McConnell Appeared Confused, Required Prompting During Farm Bill Vote
McConnell, 84, looked “noticeably more frail” as he spoke to reporters from “a wheelchair outside the Senate chamber” on Wednesday. He was “smiling but speaking slowly and with some difficulty.”
On Monday evening, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) announced he would return to the Senate after a three-month absence. On June 14, the senator fell at his Washington, D.C., home and was briefly unconscious. The precise cause of the fall — and whether he lost consciousness before or because of it — has not been publicly explained.
The Associated Press reported that McConnell, 84, looked “noticeably more frail” as he spoke to reporters from “a wheelchair outside the Senate chamber” on Wednesday. He was “smiling but speaking slowly and with some difficulty.”
Today, I’ll cast my first Senate vote since I took a bad fall back in June. I’m really looking forward to being back on the Senate floor and seeing my colleagues.
My recovery has been a long and often frustrating process, and the lingering effects of childhood polio haven’t made…
— U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell (@SenMcConnell) September 14, 2026
In the video below, McConnell, a member of the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee, casts the deciding vote to advance the Farm Bill. When his name is called, he appears confused and initially murmurs “no” before a colleague prompts him to vote “aye.”
The measure passed by a margin of 12-11.
Here is McConnell voting in the Farm Bill markup. He votes 'aye' after a little prompting from fellow Senators and aides. https://t.co/WH3rmU006K pic.twitter.com/mjhE1Ozeep
— Jamie Dupree (@jamiedupree) September 16, 2026
However cruel some of the comments in the social media post below may be, Kentuckians are entitled to representation by someone fully capable of understanding the issues before the Senate and carrying out the duties of the office.
Mitch McConnell sitting in committee looking like the meeting has been buffering since the Bush administration. 😂
Pencil in hand. Microphone live. Camera rolling.
Meanwhile, his facial expression is filing a formal request to leave the building.
This entire clip has the… pic.twitter.com/a4xGEoMFK7
— Mr. Gerald Wayne (@MisterWayne) September 17, 2026
The incident recalled former Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s (D-CA) final day in the upper chamber. Following a long absence, the ninety-year-old was wheeled onto the Senate floor to cast a necessary vote in September 2023. Five days later, she was dead.
These episodes are walking, talking, real-time arguments for both age limits and term limits. As commentator Jesse Kelly notes in the post below, the Senate is not hospice.
This is not acceptable. This is humiliating for the country. I don’t know what needs to be done, but we have to stop this.
The senate is not hospice. pic.twitter.com/VJJmGx15FK
— Jesse Kelly (@JesseKellyDC) September 15, 2026
To his credit, McConnell chose not to seek reelection. On February 20, 2025 — his 83rd birthday — he announced that he would retire when his current term ends in January 2027.
His decision came after a series of rather alarming public medical incidents. In July 2023, McConnell froze during a news conference.
Sen. Mitch McConnell freezes during press conferencehttps://t.co/gUh8KwARi7
— George Tava (@AceofSpace1974) September 15, 2026
A month later, he experienced a similar episode during a press conference in Covington, Kentucky. Asked by a reporter whether he planned to seek reelection in 2026, McConnell fell silent and stared ahead for roughly 30 seconds before an aide intervened.
BREAKING: Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell appears to freeze again during a press conference in his home state of Kentucky, a month after a similar incident sparked concern when he was escorted away from the podium on Capitol Hill during an event. https://t.co/3ZdF1DW7A0 pic.twitter.com/zHUX1WcCxC
— ABC News (@ABC) August 30, 2023
Those episodes were followed by a series of publicly reported falls. The first occurred in December 2024, when McConnell tripped while leaving a Senate Republican luncheon, spraining his wrist and cutting his face. Two months later, on February 5, 2025, he fell twice at the Capitol — incidents that may have factored into his decision, announced 15 days later, not to seek reelection.
Under Kentucky’s current vacancy law, Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear cannot appoint anyone — Democrat or Republican — to replace McConnell. Kentucky’s Republican-controlled legislature changed the law in 2024, over Beshear’s veto, eliminating the governor’s appointment power for U.S. Senate vacancies. If McConnell left office early, Beshear would be required to call a special election, and the seat would remain vacant until voters chose a successor.
Prior to the new law, Beshear could have appointed a replacement, but only from a list of three Republicans submitted by the Kentucky GOP, according to The Associated Press.
McConnell is hardly alone. Congress includes a sizable contingent of lawmakers from both parties who are 80 or older. Politicians, regardless of party, are loath to relinquish power.
And this is just the ‘over 80’ crowd:
Maxine Waters – 87
Chuck Grassley – 92
Bernie Sanders – 84
Nancy Pelosi – 86
Dick Durbin – 81
Jim Risch – 83
Eleanor Holmes – 89
Hal Rogers – 88
Steny Hoyer – 87
Jim Clyburn – 86
Danny Davis – 84
Angus King – 82
Ed Markey – 80— eileen dover (@TriMeOn) September 15, 2026
McConnell’s return has brought a difficult but unavoidable question to the forefront: How should the nation balance voters’ right to choose their representatives against their right to capable, fully engaged representation? The Constitution establishes minimum ages for service in Congress, but no mandatory retirement age, and the Supreme Court has held that states cannot impose additional qualifications such as term limits. Unless the Constitution is amended, the decision of when to leave will remain largely in the hands of lawmakers themselves—and the voters who continue to return them to office.
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
The solution? An electorate that gives a f*ck.
Until then, age limits
Better yet a full cognitive screening test similar to what’s used for TBI memory/function followed by an old school Army Physical Fitness Test; push ups, sit ups and either a 2 mile run, 2.5 mile walk or 800 meter swim. Do it annually right before they ‘go home’ to their State/District in December. They either pass or fail. That gives them several weeks to successfully pass a make up test opportunity before the Jan session and/or next Congress is sworn in. Voting privileges suspended until they succeed. That way no-one is ‘removed’ from office and there’s no direct constitutional issues to raise. Senators and Congressmen have their voting privileges suspended all the time for breaches of conduct. Each house of Congress has constitutional power to set its own rules to govern its internal policies/procedures and this is simply another rule.
There aren’t a whole hell of a lot of Americans that could pass that test. I know that I couldn’t at least the physical part, but I think I’d make a hell of a lot better senator than most of the ones that are in office now.
Getting a 60% on each event is not THAT hard even for ‘well seasoned’ folks. The tests are not just scored sex specific but also age weighted so that it becomes easier to score better with less reps/slower times as one hits 50+. The 2.5 mile walk as an example has time requirement of 21 minutes at age 60+. Male 52+ push up to get a 60% is 20 reps. Sit ups – 28. Heck the 2 mile run for 60% at age 52+ is 19:48 …that’s nearly a 10 minute mile pace which is …slow as all get out and if one can’t do that then they can do the walk as their alternate event or the 800 yard swim.
Not even.
It’s good to be unaccountable to anybody… outside of one day every six years.
Voters can’t do crap about this until the clock runs out. There is NO recall in the US Senate.
If he were to resign, Beshear would simply leave the seat empty until November, and let the November regular election serve as the special election too. And by this point that would even be reasonable. But reasonable or not, it’s what he’d do.
“If McConnell left office early, Beshear would be required to call a special election, and the seat would remain vacant until voters chose a successor.”
Assuming the reporting here is correct, if Beshear refused to act (as “required”), the legislature could apply to a court for a writ of mandamus for the governor to fulfill his responsibility. Yes?
They couldn’t arrange a special election to happen before the next scheduled election in November.
Yes, he’s required to call a special election, but there’s no deadline for it. He doesn’t have to call it within so many days of the vacancy occurring. So he would just say “We’ll have it on November 3, when we’re voting anyway”.
Unless he had some political reason for doing it otherwise.
What reason could he have had? His incentive would have been to keep the seat vacant for as long as possible, to give the Dems a one-seat advantage in votes.
“These episodes are walking, talking, real-time arguments for both age limits and term limits.”
I’ve long been an advocate for age limits – not necessarily term limits – for publc service. But if both were bundled into a C.A., I wouldn’t object.
The military has mandatory retirement; civillian pilots have mandatory retirement; heck, even your IRA has a mandatory spend down age requirement. The federal precedents are there.
I’m thinking mandatory retirement from federal public service (elected and appointed) should be 77 y.o.
What say you?
Well I suppose if we can have a former President in a catatonic state we can have a senator in a confused state too!
All Dem Senators are in confused states. Otherwise that state wouldn’t have elected them!
Merely setting an age limit 1.) does not address the problem of having (let’s call it) insufficient cognitive abilities for the job (by age, accident, ailment, or other disability); and 2.) discriminates against those persons whose cognitive abilities have not abandoned them due to age. (My mother is 94, and when I talk with her on the phone I can detect zero cognitive decline, even though she has physical problems – and even those are largely due to a slip and fall on ice a couple years ago.)
I think term limits are the way to go. Term limits addresses another problem – professional politicians in Congress. I’d make them 3 terms in the House, two terms in the Senate, with no more than four terms combined (or something like that to make it impossible to make a profession of remaining in Congress by election to both chambers).
“even your IRA has a mandatory spend down age requirement.”
That has nothing to do with your competence — the IRS is impatient to get its cut.
Well I suppose if we can have a former President in a catatonic state we can have a senator in a confused state too!
Dianne Feinstein was hospitalized in Feb 2023, supposedly with shingles, returned to Capitol hill in May in a catatonic state and continued voting up until the day before her death in September 2023.
Did her staff use the senate equivalent of the autopen to vote on her behalf.
No. He had to say “yea” with his own voice.
Don’t I remember a staffer “helping her” raise her hand?
Voting is generally by voice, not by raised hand.
Here we go:
And now we present: How Mitch McConnell turned into the new Dianne Feinstein — from an outlet that never said dick about the original Dianne Feinstein.
Voting by voice, except when the Senator is so senile/cognitively challenged that s/he cannot speak. Exceptions are made that should never be made.
Forever grateful to Mitch for keeping that disgraceful partisan hack Garland off SCOTUS.
If he wants to stay until the end of January, let him stay.
I think Mitch did that out of personal animus for Obama. I remember the sparkle in his eye at that time. It said, “Gotcha, you SOB.” I believe he enjoyed doing it.
What difference does it make look at all the left winged nut cases on now
You’d just have him take one of their places
I do t remember but how would he vote differ t really than the black African Princess that’s on now or Amy for that matter
Term limits = no career politicians.
Just career staffers, who already act as puppet masters for the office holders.
Confused? I thought he’d been in office so long that voting as he was paid to was reflexive and didn’t require thought.
Cognitive assessment for all congressmen as a prerequisite for assuming office. IQ >= 115.
Again, that would require a constitutional amendment. Which is impossible without broad bipartisan support.
Problem, as always is who
counts the votesdoes the assessment.Much stuff in the US system is thrown to gross choosing by vote by the elextorate, exactly because of the problem of cabals of their own agenda. You don’t need better players if you can buy the refs — usually cheaper, too.
No age limits. That becomes stupid as soon as someone who kept their wits goes past the age limit. And, I think – in a moral or principled sense – you would then have to make that the mandatory step-aside age for everyone. Not necessarily a legal restriction, but why would anyone hire or retain you if you can’t be a Senator?
Term limits would help a lot:
5 terms House
2 terms Senator
2 terms President
No more than 20 years total.
Having said that, the real problem here is that the people of Kentucky need to be the ones removing him from office. (I think popular election of Senators makes it even harder.) But they don’t seem to want to do so. Which is the real shame with our Republic right now – the voters don’t seem to care enough about reining in our governments.
McConnell Appeared Confused, Required Prompting During Farm Bill Vote
So he’s the party’s choice for next president? Ideal qualifications.
This has Dianne Feinstein writ large all over it. The only difference is that a colleague instead of a staffer told him how to vote. What a disgrace.
One example of disgraceful fraud from a few years ago was the acceptance of “facilitated communication” from people in non verbal neurological states via “interpreters”. These charlatans were quite adept at manipulating the emotional strings of those who cared for impaired individuals, and their desperate desire to communicate. The Senator obviously has a degenerative neurological condition that increasingly impairs his cognitive state and impairs his verbal abilities. So he has attracted a retinue of “facilitators” who claim to channel his political responses, and that will continue until someone pulls the plug on him. The Kentucky voters and his Senate colleagues are ultimately responsible for this disgrace, but I consider the most appalling behavior to be from his family members who should have kicked out these grifters and stopped this long ago.
Joe’s autopen was half Ouija board.
This is slightly off-topic, but I am amazed at the amount of paper in that room. It look like piles of paper in front of each person at the table, and we all know darn well that senators don’t read anything. They rely on their staff to do that.
C’mon, guys, formaldehyde can only do so much.