Rep. John Larson Freezes on House Floor for Almost a Minute
Larson’s office: “This afternoon, he had what was likely an adverse reaction to a new medication.”
Rep. John Larson (D-CT), 76, appeared to freeze while speaking on the House floor for almost a minute.
Once he unfroze, Larson spoke slower. From Fox News:
“Congressman Larson appreciates the well wishes from everyone who has reached out. This afternoon, he had what was likely an adverse reaction to a new medication and is having tests administered by the House Attending Physician out of an abundance of caution,” Larson’s office wrote in a statement.
“He later participated in multiple meetings in his office and was alert and engaged. The Congressman remains in touch with his staff and in good spirits.”
76 year old Democratic congressman John Larson suffers medical episode while speaking on the House floor, freezing for nearly a minute. pic.twitter.com/i7Ibf4XHRV
— Ken Klippenstein (@kenklippenstein) February 11, 2025
I hope it’s only because of medicine and Larson can fix it.
But this episode is not going to help the aging members of Congress.
Sen. Mitch McConnell suffered two freezing episodes, sprained his wrist when he fell in December, and fell down the Senate stairs earlier this month.
Rep. Nancy Pelosi broke her hip in Luxembourg in December. She ended up in the hospital.
Pelosi fell while wearing “very high” heels.
Pelosi underwent hip replacement surgery a week later.
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Comments
I prefer Gary Larson…
Say-What’s a mountain goat doin way up here in a cloud bank???
Term limits are a tough sell. A possible way to sidestep the political drama and the pushback specifically on term limits is to strike a gentleman’s agreement among the political parties. Each could restrict ballot access under their party line to require basic physical and cognitive testing. Use the same cognitive testing as to diagnose TBI and Alzheimer’s. Physical testing could be complete a 2.5 mile.walk or 1/2 mile swim to time and then perform 15 pushups and 30 sit ups in 90 seconds. Very basic, very achievable for those in above average health, with minimal stamina, balance, strength, endurance and cognition. Doesn’t impact any potential candidate’s ability to run for office but would restrict ballot access as the nominee of a major political party.
This version of Larson is the best Larson ever.
I can’t even keep up with him!
Because of existing precedent – U.S. Term Limits, Inc. v. Thornton, 514 U.S. 779 (1995) – I don’t think the ballot access restriction (of any kind) would fly even if both parties agreed to it. All it would take is one person who felt unfairly left off the ballot to sue, and that would be that. The Court has also imposed itself when Congress refused to seat members that were duly elected. While that case law isn’t exactly on-point here, it’s close. I suspect if someone who won an election wasn’t seated because they had failed the cognitive impairment tests, the Court would force the seating. Ultimately, the only answer to this problem is a constitutional amendment of some kind.
This proposal evades any claims about imposing an additional ‘qualification’ to RUN for the office. Nothing would stand in their way of filing for candidacy in the general election.
This proposal is strictly limited to the political parties, which as private organizations, can have do currently set their own requirements to become a candidate to compete in their Party Primary and represent the Political Party in the general election.
This would simply be another internal requirement of each Political Party. If we are arguing that this one is unconstitutional b/c it adds a hurdle to Party Candidacy inconsistent with basic Constitutional ‘qualifications’ then so do all the other hurdles the Political Parties have to become a candidate for the nomination of that Political Party.
This is a really complicated topic. But, there is no qualifying criteria political parties can place on candidates before that candidate may gain ballot access. Instead, ballot access is controlled entirely by the respective states and those limitations generally have to do with signatures required and meeting specific deadlines, filing fees, etc. Oddly, as I understand it, parties can’t even require that a candidate running in their primaries are actually declared party members because they have no role in the ballot access process. If a Democrat ran in a GOP primary and enough people voted for him, he’d win the primary. There are states that regulate party-switching during the primary campaign. But, even those statutes are largely untested, legally.
Once a candidate wins a state primary, this is where it gets complicated. Some states compel delegates to vote for their pledged candidate on the first or first few ballots. But, it’s never been tested if it’s constitutional for states to impose such a requirement on the parties. So, if – arguendo -the delegates were unobligated to vote for their pledged candidate and the party (at the convention) decided to establish some additional qualifying standards on the candidates (beyond what’s enumerated in the USC), it’s anyone’s guess how the courts would look upon that or even if they’d take a case if a disenfranchised primary winner sued.
This actually (kind of) came up in 2008 when word leaked that John McCain was seriously considering choosing Joe Lieberman – a Democrat – as his VP. People wondered if it was even legal. The best guess the election law experts gave was: Probably.
Respectfully you are over thinking this.
What exactly is this spurned potential candidate gonna sue for? What remedy?
If he wants ballot access …. no one is stopping him from becoming qualified an independent candidate. Are we gonna rule that a political party MUST accept anyone as a candidate thus negating the right of association of the party members and commandeer a private organization?
In Alabama there’s no requirement that a political party even hold a primary election to select their nominee for the general election. I suspect that is the case in most States that still hold traditional v jungle v ranked choice selection processes. Again in Bama a party can opt out of holding a primary election and choose the nominee however their organizational leadership chooses. Only caveat is they must do that for ALL contests. In Bama the ‘governing body of a party may fix assessments…..OR other qualifications as it may deem necessary for persons desiring to become candidates for nomination for office at a primary election’.
“Are we gonna rule that a political party MUST accept anyone as a candidate thus negating the right of association of the party members and commandeer a private organization?”
In many states (maybe even most) that’s ALREADY the rule.
Here in AZ, who is or isn’t a “member” of a party is determined entirely by the SOS, and the sole determining factor is how that person registered himself to vote.
So I could re-register myself as a Green tomorrow, then take out nomination papers and collect signatures from Greens OR independents, then get myself onto the Green primary ballot.
The party can’t do squat to stop me. All they can do is 1) not fund me, 2) run someone else against me, 3) run some sort of “do not vote for him” PR campaign that pretty much nobody will ever hear.
And if Arizona were also an open primary state (which it is, but with a twist), and I could get enough independents to vote for me even though actual Green voters hate me, I would be the Green candidate!
The twist? The Libertarian Party of Arizona had to SUE in the Ninth Circuit under right of association in 2003, to keep the state from making its party primary an open primary like the other two were. Incredibly enough, they won. So independents can vote in the R and D primaries, but not in the L or G primaries (the Greens free-rode the court decision).
Henry,
Sure, I already acknowledged there are some States with odd quirks. In AZ y’all adopted a.Constitutional amendment to allow the Legislature to do those things. I suspect that in AZ and other States with similar statutes that if the Political Party wanted to fight they could win, as your example pointed out with the Libertarian Party. Another factor weighing heavily here is paying for the primary election. If the Political Parties choose to pay for the costs of a primary rather than choosing to free ride letting the State pay for them with taxpayer dollars then they have a much stronger argument about the independence of a private organization.
Absolutely a sound and reasonable proposal. But there is no such thing as a “gentleman’s agreement” with Democrats. 100% certainty they will try to finagle it to their own advantage.
Use a neutral evaluator(s), video tape ALL the testing both cognitive and physical then post online. This agreement would be done at State Party level anyway b/c the State Party organizations control the Primary process for their Party. President would be tricky but if even one candidate agreed and did it the others would face constant harassment over it from online if not legacy media. Especially if there were already questions about that particular candidate.
The problem with this is that age and incapacity isn’t the real problem. It’s geezers who have rooted themselves into place. Only term limits can stop that.
Getting old is not for sissy’s
It doesn’t matter. They vote in lockstep anyway.
The reaction most likely stemmed from adding a different branch water to his bourbon.
That was the time period in which Musk’s people began auditing the FCC. The WiFi went out all over Washington DC, and a number of notable “public servants” went offline for the duration.
He is well on his way toward filling Joe Biden’s shoes. He will no doubt be a favorite to run on the Democratic ticket for President of the United States.
We all gradually lose marbles as we age. Some people (Biden) lose them faster than others, and many people start with fewer marbles.
That’s a classic presentation of a heart/pulmonary problem (TIA) and not a frontal lobe disorder (according to my ER doctor wife). If you see a family member do that, they need immediate medical attention even if they recover quickly and seem fine after.
I thought it was a TIA also
If this were 2026, rather than 2025, the Democrat Party would be working to push him out the door, but with the midterm elections a ways away and no Republican candidate (as far as I know) already publicly running against him, the Democrats will keep him around.
Well, Fetterman had a stroke and it seems to have done HIM a world of good. Just sayin’
Fetterman is great but never forget he is a die hard liberal at heart. He is more of an old style liberal though that is willing to admit the other side is right sometimes and you can actually be friends with and talk to people who disagree with you. The reason he is being honest about why Trump won is because that is the only way the Democrats have a chance next time. Fortunately he seems to be the only Democrat to think this way.
IMO, Fetterman is more of center/left populist. There’s more in common with those guys and the center right populism of MAGA/MAHA than many are comfortable with. So long as the d/prog refuse to shake off the albatross of unlimited illegal aliens adhere to CRT/DEI, demand Trans primacy, pronoun and tone policing, keep defending govt waste/fraud and insist on cancel culture they will remain in disarray outside deep blue jurisdictions.
He’s younger and that helps a lot.
The US now resembles the old Soviet Union which had an ancient leadership until Gorbachev– old men who refused to give up power. Reagan too showed signs of dementia early on in his second term. We need a Constitutional amendment to set an age limit for federal public officials.
We don’t age linearly. Too see this, look at the force of mortality function, an actuarial concept. In reliability engineering the same function is called the hazard rate. It’s high in the early years of life and increases after about 45. Mathematically it’s a re-expression of the distribution of the time to failure. Think of it as a measure of fragility. The slope gets steeper as you age in a non-linear way. Think of climbing a hill that gets steeper with every step. It gets very steep (on average) by age 70. Everyone has a different curve. The lucky few are vital even at 80.
Biden provides a prime example. By the time he took office, he was well passed the prime he never had. This guy was a dumb as a post even at 40. Everyone around him lied to cover up his obvious infirmities. Now we have Larson who will give us excuses for the obvious.
Then we wouldn’t have Trump
And that would be a very bad thing
And the “new blood” Gorbachev dissolved it. I am not convinced that it could not have been saved, but Gorbachev was in various international orgs that probably didn’t have a lot of concern for Russia, the Soviet Union or any of that. He was a NWO guy.
If you’re choosing young blood, choose wisely. I like JD Vance. I also like Ron DeSantis. I don’t like everyone of their generation though.
TIA. Hope they took him to the hospital eventually.
what is it about these commies in the guise of (small r) republicans that make them want hang on in office well past the sell by date of king tut?
Mpney
Money and power… in varying ratios.
Be careful, be very carful. Back in the day, a cold would kill a Soviet leader.
Did someone try turning him off and then on again?
Reminds me a lot of the way an infant looks when filling it’s diaper.. I suspect if you were nearby the smell would also be familiar.
These things happen from time to time in a gerontocracy.