WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Sen. Republican Leader Mitch McConnell fell at the U.S. Capitol on Thursday, suffering minor injuries but has been cleared to resume work, his office said in a statement.
McConnell, 82, is set to step down as House party leader next month but plans to finish out his remaining two years in office despite a series of health problems in the past year that included two bouts of frostbite. When speaking in public.
“Leader McConnell left after lunch. He suffered a minor cut to his face and sprained his wrist,” a McConnell spokesman said. “It has been removed to update the schedule.”
A group of medical technicians and doctors entered McConnell’s office with an empty cart just before 2 p.m. EDT (1900 GMT).
Later, two additional medical technicians entered his office. But they all left within an hour.
“He’s fine, he’s in his office,” said Sen. John Tunney, who will succeed McConnell as party leader when he takes over the Senate’s 53-47 majority on Jan. 3.
One lawmaker said he believed McConnell collapsed after attending a Republican policy luncheon near the Senate chamber on his way to the party’s weekly leadership press conference.
McConnell was absent from the Senate for weeks in 2023 after attending a dinner in Washington, D.C., which left him hospitalized for treatment of a concussion and minor rib fractures. Later that year, he froze twice while speaking in public.
McConnell was the Senate Majority Leader from 2015 to 2021 and has been the Senate Minority Leader since then.
McConnell, who has represented Kentucky in the Senate since 1985 and has been party leader since 2007, has fondly earned the nickname “Grim Reaper” for his willingness to use the levers of power to advance Democratic causes.
McConnell played a major role in President-elect Donald Trump’s first term in office, cementing a 6-3 conservative majority on the Supreme Court, paving the way for landmark decisions hailed by conservatives that struck down and expanded the constitutional right to abortion. Gun rights.
He has a difficult relationship with Trump, who condemned the then-president’s actions related to the January 6, 2021 storming of the US Capitol, but also supported his re-election.