McConnell Reveals Another Fall Landed Him in the Hospital
“While receiving excellent care over the past several weeks, I’ve also had to deal with a mild case of pneumonia.”
Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), 84, revealed that another fall led to his recent hospital visit.
McConnell has been in the hospital for four weeks, but his office has only released a few vague statements.
Last week, Gov. Andy Beshear demanded answers about McConnell’s health.
McConnell’s statement (and please remember that politicians rarely ever write their own statements):
“To my fellow Kentuckians –
“When you elected me to a seventh term and made me our Commonwealth’s longest serving Senator, you did so trusting that I’d keep showing up to fight for you every day. And over the past several weeks, Elaine and I have appreciated both your well wishes and your honest questions about what was keeping me away from the Senate.
“You all know how folks of my generation often hesitate to share the vulnerability that comes with growing older. Even in the public eye, I feel that same instinct – I can’t help it.
“But at the same time, I’ve had more than my share of experience with physical vulnerabilities. Surviving childhood polio meant spending my entire life with mobility challenges. They haven’t exactly gotten easier to manage with age. And last month, I took a fall which landed me in the hospital.
“My doctors have confirmed that I didn’t break any bones or suffer a concussion. I didn’t have a heart attack or a stroke. I don’t have any tumors or hemorrhages. But I was briefly unconscious and was taken to the hospital. While receiving excellent care over the past several weeks, I’ve also had to deal with a mild case of pneumonia.
“I can assure you that I’ve been a good patient. At my age, I tend to do what my doctors tell me to do. I’ve submitted to every test they can think of to help figure out what caused this incident. And I’m continuing to do everything they ask to speed my recovery. In fact, with signs of continued progress, I’ve been able to move from hospital care to a rehabilitation center where I’ll keep regaining my strength.
“As much as it frustrates me, this process takes time. And on the advice of my doctors, I won’t be able to return to the Senate floor to vote quite yet. But rest assured that, in the meantime, I’m not taking a break from the Senate business that matters to you. I’ve been working closely with my legislative staff on current issues, and with my Kentucky team who help me provide timely constituent services across our Commonwealth. I’ve also been keeping in touch with my Senate colleagues on the appropriations process, midterm politics, and everything in between.
“You’re right to expect your representatives to work hard for you. And part of my decision to retire at the end of my term this coming January was being honest about the demands of Senate work. But I still have unfinished business to complete on your behalf, and I have every intention of finishing the job you elected me to do.
“I’ll keep working hard to get back on the Senate floor as soon as possible. And I’ll keep you posted on the progress of my recovery. Until then, I’m so grateful for your prayers and well wishes.”
MCCONNELL releases a photo – and statement.
“To my fellow Kentuckians –
“When you elected me to a seventh term and made me our Commonwealth’s longest serving Senator, you did so trusting that I’d keep showing up to fight for you every day. And over the past several weeks,… pic.twitter.com/YTzTXDhEgu— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) July 12, 2026
I wonder if Sen. Lindsey Graham’s sudden passing convinced him to show proof of life.
The ambiguous statements from McConnell’s office led to conspiracy theories and anger.
Lara Loomer claimed a high-level source told her that McConnell “is officially brain dead.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) have disputed such news, saying they’ve spoken “with McConnell at length in recent days.”
Reporter Scott Jennings also said he spoke to McConnell:
I spoke to my old friend Mitch McConnell this morning, the senior Senator from Kentucky. He’s still recovering in the hospital. We talked for just shy of 20 minutes … about IRAN, UKRAINE, the unfolding situation in MAINE, my visit to the TR Presidential Library, and even a little bit of Senate history. I told him we want to see him back at work as soon as possible.
As I said in my previous post, if McConnell can hold these long, detailed conversations with people, then his office can provide them with a specific update.
After everything we went through with President Joe Biden, we deserve to know what is going on regarding the health of our representatives, especially their constituents.
The fact that McConnell has had numerous health issues didn’t help matters.
- March 2023: McConnell suffered concussion in fall, will remain hospitalized for several days
- July 2023: McConnell Claims He’s ‘Fine’ After Freezing and Appearing Unwell at Press Conference
- August 2023: For the Second Time, McConnell Appears to Freeze and Lose Ability to Speak
- December 2024: Sen. McConnell Trips, Sprains Wrist After Fall During GOP Lunch
- February 2025: Mitch McConnell Fell Down Stairs After Senate Vote
- October 2025: Sen. Mitch McConnell Falls in Senate Office Basement
- February 2026: Mitch McConnell released from hospital more than a week after experiencing “flu-like symptoms”
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Comments
In other news, Wife of Sen. Mitch McConnell Travels From Her Home in Communist China to Pose for Photo-Op w/ Husband in D.C. Hospital.
Faux photo alert!
No, it isn’t. The so-called 2023 photo was never seen before yesterday, because it was taken yesterday.
Is the photo “proof of life”? Holding up the WP front page would be nice….but nowadays what is real?
Nothing would satisfy nutcases like Loomer. Not even the man himself walking up to her and shaking her hand.
Agree there. It’s just the old Reagan saw…. “Trust but verify”. Historically, we have seen significant health issues covered over such as JFK’s Addisons Disease…. or Hillary Clinton’s. It makes Thomas Eagleton’s issues seem tame although still very significant.
Lara Loomer is an official loon. She should change her name to Lara Looner.
No response to the death of his friend Lyndsey Graham? I find that lacks credibility.
So then you have to agree that Mitch has had a facelift or several botox injections.
If he looks as good as he does in the photo, then why can’t he do a short video clip?
Btw, were you there when they took the photo the other day?
There’s a point beyond which you are not serving your constituents, you are serving yourself and at 84 years old that point for Senator McConnell is like the Buc-ees sign on the Jersey turnpike – turn around and drive 581 miles.
His inability to get to DC and cast votes is a clear sign.
No, it isn’t. Throughout the Congress’s existence it has been common for members to fall ill and to absent themselves while recovering. No one has ever suggested that a member ought to resign as soon as he falls ill! Even absences of over a year have been known and accepted as normal.
So the beltway politicians are fine with it. I bet all the people that this legislator is (not) representing are real fine with it too.
It doesn’t matter whether they’re fine with it. The principle of representative democracy is that you vote for someone to represent you, and then you keep your mouth shut until the next election. Your opinion between elections doesn’t matter. You don’t get to dictate to your representative how he votes. You don’t get to recall him (recalls are a “Progressive” idea from the turn of the last century). If he’s not seeking reelection he doesn’t have to pay you any attention at all.
“You don’t get to dictate to your representative how he votes”
Not dictate, but hopefully ‘influence’ how he votes.
“The principle of representative democracy is that you vote for someone to represent you, and then you keep your mouth shut…”
BS!! Not in my world. Where do you come up with crap like that?
You have the right to try to influence him, but no more so than anyone else does. The fact that you’re his constituent doesn’t give you any extra right to his ear.
Edmund Burke, among others.
Well Milhouse, I totally disagree. I have EVERY RIGHT to let my reps know how I feel about the job they’re doing and I have in the past.
I WONT just sit home and ‘keep my mouth shut.’
Oh whatever, just another prime example why there should be Congressional term-limits. Should have a limited number of terms to make their mark and the should be required to move aside for others.
eot
Lara Loomer claimed a high-level source told her that McConnell “is officially brain dead.”
Um… I’m gonna need more to go on than just this article. Could go either way, depending on the definition of brain dead
Oops. Wasn’t suppose to be a reply.
There’s very little — almost no — dispute about the definition of brain-dead. And under no definition is such a photo possible. Nor, of course, is it possible to have any kind of conversation, however short.
“If steroids haven’t been given than there is no brain death!” What is the challenge is appropriately diagnosing it. This is where things go gray a little. There are transient states where it is blurred as to when to finally call it although the outcome is already set. That is critical in cases where brain death is related to an antecedent criminal assault.
Where does that come from? What’s its basis? It it at all widely accepted?!
Feel free to propose a constitutional amendment to that effect. But be aware that it must be passed by politicians who are often long past whatever limit you would set. And that amendments are practically impossible to pass without broad bipartisan support.
Has any explanation been offered about why the initial reports cited EMS radio traffic that included references to administering CPR? I can understand finding him unconscious after a fall but I’m having a hard time believing the paramedics started CPR without first determining if it was necessary.
Initial reports of anything are mostly garbage.
No, we don’t. It is none of our business, or that of his constituents. They elected him six years ago for a six-year term, knowing that no one’s health is guaranteed, and that he was not a young man. It would only be their business if he were running for reelection, but he isn’t.
And Biden’s got nothing to do with it. Biden’s senility was visible when he ran in 2020; his supporters merely ignored it. As his presidency and his senility both progressed, it was legitimate to worry who was running the White House in his place. And once he declared his candidacy for reelection it once again became a matter of legitimate political concern. None of that is the case with a senator, who doesn’t run anything.
Yes we do….. not everything, but there are some health conditions that warrant disclosure. Going back to my post above, Thomas Eagleton had to step aside because of his manic-depressive disorder, so deep that electro-shock (“Redi-Kilowatt”) was needed to pull him out of depression. To leave it up the the Cabinet to invoke the 25th still leaves huge gaps in their members correctly diagnosing a major eexacerbaton. Biden was demented way before it became evident. It’s one thing to have mild cognitive impairment which slows a person down, versus that step into dementia.
Eagleton was a candidate for office. And he withdrew, not because there was any real reason for him to, but for fear that the stigma of any kind of psychological disorder would lead people to vote for Nixon/Agnew. This was a time when a lot of people thought it shameful to have sought psychiatric treatment, just as there were people who thought it shameful to be divorced. But at any rate he was a candidate, so public opinion mattered. Here we’re discussing someone who is not a candidate and never again will be, so his health is none of anyone’s business.
Manic-depressive? As a president should McGovern has problems? I rest my case.
Knowing the mental and physical state of one of the highest elected officials in the U.S. Congress is VERY SIGNIFICANT and very necessary. You’re always such a nutty goofball Milhouse….obviously you ingest significant amounts of prescription and non-prescription medications, along with other controlled substances…a dangerous combination.
No, it is NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS to know a congressman’s state of health — or mine. The founders would have been shocked at such an intrusion into people’s privacy.
If he is responding to Graham’s death, then why no mention of Graham in the statement?
(Because AI doesn’t know what motivates a human to generate a statement)
So he’s been in the hospital for a month. Even though he had no broken bones, concussions, strokes, heart attacks, hemorrhages, tumors, or apparently anything else the doctors can find. Then he got some minor pneumonia which he pooh poohs. But somehow he was not only required to be in the hospital for a month, but was also pretty much incommunicado.
That add up to anyone?
Rep Kean (R-NJ) was out for 4 months hospitalized for depression. Fetterman also was out for over 6 weeks with depression.
This stuff probably happens more often than we are aware of, What to do?
On the one hand people require representation. On the other hand its a process to just kick someone out because they are ill for a time.
.
Kimmel’s photoshopping his head onto Mitch’s hospital pic was a weak attempt at humor, IMO.
Now, putting Jimmy Kimmel’s head on Rob Reiner — THAT would have been unadulterated comedic gold.
Several posts here are as insufferable as the lying media, who post a photo=shopped pic of a supposedly hearty, hale Mitch McConnell who, nevertheless is incapable of making a public statement. Who knows the author of the written statement? Did Mitch dictate it? His wife, his staff wrote it? Despite what some say, the public has a right to know if the Senator is alive, brain dead, or just plain dead.