McConnell Freezes During Press Conference
The 81-year-old Republican leader seems to still suffering from his fall.
WaPo (“Mitch McConnell freezes mid-sentence, escorted away at news conference“):
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Wednesday abruptly left a news conference after he froze midway through his opening remarks and appeared to be unable to resume speaking immediately.
McConnell began the GOP’s leadership weekly news conference by saying lawmakers were on a path to finishing a major defense budget bill this week.
“We’ve had good bipartisan cooperation and a string of —” McConnell said.
He then froze and remained silent for about 20 seconds, staring straight ahead, before other members of GOP leadership intervened. Sens. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) and Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), standing at McConnell’s side, asked whether he was okay, but McConnell did not respond verbally.
“Do you want to say anything else to the press?” Barrasso asked McConnell, before suggesting that McConnell take a break.
“I’ll take him back,” Barrasso said to the other members of the leadership team, guiding McConnell away from the dais.
McConnell, 81, returned after several minutes, and after the news conference was over, was asked by reporters to address what had taken place.
“I’m fine,” McConnell said simply.
An aide to McConnell who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss the matter publicly said the minority leader felt “lightheaded.”
“He felt lightheaded and stepped away for a moment. He came back to handle Q and A,” the aide said.
Later Wednesday evening, McConnell said President Biden had checked in on him following the incident.
“Well, the president called to check on me. I told him I got sandbagged,” McConnell said, smiling.
McConnell did not answer questions from reporters who asked whether he has seen a doctor since the incident, nor did he offer any details on what exactly happened to him during the episode earlier in the day.
“I’m fine. That’s the important part,” McConnell responded.
Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), who spoke at the Democrats’ news conference immediately after the Republican one, was asked about what had happened. “I always wish Leader McConnell well,” he responded.
The incident took place about four months after McConnell fell and suffered a concussion and a broken rib at a private dinner at a Washington hotel in early March. The Kentucky Republican was absent from the Senate for nearly six weeks as he recovered from his injuries. He returned to the Senate in April.
In the past two months, McConnell has struggled at times. Having overcome polio as a child, his gait has always been a bit stilted, but it has been visibly more cautious. On multiple occasions, he has not been able to hear questions that reporters have asked him. At one point during a news conference in early June, Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) had to lean in and explain to McConnell what the question was.
Barrasso, who was an orthopedic surgeon and previously served as president of the Wyoming Medical Society, said Wednesday that he pulled the GOP leader aside and walked down the hall with him to check on him.
“I just wanted to make sure everything was fine with him, and it was,” Barrasso, the No. 3 GOP leader, told reporters afterward. “I’ve been concerned since the first time — since he was injured a number of months ago,” he added. “I continue to be concerned.”
But after McConnell returned and engaged with reporters, Barrasso said, he seemed to be as good or better than he’s been in recent weeks.
“I think he’s made a remarkable recovery, he’s doing a great job leading our conference, and he was able to answer every question that the press asked him today,” Barrasso said. “And you may note that he answered more questions today than he usually does.”
That President Biden and Majority Leader Schumer are responding as human beings rather than political partisans to the health problems of a longtime colleague is encouraging and I certainly wish McConnell a full recovery. But it’s noteworthy that 83-year-old Nancy Pelosi voluntarily stepped down as the leader of House Democrats, despite still being arguably the most effective American parliamentarian in generations, because of pressure to step aside for a younger team. And, of course, there is a widespread sense that Biden—who’s nine months younger than McConnell and seems far healthier—should not serve a second term.
I somehow either didn’t know or had forgotten that McConnell had polio as a child. As with Biden, who had to work hard to overcome a stutter, age has made it harder to mask symptoms. McConnell has reportedly fallen other times since the March incident that hospitalized him.
Biden called Mitch to ask how he was doing and to express support. Did Benito?
This is a (very) low bar that Democrats seem to clear on a routine basis but Republicans struggle with…
I’ve seen lots of comparisons to McConnel and Feinstein lately. And, broadly speaking, the comparisons are fine–we should be questioning the abilities of octo and nonagenarians to perform taxing, time consuming jobs. But I will say that McConnell has always seemed to be the master of his own universe. Unlike Feinstein, I don’t expect he will allow himself to get to the point where he has a designated corpse-walker to move his body around in a facsimile of animation until a convenient election can roll around for his seat to be filled with his handpicked successor.
This was a scary episode to watch and I genuinely wish McConnell well even though I rarely agree with him.
It’s inevitable to compare the behavior of Republicans, who came up with conspiracy theories and made jokes about Paul Pelosi being beaten with a hammer, to that of decent humans like Biden and Schumer.
@Neil Hudelson: I am less convinced of this, to be honest. This smacks of a man who has held on too long and who will convince himself that he remains master of his universe. Indeed, I think we have been seeing this.
The problem is that as faculties degrade, it becomes harder for self-assessment to be rational.
But, we shall see.
As I said yesterday, I absolutely loathe the man and his politics but watching that was nothing but sad. Maybe it’s because I’ve had lots of experience with age related declines but it’s heartbreaking to see anyone going thru it.
@Steven L. Taylor: I was going to suggest the same situation about McConnell but allow for the likelihood that he wouldn’t need to because he can count on the
Governor of KY to select his hand-picked successor and simply die in office. Your description of the situation is much kinder than mine, though, and can serve as a reminder to us all that there are often reasons that some people get to host blogs and others don’t.
I think that if you’re Mitch McConnell, the biggest obstacle to stepping away from your job of Senator and your position as Majority Leader is that you will have a giant hole in your life and daily schedule, which you have no idea how to fill. It can seem a lot like actually dying, I would think.
@Just nutha ignint cracker: The Governor is a D. McConnell got the GOPs to push thru a bill, overriding the governor’s veto, requiring the gov to appoint from a short list of names provided by the GOP state committee. He’ll go out the way he’s lived, ratfracking all the way.
He’ll go out the way he’s lived, ratfracking all the way.
It should never be forgotten how much of a piece of shit Mitch McConnell is and has been for his career. His word means nothing (remember “we can’t approve SC justices the last year of a president’s term”). He enabled Trump for four years, and he was the one person who could have forced Trump to moderate. This country is in much worse shape because of McConnel’s efforts.
The only reason people act like McConnell is some sort of bipartisan statesman is because the House is full of lunatics.
McConnell, Biden, Feinstein, and … Senator Chuck Grassley is 89.
I’m old enough to remember that in 1980 Grassley was elected to the Senate based largely on his strongly expressed support for term limits. 42 years later Chuck has not termed himself out. Rather he is now dedicated to disseminating dis-and-misinformation intended to bring Hunter and ultimately President Joe Biden down in 2024. It’s long past Chuck’s shelf-life.
Back to the general point – I agree with others here that in the case of Mitch, Dianne, Chuck and a few others, that this (politics) is their life, they have nothing to retire to, and so they hold on.
@David Benton:
Yep. I have a hard time generating sympathy when bad people get sick or die. I quite enjoy bad people dying. McConnell is a bad person, a nasty, narrow, destructive man who has harmed our country.
@Michael Reynolds:
It’s all in the phrasing:
I hope Mitch doesn’t suffer long.
@Steven L. Taylor: In the words of Charles de Gaulle, “Old age is a shipwreck.”
I worry about all the people who have really internalized the song “You’re Gonna Outlive Mitch McConnell”
https://youtu.be/186FmQ4QZeY
What will they have to live for when he’s Mc-Gone-all?
@Kathy:
You’re a better person than me.
I’m one of those assholes that will break open a very expensive bottle of bourbon when Mitch McConnell passes. Seriously. I’ll dance an effing jig in public, while gently sipping some 30 year old Weller or Willet, with a big smile on my face.
Behind Newt Gingrich, and Rupert Murdoch, there is no one more responsible for our current political mess than McConnell.
@Kathy:
Trump and his MAGAs loathe McConnell. He’s a Communist RINO, you know.
@EddieInCA:
I’ll nominate Chuckles Koch and Leonard Leo in the top 5. With a footnote that without the money from Koch and his co-conspirators, Mitch and Leo would have been defanged.
@gVOR10:
I knew Len Leo when he was a law student. I had no idea at the time that he was actually spawn of Satan — he just seemed like another boring Young Conservative…