Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) tripped and fell during the weekly Senate Republican lunch on Tuesday, Fox News reported. The 82-year-old GOP Senate leader suffered a sprained wrist and a cut to the face.
The upper chamber was in turmoil as news broke that a wheelchair was seen being brought to McConnell's office around 1 p.m. Tuesday. Not long after that, a fire and rescue squad from Washington, D.C., was seen departing from his suite.
"Leader McConnell tripped following lunch. He sustained a minor cut to the face and sprained his wrist," a spokesperson told Fox News Digital.
"He has been cleared to resume his schedule," the spokesperson added. McConnell had missed Tuesday's presser due to the incident.
According to CNN, McConnell had several falls last year. In February 2023, McConnell lost his footing in Finland just after meeting with the Finnish president and the rest of the U.S. delegation.
A colleague blamed the ice for McConnell's fall as it was a very snowy day. However, just days later, McConnell fell again in Washington, D.C., and landed in the hospital with a concussion and broken ribs.
In July 2023, McConnell fell again while deplaning at Reagan National Airport. He did not sustain any injuries that time, but it added fuel to the fire of growing concerns over his age and health.
McConnell earned the distinction of being the longest-serving Senate party leader last year and is going on 18 years in that position. He said he won't seek the leadership position again, and his term in the Senate expires in 2026.
While it's true that McConnell has a weakened leg due to childhood polio, he has a history of falls dating back to at least 2019, when he fractured his shoulder at home. There are also more troubling signs for the elderly statesman who has yet to retire.
The political world was abuzz after McConnell had a freezing incident in August 2023, NBC News reported. It was the second time in as many months that the Kentucky Republican quit speaking and blankly stared ahead in the middle of a sentence.
The later incident came as McConnell answered a question about whether he would run for office again. An aide came up to him in an attempt to get McConnell to snap out of whatever it was that he was suffering.
"Did you hear the question, senator?" she asked McConnell. He answered a different question before she repeated the latest inquiry, and McConnell left shortly thereafter.
Mitch McConnell freezes again during a press conference.
— Pop Base (@PopBase) August 30, 2023
McConnell is an elderly man with obvious health problems on display for all to see. It's sad on a personal level, but it's outrageous on a political level that he has not retired and allowed someone younger and in better health to take over.
