Reactions as Mitch McConnell had a stroke on live TV during press conference.
A few minutes later, McConnell walked back to the news conference by himself. When asked about his health, he said he was fine. Asked whether he is fully able to do his job, McConnell said, “Yeah.”
Asked about the episode, a McConnell aide pointed to the GOP leader saying, “I’m fine,” but the aide added that McConnell “felt lightheaded and stepped away for a moment.”
“He came back to handle Q&A, which as everyone observed was sharp,” the aide said.
McConnell, who is up for reelection in 2026, has repeatedly declined to say if he will run for another term or try to run for GOP leader again in the next Congress, which begins in 2025. While he told CNN last fall he would definitely finish out his term, in an interview in May – after he suffered the concussion – he didn’t want to engage.
“I thought this was not an interview about my future,” he said when asked if he would serve out his term or run for leader again. “I thought it was an interview about the 2024 Senate elections.”
McConnell, asked by CNN what happened and if it is related to his fall earlier this year, said “No, I’m fine,” and then moved on to other reporters.
A McConnell aide said that the senator “felt light headed and stepped away for a moment.”
“He came back to handle Q and A, which as everyone observed was sharp,” the aide said.
McConnell, 81, has faced questions over his health after suffering a concussion and broken ribs from a fall he endured earlier this year. He was hospitalized and forced to go to rehab for several weeks before returning to the Senate in the spring.
The Republican leader tripped and fell March 8 after an event for the Senate Leadership Fund — a Republican super PAC aligned with McConnell and GOP leadership — at the Waldorf Astoria in Washington. He was hospitalized with a concussion and a minor rib fracture and was discharged March 13 before entering rehab.
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