, when hetripped over a sandbagon stage, shortly after delivering a commencement address at the United States Air Force Academy.
Speaking to Wolf Blitzer on Wednesday, CNN’s chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta weighed in on what he called “a neurological event” that occurred during the press briefing, saying, “It was definitely concerning to watch. I mean, I think his doctors will be looking at that tape and sort of, you know, trying to figure out what happened there. He needs to get checked out, I think that’s really the bottom line.”
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In November, McConnell defeated Florida Sen.Rick Scottin the GOP’s leadership election, making himthe caucus’s longest-serving leadersince 2007.
McConnell’s current term is slated to end in 2027.
source: people.com
