McConnell health episodes loom over Senate return to Washington
Emily Jacobs
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The health and well-being of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), whose recent medical episodes have sparked intense speculation about his political future, was top of mind for his GOP colleagues as they returned to Capitol Hill on Tuesday.
Last Wednesday, McConnell froze in front of the cameras after appearing to lose concentration, the second such incident this summer. The top Senate Republican, asked by a reporter about his 2026 election plans, stared off into the distance, unable to speak for about 30 seconds until aides rushed to his side.
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That incident came one month after a similar episode in which McConnell, 81, suddenly froze midsentence while speaking to reporters and looked ahead with an apparent blank stare for 18 seconds.
Attempting to quell concerns about his ability to serve out his leadership duties, McConnell’s office released a letter on Tuesday from Dr. Brian Monahan, the Capitol’s attending physician, stating that there was “no evidence” the octogenarian leader had “experienced a stroke, TIA or movement disorder such as Parkinson’s disease,” though he has partially tied the incidents to a concussion McConnell suffered earlier this year.
McConnell’s allies in and outside of GOP leadership rushed to defend the octogenarian senator as up to the job upon their return to the upper chamber after the August recess.
Senate Minority Whip John Thune (R-SD) said McConnell has “my full support and the full support of the conference.” Senate GOP Conference Chairman John Barrasso (R-WY), a former orthopedic surgeon, similarly pledged his full support and praised the Monahan report as “very encouraging and very good.”
“I’m really happy to see that the MRI was normal, to see that the EEG was normal and that he’s had a neurological evaluation,” Barrasso said.
Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), formerly the Republican whip, reiterated his plans to support McConnell “as long as he wants to do the job and can do the job.”
Cornyn, Barrasso, and Thune are considered McConnell’s most likely and most interested successors.
Sens. Steve Daines (R-MT), who chairs the National Republican Senatorial Committee, and Susan Collins (R-ME), a close McConnell ally and the top Republican on the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, maintained that they had complete confidence in the seven-term senator.
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), an informal adviser on McConnell’s leadership team, told reporters while exiting the weekly GOP leadership strategy meeting that the Kentucky Republican was “ready to go through the agenda” and “did an extraordinary job.”
Asked if McConnell’s leadership was in jeopardy of a challenge similar to the one he faced from Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) last November, Tillis replied that the GOP leader has “a very small group of people that would even ask the question, maybe a handful.”
As for that handful, McConnell’s greatest GOP foes had varied reactions to his most recent health scare.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), a former ophthalmologist who has long been a thorn in his home state colleague’s side, took issue with Monahan’s letter and the overall rationale given for McConnell’s health episodes after the Capitol physician cited dehydration as a contributing factor.
“It’s just mildly annoying to see people saying this is dehydration when it’s obviously not,” Paul told reporters outside the Senate chamber. “Everybody’s seen the clips. It’s not a valid medical diagnosis for people to say that’s dehydration.”
He added, “I don’t think it’s been particularly helpful to have the Senate doctor describing it as dehydration, which I think even non-physicians seeing that probably aren’t really accepting that explanation.”
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), one of the 10 GOP senators who voted for Scott and against McConnell in last year’s leadership contest, said the latter’s future largely depends on the 37 other members who supported him in that fight.
The Republicans who backed him, Hawley told reporters, “hold the future here.” As for the 81-year-old’s health, Hawley argued it was a bipartisan problem that voters were expressing concern to him about.
“You can’t say that you’re concerned about [President] Joe Biden but you’re not concerned about Mitch McConnell,” he said. “I’m also concerned about the amount of questions I’m getting. I just spent a month at home, and I was asked about it everywhere — before the most recent incident.”
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Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), who also voted against McConnell’s 2022 leadership bid, said he found it “ironic that the entire Capitol Hill press corps is in a complete frenzy about Mitch McConnell, and yet when it comes to the manifest diminishment in mental capacity of Joe Biden, we hear nothing, nothing but crickets.”
McConnell is expected to face questions about his health on Wednesday at the GOP conference’s weekly lunch and again by reporters at his first press conference since the freezing episode.